We used to be impressed by how many great resources there are on the Internet to help you find addiction treatment services. It looked like an improvement over years ago, when the phone book and word-of-mouth were the main information sources. But unfortunately, many of them are just marketing shills for places that may or may not offer quality treatment services.
So we’re especially pleased to see that the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) has just published a booklet called “Seeking Drug Abuse Treatment: Know What to Ask“. It’s a great resource.
So why do we think another article will be helpful?
Because “good treatment” and “good treatment for you (or your family member)” aren’t necessarily the same thing. It’s helpful to know what good clinical models are, how they work, and how to tell if a treatment center uses such models.
And it’s helpful to know what services various treatment centers have available, what their costs are, what they consider their strengths and how they can help you.
But there’s a third dimension to making the decision about which treatment center will offer the best chance for recovery for a particular person: Matching the characteristics of a program or a facility to an individual’s particular needs. For that, we’ve excerpted the “Finding Good Treatment” section of our “Do It Yourself Intervention?” Guide into a short, practical article on what to look for, and what questions to ask, to make a good match:
