As our past blog posts have enumerated, addiction is an incredibly complex disease, one that has no straightforward “cure.” However, it is a disease that can go into a robust, lasting remission if a person dedicates themselves wholeheartedly to recovery and receives the appropriate physical and psychological treatment. 

But while treatment creates a solid foundation upon which patients can build the rest of their recovery, the journey will not end with their residential or intensive outpatient addiction treatment program, at least for most of them. Thus, as a patient approaches the end of their time in our intensive outpatient program, our team will assist them in making an appropriate aftercare plan, and in helping them plan their transition back into the outside world. 

This may involve assisting them with job placement and professional development, or helping them to find and connect with a therapist that they can continue seeing to deal with any ongoing mental health challenges after their intensive treatment has ceased. While our treatment program can begin to address these underlying mental health issues, these disorders tend to be chronic conditions as well, so continual treatment may be required.

During the course of our intensive treatment, our program also addresses post treatment life with sessions specifically focused on relapse prevention. In these sessions, patients will discuss the temptations and triggers that they will realistically face after their time in intensive outpatient treatment, and will begin to make plans for how they will deal with these situations using healthier alternative coping mechanisms. 

Another important component of many recovering addicts’ aftercare plans is regular attendance at twelve step meetings or other support groups. We facilitate this step as well by suggesting that our clients begin to attend regular twelve step meetings while they are in the program. In fact, patients who live in our sober living housing are required to submit verification of daily attendance at these meetings, as well as to obtain a sponsor that can guide them through the twelve step process and keep them on the path towards recovery. 

We also set our clients up for success by pairing each incoming patient with an alumni buddy, whose job it is to act as their confidante and to help them acclimate to sobriety and integrate into the recovery community. This benefits both parties by showing clients positive examples of everything recovery can be as well as by keeping alumni engaged in the recovery lifestyle through their connection to others who are beginning their own recovery journeys, paying their experiences and knowledge forward and giving themselves a sense of purpose. 

We also host our own weekly alumni meetings, where all former clients are invited to share their recovery successes and struggles with current intensive outpatient program attendees. Featured speakers and snacks and refreshments add to the fun and inspirational atmosphere, and the community that these gatherings create has been a valuable resource for many of our intensive outpatient clients.

To learn more about Delray Beach IOP, our aftercare services, and our alumni program, as well as the many other valuable services that our intensive outpatient program offers, feel free to call us anytime at 833.637.033 or to contact us online anytime here.