SBIRT Program at Denver Health
The Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) program at Denver Health offers patients an opportunity for prevention of risky substance abuse, as well as a variety of treatment resources for those in need.
ADHS finishes rules for the Arizona Marijuana Program
ADHS finishes rules for the Arizona Marijuana Program
TUCSON – 92 pages of rules for the Arizona Medical Marijuana Program just released by the Arizona Department of Health Services gives people who want to open a dispensary an idea of what to expect.
Read more on KVOA Tucson
New Substance Abuse Program Helps Rehab Female Offenders
CDCR launched a new “Trauma Informed Substance Abuse Treatment” Program this year for women at the Leo Chesney Community Correctional Facility. These were the first 200 positions of 2000 that are being placed across California. www.cdcr.ca.gov
The Contribution Of The Family In The Drug Addiction Program In Michigan
The family of the patient is given the utmost importance in the drug addiction program in Michigan. One of the main reasons why this is done is that the family is the closest and most proximate agency that the patient is associated with. Not only does the patient’s family have some or the other extent of capacity for influencing the person for the treatment, but they will also be deeply affected by the addiction. Hence, the following two points become important to note:-
1. The family needs counseling because they have to be taught how to cope with the fact that there’s a drug addiction program going on in their house. If they are not taught how to come to terms with the situation, there is a possibility that there might be emotional problems created for the members of the family and in that case, the progress of the addiction treatment program will only become all the more difficult. Substance abuse resources in Michigan have suggested that every person’s addiction affects at least four more people in a serious manner. In most cases, these four people are members of the patient’s immediate family. Hence, they should be trained on how to deal with the situation and what they must do.
2. At the same time, the family is the most precious asset that the patient has when looking for a drug treatment program. They can emotionally and physically prepare the patient for the treatment. They can be with the patient as the treatment is going on, supporting and encouraging them every step of the way. What’s most important is that they can be with the patient when the inpatient format of the treatment program has come to an end. They can monitor the patient’s progress during that time and can take care that the patient does not have a relapse into the addiction. This part of the program is very important because this is where it will be decided how sustainable the patient’s recovery will be.
For these two main reasons, it becomes extremely important to consider the family of the patient seriously and the drug addiction program in Michigan does not lose out on this opportunity. Now, the following are the ways in which the family directly helps during the drug addiction program in Michigan.
Helping the Patient in Accepting the Treatment
The phase of overcoming denial is one of the most important phases in the entire treatment program. This is important because the patient will not normally want to enter into treatment. Most patients have a very strong state of denial where they do not even want to accept that their drug addiction is within danger levels, let alone accept treatment. Such patients will need to be encouraged in various ways.
This is where an intervention program planned with the family of the patient included in it becomes extremely important. The family of the patient will form a group within themselves that will dedicate itself to motivating the patient for the treatment and being with them as a supporting factor through the way. They might also include some friends and other people into the intervention group, who they think will have an influence on the patient. An intervention specialist from a treatment center will be with the family to guide them on how they must conduct this intervention.
Keeping Track of the Progress of the Treatment
There will be various occasions during the treatment, especially detox, when the family of the patient will become important. There will be times when the patient will suddenly develop denial midway through the treatment program. They will want to chuck out the treatment program and head home. This is the time when the patient’s family will become a motivating factor for them to stay with the treatment.
Also, the family should be updated about how the treatment is progressing so that they can plan out alternatives if certain aspects of the program are really not working for the patient.
Helping and Getting Help during the Aftercare Program
The aftercare program is that of relapse prevention. This is the time when the patient’s family will take care that the patient stays away from the substance and does not develop another affinity to it. This is a difficult part of the treatment procedure because the family has to be quite vigilant during the whole process. The family will work with the treatment center most of the time to understand how this can be done.
Most treatment centers will have a counseling program for the family at this stage, which will last for three days. The scope of this program will be to counsel the family on dealing with the situation and letting them know what they must do so that the patient does not have a relapse.
To read more about the drug addiction program in Michigan, visit:
http://www.crack-drug-rehab.com/michigan
Understanding The Twelve Step Program For Drug Addiction Treatment In Kansas
Support group programs for drug addiction treatment in Kansas have become extremely important in recent times. These programs are not medical programs, but they work immensely well by creating a sense of motivation and encouragement in the minds of the people. All these programs are conducted in a community format. People having the same kinds of addiction get to associate with each other in such groups.
The most important thing that they learn from being in the group is to get encouraged with each others’ experiences. Every person here gives a speech on how their treatment has progressed during the week and what they have done to come out of it. This acts like a shot in the arm to people who are sagging behind. Just by understanding that other people in the same group as them and in the same kind of addiction as them are managing to come over their dependency, it acts as a major encouraging factor for them.
Since over hundred years now, the support groups that deal with drug addiction treatment in Kansas have been using the Twelve Step Program. This program was an initial brainchild of the Alcoholics Anonymous and then was modified and adopted by all other kinds of support groups programs to deal with their own kinds of addictions. As the name suggests, the program consists of twelve steps. However, you can see a particular pattern running through the program; the steps are not arranged in a haphazard manner. It is this pattern that is more important than the actual steps themselves. Here we try to understand the various stages of a Twelve Step Program that is implemented for the drug addiction treatment in Kansas, and not the steps themselves because they can differ from one program to another.
Phase 1: The Acceptance
Since all people who will join such support groups may not be hundred percent convinced that they need to go through this therapeutic process or not, it becomes important to help them to overcome their denial. Denial happens when the person is ignorant of the extent of the condition of substance abuse within him or her and does not think that any treatment is needed. The first phase of the Twelve Step Program is to help people come over this manner of thinking.
Most programs would invoke the blessings of a Higher Power in order to make them realize the problem they are in and to seek the right kind of treatment for the condition. This process runs through the first few steps in the overall program and when done, it helps people in understanding and accepting their condition, but knowing that it will be treated.
Phase 2: The Confession
To be completely free from the addiction, it is important that the person remain truthful to self and to others. It is important for the person to realize where the problems have occurred because of the addiction. They may have hurt their families and their friends, they may have defaulted in the jobs that were entrusted to them, they may have created some situations in the society they live in due to their addiction and such. It is important for them to understand these grave mistakes they committed during the addicted phase of their life.
This phase of confession in any support group for drug addiction treatment in Kansas requires the person to understand and accept these problems that might have occurred and be willing to rectify them.
Phase 3: The Support
Since these programs are run in support groups, it is evident that the person will get a good measure of support from the other people within the group. In most of these programs, the person will be assigned a volunteer, who will mostly be a person who has been with an addiction but has now come over the condition. The person will then work with the volunteer who will act as a guiding beacon of light to them. They will accept the follies they have committed to this volunteer who will then work with the person to correct all the wrongs that were committed.
Support also comes from the sessions. During each session, people are invited to share their own experiences in their treatment progress. They come up to the center and speak about what little or much they have achieved. To the listeners, this acts like a motivation like no other. This is one of the few things in a support group program for drug addiction treatment in Kansas that takes people towards complete recovery.
You can read more about drug addiction treatment in Kansas by clicking on the link.
Understanding The Day Treatment Program For Drug Addiction In Rhode Island
For several reasons, the day treatment program in Rhode Island has become immensely popular. The first reason is that this is an outpatient program; the patient is not supposed to be isolated in the center. They can continue living in their own homes, but they will have to attend the treatment center for five to seven days a week. This spells a great advantage to people who are in some kind of social obligations such as work or study and do not want to give it up on account of their addiction treatment.
Also, the day treatment program for drug addiction in Rhode Island is meant for people who are in mild to moderate states of addiction. Until now, the only option for people with these levels of drug addiction in Rhode Island was the inpatient treatment where they would be isolated in a controlled setting under constant medical setting. The day treatment program has made it possible for them to move towards recovery without needing to confine themselves in a rehab center.
Here, we take a brief look at how the day treatment program for drug addiction in Rhode Island is conducted and what kind of people would do well with this treatment.
The usual procedure of conducting this kind of treating process is to call in the patient to the center for five to seven days of the week. Most centers will want the patients to attend for every day of the week; however, there are some centers that give the patients their weekends off. These sessions each day may last for three to four hours, depending on the policies of the center. Mostly, the timings are kept in the early mornings or in the late evenings. This becomes convenient for most people because they can keep up with their other duties. In some treatment centers, flexible timings can be provided to accommodate people who do not have fixed work timings.
There are three chief aspects of this program for treating drug addiction in Rhode Island. These are the maintenance medication, the one-on-one counseling and the group education and therapy.
Maintenance Medication: This is a medication process that is carried on over the patient in order to keep them from getting the urges for the substance. As long as the maintenance medication is provided, the patient will feel a much reduced urge, if at all, for the substance. However, each form of addiction responds to a different kind of maintenance medication. Hence, it is important that the day program you are considering must be experienced in the kind of addiction you are looking at treatment for.
One-on-one Counseling: This counseling can be carried out with a regular substance abuse counselor or with a psychiatrist if the situation so demands. The main purpose of this counseling is to analyze the patient’s condition of mind. In most cases, there are some emotional issues that might be keeping the patient into the addiction. For example, a patient might have taken up an addiction as an answer to some difficult time in life. During the counseling, the patient is taught how to dissociate the addiction from the mental situation.
In some cases, people develop pronounced mental issues that might be keeping them with their addictions. If that is the condition, the people are handled by a psychiatrist who will delve into their mental condition and then decide what form of treatment would be the most ideal.
Group Therapies and Education: Here, a group of people (usually six to twelve) are handled together for imparting education about the addiction. The general aspect of this education is to make the people know the seriousness of the condition they are in and to understand what repercussions it may have on their personal, family, social and professional lives. They are shown how their addictions are hurting other people and what they can do in order to remedy the situation. Most importantly, they are shown how it is not impossible for them to come out of their addictions.
These people are also explained certain therapies and techniques that can help them to come out of their cravings from the substance. Some meditation and relaxation methods can help people reduce the urges they get for the substance. Also, some holistic methods may be used such as Yoga, acupuncture, aromatherapy, massage techniques, etc.
In some centers providing this kind of treatment for drug addiction in Rhode Island, families of the patients are also called in for counseling so that they can learn how to cope with the situation. The basic intention is to provide social rehabilitation for the patient so that they can find out more meaning in their addiction-free lives.
You can find several such informative and interesting articles like this one on drug addiction in Rhode Island by visiting:
http://www.narcoticaddiction.com/rhode-island.
Understanding The Residential Treatment Program For Drug Addiction In Utah
The residential treatment program for drug addiction in Utah is specially designed to look after the requirements of people who are in intense conditions of addiction within the state. In fact, when all other methods of addiction treatment fail, the residential treatment program is expected to succeed. Let us take a look at how this program works for eliminating cases of drug addiction in Utah.
One of the first things that need to be noted about this program is that it is a community based program. People who are in similar conditions of addiction are housed together in a center, isolated from their friends and families. The isolation becomes important in these cases because all people who come in for the residential treatment program are in severe conditions of addiction. Maintaining contact with familiar people and places will make it quite difficult for them to come out of their urges for the substance.
The main intention is to allow people of similar conditions live together, so that they can share experiences, get motivated from each other and hence move speedily towards their recoveries. Most of the program is conducted in a group format, though there are various individual elements to the program also.
The first phase of the residential treatment program for drug addiction in Utah is mostly an intervention process. This becomes important because most people who will enter the center will be initially in a state of denial. They will not be willing to undergo the treatment process and they may not even think that their condition warrants any kind of treatment. However, this is quite detrimental to the overall treatment program because a person who is in denial will not respond to the treatment. Hence, the centers will start a motivational program which will make them understand that they need to get treated. This process itself can take a couple of weeks or even more in some cases, depending on how vehement the person’s denial is.
Once the denial has been removed, the next step is to get the person through a detoxification program. Quite expectedly, the detox program in a residential treatment program is more stringent and longer in duration than the detox program in the normal cases. This is because of the severity of the addictions that the patients are in. There will also be a need for a pretreatment analysis just to make sure that the patient will be able to get through the detox process. If the patient has some health or even psychiatric complications, then alternative routes of treatment are employed.
Detoxification in the residential treatment program includes removing the collected toxins from the body of the patient. This can take a lot of medical care and supervision, especially during the difficult withdrawal period that the program will entail. Even after the withdrawal has almost subsided, the patient will need to be put on maintenance medication just so that the patient does not feel the pangs of the substance anymore. The maintenance medication will go on for a long time after the detox treatment.
The next step is the aftercare. Aftercare is quite important because this is where the patient’s mind is freed from the addiction. This is where the patient is conditioned in such a way that they will not consider the substance of addiction even if they have urges for it. This is done through one on one counseling to work out the emotional issues that might be keeping patients with the addiction and also through group techniques in which education is imparted to the patients about the repercussions of the addictions they are in and therapies are taught that they can practice whenever the urges for the substance occur. In most centers, therapies such as meditation exercises such as Yoga, relaxation techniques, breathing exercises, massages, acupunctures, aromatherapy treatment and even spiritual and faith based treatments are used to keep people out of their temptations for using the substance.
People who are in intense addictive conditions and those who have tried other methods of treatment without meeting any success from them are the best candidates for this kind of recovery process. The drug courts in Utah will make it compulsory for persons who have been convicted of alcohol or drug influenced offenses to participate in a treatment program in a residential center. At the same time, people who have some kinds of health complications or mental illnesses that complicate their recovery process can be handled most suitable in a residential treatment center.
Please visit http://www.narcoticaddiction.com/utah to read more informative articles on this subject, like this one on drug addiction in Utah.
Shands nurse suspended for drug use while in substance-abuse program
Shands nurse suspended for drug use while in substance-abuse program
A nurse accused of injecting herself with a potent painkiller while on the job at Shands Jacksonville has been suspended from practice and faces losing her license, state records show. Sharrye Szegi-Dunbar, 29, twice wrote orders for a morphine-like drug called hydromorphone for a patient but injected herself with it instead during a night shift that spanned April 20-21, documents show. When …
Read more on The Florida Times-Union
An Overview Of The Residential Treatment Program For Drug Addiction In New York
Among the various programs to treat drug addiction in New York, the residential treatment program is the most effective. There is a diverse variety in addiction treatment programs in New York, ranging from the very mild form of treatment which is provided in an outpatient format to the very elaborate and stringent treatment pattern, which is in the residential format. Here we take a brief look into how the residential treatment program is conducted for drug addiction in New York.
The residential treatment program in New York is an inpatient format of treatment which is conducted in a community environment. People having the same kinds of conditions are housed together in a single treatment center. The main intention here is to allow people with like conditions to mingle with each other as they are recovering so that they can take inspiration from each other and also get motivated.
How is the Residential Treatment Program conducted in New York?
The program begins with a detoxification process. This is where the patient is treated internally so that the body is cleansed and the toxic substances due to the addiction are removed from the body. This part of the treatment process can be called as the most stringent part because this is where the patient will be made to abstain from the substance and will have to face the severe withdrawal pangs. The withdrawal begins occurring within one to days of beginning the abstinence. Once that kicks in, the treatment providers will need to plan out and implement a medication therapy that will help keep the patient out of the pangs of the addiction.
The detox treatment program always takes a longer time in a residential drug addiction program because the people who come for such treatments are in intense states of addiction. Because of this, they require a longer period of time to go through the withdrawal process. However, the length of the detox treatment will also depend on the kind of addiction that the patient has and also on the physical and psychiatric situation of the patient. In most cases, patients who are in a residential form of treatment in New York will complete their detoxification programs within anywhere between a week to up to four weeks.
Once the detox program is completed, the patient will be led into an aftercare program. This aftercare program is conducted in the residential treatment center itself, but it will contain various elements depending on the kind of withdrawal that the patient went through.
The main intention of the aftercare that is provided during residential drug addiction treatment in New York is to help the patient come out of the dependency of the patient. The patient is counseled on how to use certain methods so that the temptation for the substance is no longer felt. This can be done through various therapies such as relaxation and meditation therapies and even Asian holistic methods such as Yoga and breathing exercises. The patient needs to sustain an addiction-free life even after the treatment. For this, the following methods are also used:-
1. The patient is interviewed to identify their emotional issues and then, based on that, they are provided counseling to tackle these issues. The intention here is to remove all those factors that might be playing at keeping the patient into the addiction.
2. The patient’s family is counseled in a three-day program. This program trains them on what they must do so that the patient is kept out of the addiction. They are also counseled for the right method on coping with the fact that someone in the house is undergoing addiction treatment.
3. The patient is counseled to be more socially involved in constructive activities. They are counseled to take up a hobby or join some club where they can remain occupied. They are also counseled on taking up a job if they wish to. In fact, if the patient expresses a desire of getting employed somewhere, the residential treatment program itself will help them in securing a job suitable to their talents.
Who is entered into a Residential Treatment Program for Drug Addiction in New York?
The residential treatment program is meant for people who are into very intense conditions of addiction. These are people that are quite far gone with their addictions. People who have mental and psychiatric conditions are put into these programs. Even people who have been convicted of some alcohol or drug related offense are entered into a residential treatment program for drug addiction treatment in New York. This is one of the strictest forms of treatment; hence people who have failed with other treatment programs will also use this method of treatment.
You can read more articles like this one on drug addiction in New York by clicking on the link.
How to Cure Your Drug Addiction Without Entering a Drug Rehab Program
A drug addiction is strongly desiring to take a drug that makes you feel good. For example, snorting cocaine makes you energetic, alert, euphoric, with increased mental clarity. Once you’re addicted to a drug, abstaining from it becomes a nightmare. For example, abstaining from cocaine can cause agitation, depression, extreme fatigue, anxiety, angry outbursts, lack of motivation, vomiting, shaking, irritability, muscle pain, and disturbed sleep.
Thorndike’s Law of Effect
Simply put, what keeps you addicted is that taking the drug makes you feel good, and avoiding it makes you feel awful. This coincides with Thorndike’s Law of Effect: If a reward follows a particular behavior, that behavior probably will be repeated; if a punishment follows a particular behavior, that behavior probably won’t be repeated.
For example, feeling good is your reward for snorting cocaine; feeling awful is your punishment for avoiding cocaine. So what are you going to do? This is why it’s so difficult to abstain from an addiction.
You have a drug addiction and can’t quit. Now what? Don’t despair; there’s a way out. The trick is seeing your addiction differently – seeing it for what it really is.
Unemployable, Lonely, and Sick
Though taking your drug makes you feel good immediately, it makes you feel awful in the long run. For example, snorting cocaine will eventually cause health problems such as heart disease, heart attacks, respiratory failure, strokes, seizures, gastrointestinal problems, convulsions, nausea, blurred vision, chest pain, fever, muscle spasms, and coma. If you think that these health problems are bad, long-term cocaine snorting causes social problems such as lying, stealing, absenteeism at work, and sometimes even prostitution.
So basically, long-term cocaine use causes you unemployment due to your work absenteeism, loss of friends and family due to your lying and stealing, and sickness due to cocaine’s damaging effects on your body. Cocaine ultimately transforms you into a loser – unemployable, lonely, and sick!
Other popular recreational drugs such as crack, heroin, crystal meth, Vicodin, ecstasy, and OxyContin also ultimately transform you into a loser – unemployable, lonely, and sick!
Thorndike’s Law of Effect Revisited
Now let’s revisit Thorndike’s Law of Effect: If a reward follows a particular behavior, that behavior probably will be repeated; if a punishment follows a particular behavior, that behavior probably won’t be repeated.
Being unemployable, lonely, and sick is your punishment for taking your desired drug over time; being employed, loved, and healthy is your reward for avoiding your desired drug over time. So what are you going to do?
Classical Conditioning
Wait a minute! Reading this article won’t help you! Once done reading, you’ll go back to snorting cocaine, smoking crack, shooting heroin, popping OxyContin, or whatever it is you do.
That’s why I’m introducing a powerfully effective self-help intervention that you must do regularly. This self-help intervention is called Classical Conditioning. Simply put, Classical Conditioning consists of pairing a particular feeling with a particular event over and over again until they become automatically associated with each other.
Let’s say that you have a cocaine addiction and want to quit. So instead of feeling good after snorting cocaine, you want to feel awful. What makes you feel awful? Electric shock? Okay, we’ll use this.
So each time you snort cocaine, you give yourself a severe electric shock. You feel awful each time. Eventually, you’ll automatically associate snorting cocaine with feeling awful – without the electric shock! Thus, curing yourself of cocaine addiction.
Nevertheless, electrically shocking yourself isn’t socially acceptable and will attract unwanted attention. We need something more discreet. What’s more discreet than the hidden thoughts inside your head? Can you use your thoughts to make yourself feel awful? Let’s see.
You just snorted cocaine and want to make yourself feel awful for doing it. So you think, “By using cocaine, I’m making myself into a complete loser. I’m now becoming totally unemployable, lonely, and sick. Worthless. Useless. A hopeless piece of crap. Good for nothing.” How do you feel? Awful, right?
So if you think along these lines each time you snort cocaine, you’ll eventually learn to associate snorting cocaine with feeling awful – without using your thoughts to make yourself feel awful! Thus, curing yourself of cocaine addiction.
Points to Ponder
This article is tailored to those addicted to hard drugs such as cocaine, crack, heroin, crystal meth, Vicodin, ecstasy, and OxyContin. Nevertheless, the intervention discussed here can be used, with some minor adjustments, to overcome addictions to the softer drugs.
For example, smoking cigarettes doesn’t necessarily cause unemployment or loneliness. But it does cause health problems such as emphysema, heart disease, stroke, cancer, birth defects, green teeth, and spider veins. So rather than thinking of yourself as becoming unemployable, lonely, and sick each time you smoke a cigarette, you just simply think of yourself as becoming sick.
Conclusion
In the past, drug addiction was seen as an overpowering and unmanageable disease. And the addict, using his own willpower, was seen as powerless against this disease. Therefore the addict was encouraged to join a support group that might lead him to a spiritual awakening.
Currently, drug addiction is seen as self-destructive behavior maintained by the reward of taking a drug (feeling good) and the punishment of abstaining from it (withdrawal symptoms). Given this, a scientific intervention such as Classical Conditioning can effectively cure it.
Though I’m scientifically inclined, I do believe in the power of prayer; since I’ve seen it work in my own life. So by all means, pray to be free from your addiction; then go forth and free yourself with Classical Conditioning.
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