Choosing Evidence-Based Rehab for Your Clients

Key Takeaways:

• Evidence-based rehab is a facility that uses therapies and treatment plans that have been proven to work by scientific research.
• It is important because anecdotal-based treatment can cause damage, and waste time, energy, and money.
• Evidence-based therapies and support groups have also proven to be superior to their non evidence-based counterparts.
• Avenues Recovery can help guide professionals toward reputable, evidence-based rehab options for their clients.

What Evidence-Based Rehab Means in Practice

When a client finally says yes to rehab, the quality of your recommendation can shape what happens next.

As a professional in the mental health space, you know that things can sometimes move very quickly. From one moment to the next, a client may be ready and willing to try rehab. You often have a very small window to identify the right option before a client loses momentum. You need reputable, evidence-based rehab options in your back pocket so you can make the recommendation right away.

Avenues Recovery’s rehabs are all evidence-based, which means that all therapies and treatment modalities have been proven to work for addiction recovery according to current research and methodologies in scientific testing. Scientists and medical professionals have evaluated and tested the effectiveness of substance abuse treatment modalities, and the treatments have gone through clinical trials. The different methods were also peer-reviewed extensively.

Across many studies, these treatments have consistently shown positive outcomes.

Using only evidence-based treatment modalities in our practice today gives us the greatest chances of success with our clients, and we have seen this play out at our facilities time and time again. As you know, not every person who attends rehab will get sober, but we track strong outcome measures because we rely on evidence-based treatment plans.

When Rehab Is a One-Time Opportunity

Many people struggling with addiction only give rehab one shot. If it fails, they either never attend rehab again, or give up on getting sober altogether. That’s understandable. Rehab is expensive and requires a major investment of time and energy. When you’re referring a client to rehab, you have no idea whether or not they’ll be successful, and whether or not they’ll be willing to keep trying if they fail.

You need to send your clients to a reputable rehab with an excellent track record, so they have the highest chance of success. While no rehab can promise perfect results 100% of the time, some rehabs have all the components of a successful rehab center, giving your clients the best chances. Evidence-based rehabs aren’t based on thoughts, ideas, and feelings, but rather on science and facts, which gives clients a stronger foundation than non–evidence-based approaches.

Treatments Backed by Research

As you probably already know, the research and evidence has shown remarkable results with the following treatment:

• Medically-supervised withdrawal: Otherwise known as medical detox, the evidence has shown that it is vital for patients to be supervised while going through the detoxification process to help minimize the negative effects and increase the chances of the patient staying sober.
• Medication-assisted treatment: The science has shown that medication like anticonvulsants, benzodiazepines, and naltrexone, can support the detox process by helping to manage the withdrawal symptoms. MAT has been shown to be highly effective in supporting long-term recovery.
• Support groups: The most researched and effective support groups are the 12-Step meetings. It has been proven that peer support, sponsorship, and working through the 12 steps of the program can result in long-term sobriety and emotional health.
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): This form of therapy is focused on behavior, which has shown to be extremely effective when working with people who struggle with addiction. The same is true for any therapeutic model that focuses on identifying, challenging, and changing negative behaviors.

Levels of evidence-based drug and alcohol treatment:

Not all “evidence” carries the same weight, and understanding the difference matters when making referrals.

As a professional, you’ve probably done scientific research for your degree program. Here’s a quick recap on the different levels of evidence that we draw upon to form the structure of our treatment programs:

• Level 1- evidence derived from true experimental designs. This includes clinical trials with some form of randomization.
• Level 2- includes evidence that comes from quasi-experimental designs. These trials do not have any randomization in them at all.
• Level 3- usually recommendations made by professionals in the addiction community. They have seen the effectiveness of these evidence-based alcohol treatments, although the treatments may not be scientifically tested.
• Level 4– includes evidence that comes from qualitative literature reviews. Addiction treatments are recommended in respectable publications in the addiction industry.
• Level 5- includes evidence that involves personal experiences of drug addicts.

Level 1 evidence has the highest value. When seeking addiction treatment for substance abuse, it’s best to look for treatments with a lot of evidence derived from experiments conducted by professionals. While treatment options with primarily Level 5 evidence may still be effective, it’s important to assign less value to these treatment plans.

At Avenues Recovery, we’re happy to walk you through the pros and cons of each evidence based practice, and provide you with clear answers on which practices we use and which level of evidence these practices are derived from.

The Risks of Non–Evidence-Based Approaches

Desperation often makes people vulnerable to promises that sound hopeful but lack proof.

You’ve seen the desperation of people struggling with addiction and their loved ones. They’ll do anything to stop using substances, but often start with what seems like a quicker or simpler solution. They’re drawn to promises of zero cravings or effortless recovery through herbs, unproven therapies, and other so-called miracle programs.

As a professional in this field, you know that these methods don’t help, and worse, they leave the person struggling feeling more hopeless than ever before when these treatment regimen fail. When guiding your patients, let them know that any treatment plan that is based solely on anecdotal evidence should be avoided.

Make it clear to anyone you work with that following a treatment plan that hasn’t been backed by any scientific research can often end in a waste of time, money, and energy, and can even place the person in medical danger. And, they leave the already floundering person feeling more lost and alone than ever before.

Proven Therapy Models for Addiction

Therapy is a vital component in the addiction recovery process. Therapy can help people dealing with addiction identify the core trauma that caused the addiction, recognize and manage their emotional triggers, and build better habits and emotional practices. Whether you offer counselling services yourself, or refer your clients to the appropriate mental health professional, it’s important to be aware of the therapeutic modalities that are evidence-based and proven to help people struggling with addiction.

The most popular and effective therapies used to treat alcohol and substance addiction include:

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) - This psychotherapeutic approach will retrain the brain and how it responds to addictive substances. It’s an ideal treatment approach for drug users with a substance abuse disorder as well. This treatment is also effective in treating alcohol use disorder. It is one of the most recommended therapies of all time.
• Motivational Enhancement Therapy (MET) - This counseling approach increases an alcoholic’s inner motivation to quit. If you believe in yourself, you are more likely to succeed. You have all the power over your addiction. In this type of therapy, patients are encouraged to view themselves positively. They develop techniques that help them believe in their own ability to quit.
• The Matrix Model - This type of treatment is a bit different. It uses education and encouragement to encourage drug users and alcoholics to seek and stay in recovery.

Science, Meet Community

Support groups have become a popular method of healing, especially for people recovering from addiction. Being part of a group allows people who are struggling to feel less alone, more supported, and infinitely more validated than therapy alone. In a group, people can encourage each other not to give In to their cravings, while providing friendship and love that can fill a central need and prevent relapse. If you aren’t already aware of local group meetings that your clients can benefit from, here are two that are evidence- based:

• 12-Step Facilitation Therapy and 12-Step Programs – At 12-Step meetings, people struggling with addiction at all levels join together to discuss their hardships, encourage one another, strategize on tips for relapse prevention, and reinforce their commitment to staying sober for one day at a time.
• The community reinforcement approach - This type of support group provides support to individuals in specific communities. There are a lot of components involved. One of the more distinctive components is providing people recovering from addiction with voucher schemes as a reward for remaining abstinent.

At Avenues Recovery, we can help you or your clients find a local support group in your area. Reach out to speak with one of our staff members.

Pharmaceutical Tools in Evidence-Based Care

Studies have shown that some medicines can help treat alcohol and drug addiction. These medicines mainly deal with withdrawal symptoms. However, they also work in different ways to make it easier for people who are trying to get sober.

At times, a combination of different medicines is used to treat an alcohol use disorder. It all depends on the patient’s physical, mental, and psychological condition. Some of the most common medications used in most recovery programs include:

• Acamprosate
• Anticonvulsants
• Disulfiram
• Naltrexone
• Weak benzodiazepines

Most of these medications come in pill form, although some are in the form of an injection. The doses vary based on each patient’s condition. The medications are also prescribed for both inpatient treatment programs and outpatient treatment programs. Each alcohol rehab will offer different types of medicines.

Partnering on Evidence-Based Treatment

Evidence-based care doesn’t guarantee outcomes, but it gives clients their best possible chance.

If your clients are struggling with drug or alcohol addiction and are ready for rehab, reach out to us. We believe in working with fellow mental health professionals to help every client through the process of rehab. We’re committed to excellent communication before, during, and after treatment at the rehab so we can best support every client to long-term sobriety.

Our evidence-based modalities along with our expert, compassionate staff, have proven to be the best combination to encourage healing and recovery in our patients. We offer medical detox, one-on-one and group therapies, 12-Step groups, and medication-assisted treatment plans. Reach out if you’d like to talk through our programs and referral process.