At addiction centers, longer treatment programs are proving key to ending the relapse-rehab cycle
Thirty days' treatment is the norm, but more facilities are offering programs to patients that extend to 45 days, 90 days and even longer. By Shari Roan >>> We love quick, tidy solutions in this country. With health problems, in particular, we're impatient. Pills to ease each and every symptom? Great. Same-day surgery? Terrific. A scheduled cesarean section? Bring it on. ¶ But in the case of drug and alcohol dependence, it's becoming increasingly clear that there is no such thing as get-well-quick therapy. Instead, with scientific evidence showing that the longer the treatment, the better the chance of lasting sobriety, addiction centers nationwide are lengthening their programs and firmly discouraging patients from early checkouts. ¶ For more than a year, the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage has offered a 90-day residential treatment program, in addition to shorter programs, that attracts about one-third of all clients. Promises Treatment Center in Malibu now provides more than half of its clients with 45- to 90-day treatments and last year extended its young-adults program from 30 days to 90 days. ¶ Visions, which provides adolescents with addiction treatment in Malibu, increased its program's length from 30 days to 45. Hazelden, the legendary treatment program based in Minnesota, has added beds in nearly all of its facilities over the last two years to meet a growing demand for treatment programs of 90 days or more. ¶ Addiction experts say that longer treatments -- with the length of stay based on the client's specific needs -- will lead to fewer people cycling between 30-day hospitalizations and relapses for years on end. From 40% to 60% of people relapse after drug treatment, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.