When one is faced with addiction, what’s the most feasible way for someone to take a step in the right direction? For many people suffering from addiction, treatment in the form of inpatient or outpatient rehab is one of the most effective methods of kickstarting recovery.
Which type of program would make the best for you, though?
Beyond this, how much does addiction treatment cost?
We’ll be guiding you through these different treatment modalities today, and we’ll be showing you the benefits and drawbacks of both inpatient and outpatient programs.
We’ll kick off by exploring inpatient rehab, who it works for, and who is best to avoid it.
What Is Inpatient Rehab?
Inpatient treatment, also commonly called residential rehab, is a program lasting from 30 to 90 days during which you remain in a treatment center.
The length of your stay will depend on the type and severity of your addiction, whether or not you have previously attempted rehab, and whether or not you have a co-occurring disorder (an addiction with an underlying mental health condition).
The standard of accommodation varies from rudimentary shared rooms right through to luxurious rehabs with private suites. As you would expect, prices vary to reflect this.
Going through Inpatient Care
Immediately following intake, you’ll undergo detox, often with the assistance of medication. Once your body is free of toxins, you’ll move into treatment proper. You’ll typically attend counseling sessions, both individual and group, and you may also have other forms of treatment as appropriate.
By design, your days in residential rehab will be highly structured. Throughout the day, you’ll eat plenty of healthy food and you’ll stay properly hydrated, too.
Some rehab centers allow for family visits, while others insist that you remain within the sheltered setting at all times.
Different treatment centers place a varying emphasis on recreational activities.
For anyone struggling with a severe addiction, residential rehab is normally the most effective road to recovery. Firstly, anyone in this position will benefit from medication to mitigate the challenging and uncomfortable side effects from drug or alcohol withdrawal. Beyond this, residential rehab allows you to patiently build a solid and stable foundation for long-term recovery while under around-the-clock supervision in a highly controlled environment.
Perhaps you’ve tried to engage in treatment for addiction before and failed. If you are finding it difficult to get underway with recovery, a residential facility may provide you with the supportive atmosphere you need to leave substances behind you once and for all.
Residential programs also have high rates of success for those living in a risky environment. Removal from temptation and bad influences is often enough for recovery to succeed where it would otherwise have failed.
The same applies if you find your willpower is lacking. Sometimes, the structure of a residential program helps you stay focused where you may instead have returned to drinking or using drugs.
We’ll summarize the key benefits of residential rehab next so you can see whether this form of treatment makes a good fit for you.
Inpatient Rehab: Key Benefits
- Highly structured program: You’ll have your days planned out for you in residential rehab meaning you won’t get bored and you won’t need to worry about organizing your day either. Reclaiming structure where addiction had your life in upheaval is a valuable first step to recovery made much easier in a residential rehab center
- 24/7 medical support: Detoxing from a severe addiction can be dangerous, and possibly even life-threatening. Residential rehab surrounds you with qualified medical professionals around the clock.
- Nutritional support: Benefit from healthy and nutrient-rich food provided for you. Get all the nutrients you need along with any supplementation required so you can strengthen yourself for the challenges ahead without worrying about cooking for yourself.
- Learning new habits: Mixing with other addicts struggling with the same adjustment process can be highly beneficial. You’ll learn together how to replace the numbness of addiction with healthier habits so you can leave rehab and stay on track more easily with a new structure to your days in place.
What can you expect during an average day in residential rehab, then?
What Does Inpatient Rehab Involve?
All residential rehabs offer varying services at different price points as we’ll be exploring below.
In general terms, you’ll detox from drink or drugs in a supervised medical setting. This detox may involve some medications to mitigate withdrawal symptoms.
After detox, you’ll enter the program proper where you can expect to engage in any or all of the following:
- Counseling: Get help in individual and group counseling sessions
- CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy): CBT helps you to understand the link between your thoughts and your behavior. You’ll learn how to identify possible triggers for relapse. You’ll also learn superior coping skills to help you resist cravings for drink or drugs.
- CM (contingency management): This form of treatment incentivizes healthy behavior.
- MAT (medication-assisted treatment): In the case of severe addiction, MAT can ease your path through detox and the early stages of recovery
- MI (motivational interviewing): An objective, person-centered approach to recovery, you’ll learn how to make changes that benefit you rather than wondering how others would benefit. You’ll learn to seize back personal responsibility, something that often gets lost in the morass of addiction.
- Family therapy: If your family relationships have unraveled as a result of your addiction, this form of therapy will help you to heal those rifts and improve your communication skills.
- 12-step groups: Attending 12-step groups like NA and AA can be an invaluable component of ongoing recovery. Most residential rehab centers offer on-site meetings.
You can also expect access to a full range of educational programs.
Holistic treatment can involve massage therapy, yoga, and outdoor activities. The scope of activities depends on the treatment center.
What Is Outpatient Rehab?
Outpatient rehab therapy for addiction is sometimes an effective approach if your addiction to drink or drugs is fairly mild.
This form of treatment is not universally suitable, though, as we’ll outline below.
Outpatient programs offer you scheduled sessions on weekdays to help treat your dependence on alcohol or substances.
With this form of therapy, you don’t need to check yourself into a residential center. You can live at home and maintain some form of normal schedule in and around your recovery sessions.
We’ll look next at some of the main benefits of following an outpatient program for addiction to drink or drugs.
Outpatient Rehab: Key Benefits
- Flexibility: If you have a mild addiction and you don’t need to disengage completely to kickstart your recovery, an outpatient program allows you to keep a vaguely normal schedule.
- Affordability: Without the cost of food and board to consider, outpatient therapy is a more cost-effective option than residential rehab
- Discretion: Get treatment for your addiction without needing to disappear for a month or two. This can be tough to conceal from friends, family, or employers. An outpatient program is a stealth option.
- Remain in contact with your support network: For someone with a mild to moderate addiction and a supportive network in place at home, outpatient therapy is often the best treatment solution.
Different Types of Outpatient Rehab
Outpatient treatment for addiction varies in timescale, intensity, and delivery.
There are 3 main type of outpatient program:
- Day programs: These are the most structured form of outpatient therapy with meetings 5 to 7 days of the week. Treatment typically involves counseling, psychotherapy, and adjunct therapy like music or art.
- IOPs (intensive outpatient programs): These programs offer structured support as you step down the continuum of care.
- Continuing care: You can continue your recovery taking advantage of community support groups and 12-step programs.
Inpatient vs Outpatient Treatment: A Cost Comparison
Dealing with the challenges of a drug or alcohol problem for yourself or a family member is a tricky subject. When a person finally realizes that they need help for drug or alcohol addiction, there are many factors to consider as one prepares to seek treatment, not the least of which is how to pay for the treatment.
Fear about the costs of intensive outpatient treatment is often so overwhelming that some people delay treatment. It doesn’t help that most recovery centers don’t freely disclose the cost of an intensive outpatient treatment program early on the discussion. There’s a reason for this. Namely, the costs can really only be determined after a proper patient evaluation is done.
While a patient is being pre-screened for acceptance into the program it’s often too early to tell how much treatment is needed and for how long. Most professional addiction treatment centers know this. Understanding the options for inpatient rehab vs. outpatient rehab can make the journey to recovery seem less overwhelming.
Naturally, one of the most important pieces in choosing the program that is right for you is to understand how much your treatment will cost. The type of treatment you receive will depend on how involved you need it to be as well as what resources you feel best to fit your needs. This can play a role in the cost of treatment as more in-depth and involved therapies require more time and thus cost more. Knowing the difference between these treatment options will help you understand the costs associated with each.
Inpatient drug rehab is a more intensive form of treatment. Individuals stay inside of a treatment facility for an extended amount of time. This is a more costly option as the treatment center provides the person with room accommodations, 24-hour monitoring, medical attention, food, bedding, supervision, and a daily curriculum. This type of treatment is best suited and most effective for those who may need more focus and around the clock monitoring.
Sober living homes provide a more robust, hands-on approach to recovery and are tailored to create new environments and daily life atmospheres that are conducive to recovery. The family environment coupled with required meetings, vocational assistance, and structured living environment has proven successful in helping the recovery process.
Factors That Affect The Cost Of Rehabilitation
We’ve all seen some of the celebrity rehab facilities made famous from tabloid TV shows. As you can imagine, these places are extremely pricey. For most people, this isn’t a viable option. The reality is that facilities vary wildly from their approach and their amenities. With the ultimate goal being recovery, it’s best to focus on a distraction-free environment. That being said, here are some of the factors that will influence the costs:
- If detoxification is necessary as this is an added expense.
- For outpatient rehab treatment, it depends on how many meetings per week you’ll be attending, the level of counseling needed, and the hours per week that you’ll be visiting the center.
- For inpatient rehab treatment, the length of stay, the type of accommodations and the amenities, will greatly affect cost.
- Geographical location plays a role in the cost of treatment.
How Much Does Rehab Cost?
A recent study looked at the cost of intensive outpatient treatment to determine regional price variations. When the study was completed, each of the major forms of addiction recovery had been examined. The results showed the average price range from around the United States. These ranges for how much rehab costs are broken down by inpatient vs. outpatient:
Inpatient Care Options
- Basic low-cost, 30-day residential rehab – $2,000 – $7,000
- Standard 30-day residential inpatient treatment- $10,000 – $20,000
- Premium/luxury 30-day residential inpatient care – $25,000 and up
Types of Outpatient Care
- Addiction therapy and counseling – Free – $1,000
- Intensive outpatient care – $3,000 – $10,000
- Detox treatment costs anywhere from $300-$800 a day
How To Pay For Treatment?
- Insurance Coverage – Most insurance policies will pay for all or a portion of rehab costs. A deductible likely may need to be paid and thereafter coverage varies.
- Payment Plans & Financing – Most treatment facilities will offer payment plans to pay your bill monthly or weekly at a slower pace. Interest may or may not be added on.
- Sliding Scale – It is possible to find a treatment center that will work off of a sliding scale based on monthly income and offer financial aid to lower-income levels.
- Free of Charge – Local health departments and social services do offer free or subsidized options, but these can be harder to find and beds are often booked for months or years.
Affordable Inpatient Care
The cost of seeking treatment for addiction can appear to be expensive. When you consider the cost associated with staying on a bad path, it’s a small price to pay for your health, freedom and a better quality of life. Addiction can lead to medical conditions, criminal problems such as arrests and even death. Not to mention the cost of keeping up a habit over time, which can range from anywhere from $20,000 to $100,000/year. This can far outweigh the cost of treatment. Substance abuse treatment is available to everyone and is more attainable and affordable than most understand. If you or someone you love is facing an addiction problem, reach out today to learn more about programs that can turn a life around.
Get Treatment Today
Don’t let the costs of an intensive outpatient treatment program deter you from getting treatment. At Renaissance Recovery, we offer a variety of addiction treatment options, including:
- Experiential treatment
- Cognitive-behavioral therapy
- Art therapy
- Medication-assisted treatment
- Nutrition education
To learn more about the costs of an intensive outpatient treatment program, call 866.330.9449 today.866.330.9449
