The ultimate goal of all drug rehab and alcohol rehab is to enable the patient to achieve lasting abstinence

The ultimate goal of all drug rehab and alcohol rehab is to enable the patient to achieve lasting abstinence. But the immediate goals are to reduce drug abuse, improve the patient’s ability to function, and minimize the medical and social complications of drug abuse. Alcohol and drug rehabilitation is done at various levels of intensity. There are several types of alcohol and drug abuse treatment programs. Short-term methods last less than 6 months and include luxury residential therapy, medication therapy and drug-free outpatient therapy. Longer term treatment may include methadone maintenance outpatient treatment for opiate addicts, as well as residential therapeutic community treatment. Outpatient drug-free treatment does not include medications. It encompasses a wide variety of programs for patients who visit a clinic at regular intervals. Most drug and alcohol treatment programs involve individual or group counseling. Patients entering these drug and alcohol treatment programs usually abuse drugs other than opiates. Or, they are opiate abusers for whom maintenance therapy is not recommended, This includes users who have stable, well-integrated lives and only brief histories of drug dependence. Short-term residential drug and alcohol treatment programs, often referred to as chemical dependency units, are often based on the “Minnesota Model” of alcoholism and drug abuse treatment. These programs involve a 3- to 6-week inpatient drug and alcohol treatment phase. This is followed by extended outpatient therapy or participation in 12-step self-help groups, such as Narcotics Anonymous or Cocaine Anonymous. Chemical dependency programs for drug abuse increased in the private sector in the mid-1980s, attract insured alcohol/cocaine abusers as their primary patients.