Accessing Addiction Treatment

Most people who have a problem with addiction don’t know how to access addiction treatment. Because it’s such an emotional decision, when a person thinks about maneuvering through some type of healthcare maze to access treatment, it seems overwhelming. The good news is that it’s not that difficult to access addiction treatment. At one time it was almost impossible for a person suffering from addiction to find help, but now there are funds available for those who don’t have insurance or can’t pay cash. For those who do have insurance, new laws through the Affordable Care Act demand that insurance companies cover addiction treatment the same as they would any other medical condition.

There are different forms of treatment: attending AA meetings (AA is a support group and is not classified as medical treatment, but many alcoholics go to AA first to see if they can maintain sobriety there — it’s free), seeing a physician in his office, individual sessions with a therapist, intensive outpatient in a facility that specializes in addiction treatment, and inpatient treatment in a facility that specializes in addiction treatment. It all depends of what’s needed. At NewDay Counseling, we offer free consultations to make it easy to find the right level of care. We can gather from a free consultation if a person needs to move toward one of the above levels of care. It’s important to access the necessary level of care — addiction is a serious, complex problem that creates serious physical, mental and emotion consequences if left untreated or is mistreated. Addiction also creates employment consequences, marital consequences, legal consequences, and so forth. It takes quite of bit of work and time to resolve all the problems created by addiction, but putting off treatment usually only adds to the consequences. 

We make it easy for the person looking for help, or for the person who’s looking for help for someone else. We get referrals for doctors, lawyers, family members, employers, AA members, friends, etc. We’ve streamlined the process so that when someone calls the rest is taken care of by us. If we see a person who doesn’t have insurance or the ability to pay, we’ll either use one of our five slots for those situations or we’ll give the person numbers to facilities who are funded by local or state government sources. If the person has insurance, we’ll call the insurance company and determine the benefits, co-pay, deductibles, etc.  If it’s self-pay, we’ll work out a payment plan that fits the person’s budget.

Once it’s agreed that someone will come to our outpatient facility, we perform an in-depth assessment, develop a treatment plan and the person begins groups and individual counseling. The person entering our program will also see our doctor in the first few days to make sure there are no physical complications or if medication is necessary for withdrawals, depression, anxiety, etc. We explain in detail all the steps so that those coming into treatment understand everything they need to understand to make informed decision and to feel comfortable.

It might seem like a huge undertaking when a person’s emotionally distraught, but it’s really not that difficult – we hear over and over from people who enter treatment what a relief it was to finally take the first step. At NewDay we all understand that coming into treatment is a big deal, and it’s an emotional time, and that people fear the unknown — we do everything in our power to make those seeking help feel comfortable and welcomed.