Many people who struggle with substance abuse or mental health issues sometimes find themselves at a point where attaining sobriety or bettering their well-being can’t progress. They may be prone to relapsing, live in a home unconducive to healing or their symptoms begin to impact their ability to function in the day to day.
Statistics from the 2021–2023 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health reveal that American Indian and Alaska Native people are particularly vulnerable to these issues — they’re more prone than other racial and ethnic groups to have had a substance use disorder just within the last year, along with a high incidence for mental illness.
And while the path to recovery is rarely a linear journey, you may have heard how inpatient rehab and its round-the-clock, intensive structure can help people with more severe drug and mental health disorders. Studies show, for example, how people in residential treatment for alcohol use disorder drank significantly less within a year after entering rehab than those in outpatient therapy.
Additionally, inpatients are up to three times more likely to see their treatment through to the end than outpatients.
What proves these numbers true, and how can a stay at a residential treatment center help you or a loved one on that road to recovery? What does it involve in detail? Read on to learn more about what residential treatment offers.
What Is Residential Treatment?
Residential treatment is also known as inpatient rehab. It’s a type of on-site, live-in care where you’ll remain at a residential treatment center for a predetermined period of time while receiving therapy for substance addiction or mental illness.
Unlike outpatient care (where you return home from treatment each day), residential rehab is ideal for people with disorders that require 24/7 supervision and care, such as people with crippling mental health issues or serious addictions. By making the commitment to step away from your home life for a while, you can devote time, space, energy and focus to recovery, without any distractions or triggers that could set you back.
What To Expect During Residential Treatment
You’ve entered residential rehab after completing detox for substance abuse. Your system is free and clear of drugs or alcohol, and you’ve made the commitment to make treatment a reality. The surroundings are relaxed, like home. You have your own room and living quarters (some treatment centers pair roommates together) and your individualized treatment plan has been mapped out. Inpatient treatment is all about structure. By following a new, disciplined routine, you can avoid returning to old habits or compulsions that might impede your recovery. However, there is variety, and each day could bring something different to the schedule.
Here’s what a day in residential treatment might look like:
Morning
Mornings in residential rehab set a positive tone for the day. Everyone has a set, early wakeup time, followed by a communal breakfast and quiet time that might be filled with meditation or yoga. This is the time of day when medication might be dispersed. A one-on-one, individual therapy session might also be a part of your morning.
During the a.m. hours, you might also participate in group sessions central to your recovery goals, an opportunity to bond with peers in therapy experiencing the same issues. Recreational or fitness time, or personal time for journaling or reflection, might also close out the first half of the day.
Afternoon
Lunch is also in a group setting right around the noon hour in a residential treatment center; it’s also time for more group therapy or specialized treatment, like holistic, expressive or experiential therapy. Dinner concludes the late afternoon as a bridge into the evening hours.
Evening
After this last meal of the day, the later hours of a day in residential rehab continue with support meetings. After the intensiveness of the day, the rest of the evening allows you to wind down and recharge, where you can read, journal, have some alone/reflection time to yourself. A set lights-out bedtime makes sure you’re rested for the next day’s rise.
Residential Treatment Services
There are certain ingredients and elements to residential rehab that make it so effective in treating substance abuse and mental illness:
MAT During Residential Treatment
Medication is often a helpful asset during rehab, especially for people with severe symptoms that can make treatment and talk therapy more difficult. Medication-assisted treatment, or MAT for short, involves being prescribed and administered drugs that work, for instance, to offset lingering signs of withdrawal following time in medical detox, or reduce anxiety that can come from cravings that can arise from being off a substance for a short time.
MAT medications are particularly helpful for treating alcohol and opioid use disorders, with some drugs, like naltrexone, formulated to treat both conditions. With the help of MAT assistance, you’ll be better able to proceed through therapy with a clearer mindset and physical calm.
Intensive Therapy Services During Residential Treatment
Therapy is at the heart of any kind of substance abuse or mental health treatment — a chance to explore how our mindsets can influence our emotions and subsequent actions, and by reframing them in a more positive direction, our feelings and behaviors will follow. In residential counseling, where you’re on-site 24/7, it’s an opportunity to make therapy more intensive and derive the most benefit from it.
In outpatient treatment, you might be in therapy a few days a week for a couple of hours a day. And that gradual load lightening is a goal when transitioning from inpatient to outpatient. During residential treatment, however, the seven-day-a-week, multiple-hours-a-day structure of intensive therapy serves a fundamental purpose — to dive in and devote all your energy, in every present moment, to understanding the root causes of an alcohol use disorder or mental health condition. It could be individual therapy, group sessions or special times for family counseling.
Residential Dual Diagnosis Treatment
Did you know that 21.5 million people in the U.S. have a co-occurring disorder? It’s when someone struggles with a mental health disorder and a substance abuse problem at the same time. While it’s clinically unclear if one might cause or create the other, both can negatively influence and exacerbate both conditions, creating a cycle that can be hard to beat on one’s own.
To do this, you’d receive what’s known as a dual diagnosis, special treatment to address a co-occurring disorder on one therapeutic track. MAT may come into play here, since the inclusion of psychiatric medication management can help in targeting both an addiction and a co-occurring mental illness — where both are prioritized and neither are neglected.
When Does Someone Need Residential Treatment?
Inpatient, residential rehab is often necessary when a more intensive kind of care is needed if:
- Drug or mental health symptoms have interfered with your daily life and functioning
- The risk of relapse is higher being on their own
- You live in unstable or triggering home environments you need to be away from
- You need 24/7 clinical care
- Less intensive outpatient treatment hasn’t been successful
Remember, residential treatment only lasts for a temporary period and is designed to improve your recovery to the point that a less structured type of rehab, like outpatient treatment, becomes the logical next step.
Is Residential Treatment the Right Program for Me or My Loved One?
It can be difficult to determine the right level of treatment amidst substance abuse or mental health issues. Is outpatient the right choice, or is the more intensive approach of residential treatment more conducive to recovery?
Ask yourself some questions to gain better insight:
- Have symptoms of a substance use or mental health disorder inhibiting your or their ability to function or be independent?
- Would you or a loved one need consistent, 24-hour supervision to avoid relapsing?
- Would time away — albeit temporarily — from the people or places that can be triggering be a smart move?
- Are current home life circumstances unsafe, unstable or enabling drug abuse or mental illness?
- Do you or a loved one desire the change of sobriety or better mental health in a more structured environment?
- Do either of you grapple with a co-occurring disorder that can’t be managed alone?
The most important thing is to be honest with yourself. If you answered yes to one or more of these points, residential counseling may be your best option.
Speaking to a Loved One About Residential Treatment
Conversations about entering treatment are rarely easy, and confronting a loved one about their drug use or behavior can push them away. Find a quiet moment when you can talk to them with the same compassion, love and respect you’d show them always.
Remember, addiction or mental illness are treatable diseases, not personal failings to be blamed for. Show your concern and care using “I” statements to take accountability for your position — “I’m concerned about your health. Can we talk?”, or “I want to see you well. How can I help?”
By offering to take an active role in getting them on the path to recovery, it demonstrates your support for their well-being without lecturing or demeaning them. Offer to help them research residential substance abuse recovery centers together or make the first phone call.
What Happens After Residential Treatment?
Rehab follows what’s called a continuum of care, a thoughtfully planned continuing treatment arc, where completion of one program means transitioning into others.
Continuing Care Programs in Outpatient Treatment
Most people who complete residential treatment (and medical detox for substance use disorders) and don’t require consistent supervision and monitoring will eventually move onto one of a few outpatient programs:
Partial Hospitalization
A PHP, or Partial Hospitalization Program, is a best-of-both-worlds between residential counseling and standard outpatient treatment. It’s an outpatient program, meaning you’re permitted to return home each day after treatment, but therapy, like an inpatient setting, is much more intensive (from four to eight hours a day, five days a week) for people who don’t risk relapsing on their own but still need some of the structure and frequency that inpatient therapy offers.
Intensive Outpatient
IOPs (Intensive Outpatient Programs) are seen as alternatives to inpatient and hospitalization programs and an integral part of that same continuum of care, studies show. Like a PHP, therapy is intensive — generally nine hours of treatment per week in a trio of 3-hour sessions — but it’s balanced with the ability to live your life, go to work and school, be with family and sleep in your own bed.
Traditional Outpatient
Standard outpatient treatment is what most people think of. You’ll visit with your therapist weekly or twice a week for individual or group behavioral health counseling, and it works around your schedule, enabling you to commit to personal and professional obligations without having to sacrifice your day-to-day life or treatment. Oftentimes, it’s the last phase of recovery after graduating through an inpatient, PHP and/or IOP program.
Aftercare and Sober Living
After treatment ends, your support system doesn’t disappear. Residential rehab is like school: once you graduate, you’re an alumnus who can still take advantage of services and resources through your alma mater. Aftercare connects you with support groups (similar to group therapy you may have experienced during residential addiction treatment) like Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous or various other groups. Sober living homes are substance-free residences for people in recovery to help ease the transition back into independent living.
FAQ About Residential Treatment
An inpatient or residential treatment center is a licensed, accredited rehab clinic where you’ll live on-site for a period of time while undergoing treatment for a substance use or mental health disorder (or a co-occurring combination of both).
Yes. Unlike outpatient treatment, where therapy in the day accommodates your work, school or home schedules, residential rehab is considered inpatient, with 24/7 care, supervision and more intensive treatment.
Your length of stay at a residential treatment center depends on a number of factors, like:
- The severity of a mental illness or drug addiction
- The type of substance used
- The nature of your symptoms
- The impact your condition has on your health and functioning
- Your overall health
In general, you can expect residential addiction treatment to last anywhere from a few weeks up to three months.
Like inpatient treatment for substance abuse, anticipate the duration of time for mental health residential counseling to last anywhere between 30 to 90 days, depending on the above factors, your diagnosis and the progress you make.
The simple fact of the matter is that during residential addiction treatment, you can enhance your complete, undivided attention and focus to getting better without concerns, worries, distractions or triggers outside of the rehab center. The daily, all-day schedule — from individual and group talk therapy to other approaches, like holistic or experiential therapies — keeps you immersed in treatment without missing a beat from your recovery goal.
What Are the Benefits of Residential Treatment?
The main benefit of enrolling in residential treatment is that it’s the most effective way to set in motion getting clean and sober or conquering mental health issues; far too often, people attempt to quit cold turkey or self-medicate symptoms to no avail. Here’s what else you can find:
- Safe, 24/7 clinical care in a secure, substance- and trigger-free environment
- An opportunity to focus fully on your own recovery needs with structure and commitment
- Immediate, on-site access to all treatment services
- Staff — from doctors to nurses, therapists to addiction specialists — who understand your issues and honor your journey
- A chance to connect with, lean on and bolster other peers in recovery facing similar issues
- Integrated care that can treat co-occurring disorders and dual diagnoses
- Cultural and foundational respect for all Native American communities
How Much Does Residential Treatment Cost?
According to the National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics (NCDAS), a month-long stay at a residential treatment center can range from $5,000 to $20,000, with 60-to-90-day programs costing between an average of $12,000 to $60,000. The daily cost at a private facility, notes the NCDAS, averages at $575/day. These cost differences take into account the nature of treatment and the type of residential rehab you’re seeking.
Does Insurance Cover Residential Treatment?
Yes, insurance does provide coverage for residential counseling. In fact, Aliya works directly with providers like Shasta Insurance, the Healthcare Management Administration (HMA) and Indian Health Services (IHS) to make sure you receive the highest amount of insurance reimbursement under our Native American program. By contacting us (either by phone or our secure contact form), we can verify your coverage.
Can I Go to Residential Treatment Without Insurance?
You can, but you should never pass up on life-saving treatment if you don’t currently have insurance. We’ll work with you to arrange an affordable self-payment plan that allows you to receive treatment with a manageable pay structure that keeps your budget top of mind if you have a remaining balance.
Residential Treatment at Aliya Native Americans
Your identity, your individuality, your path, your history — they’re all factors that inform the care we present you through Aliya’s network of residential substance abuse recovery centers. We bring together clinical expertise with cultural reverence in one package to help all people of indigenous cultures who walk through our doors find a way forward from substance use and mental health disorders, leaving addiction and illness behind.
Residential Treatment Centers Near Me
Inpatient care for addiction or mental health is often the first step in one’s recovery journey, and Aliya’s residential treatment programs across eight states mean that there’s a destination for you that serves your needs, your location and your recovery goals. We meet you where you are and make treatment accessible to Native American families who need support, 24/7/365.
And our admissions staff is also ready and available to answer your questions about residential rehab, treatment programs, insurance coverage and more. Contact us today to let us guide you through the steps.