(Newswire.net — October 25, 2017) –Hardly a day passes that you don’t hear about the latest star who has either overdosed on drugs or is entering a rehabilitation program. The type of rehab that celebrities face is not like other drug rehabilitation institutions encountered by the average person. However, some in the rehab industry believe that if the programs can be made equal, recovering addicts will have much better chances for success.
There is mounting evidence to prove that things like the quality of the food available at a rehabilitation center, along with perks like a gym memberships, might play a critical role in preventing addicts from relapsing. One facility in New York is part of a pilot program to determine if giving addicts a kinder and “richer” environment might be the key to drug rehabilitation. Slated for middle-class individuals instead of celebrities, the new facility works with insurance companies (instead of wealthy families) to treat drug-addicted sufferers.
The name of the facility is the Phoenix Life Center, and it just opened last September in an attempt to change the face of drug rehabilitation. Recognizing that drug addiction isn’t just about one area of a person’s life but all aspects of it, the center is an attempt to be more of a comprehensive institution that offers various kinds of rehabilitation, both in- and outpatient.
The difference in the Phoenix Life Center isn’t just about the fact it’s new, but is also in the way that it was designed. It is difficult to “get clean” in a space that is institutional and drab. It’s not like living in the real world, and people are forced to stop taking drugs in an atmosphere that doesn’t resemble what they will face once they are released from the facility.
Operating on the notion of “state-dependent learning,” the Center believes the conditions under which people learn specific behaviors determine what they do in the future. So, if you are forced to quit in an institutional atmosphere, maintaining recovery once you hit the real world is less realistic — or at least that is what this new program is hoping to prove.
The facility is nice and offers not the typical “cafeteria-style” food, but employs graduates of the Culinary Institute of America. It also offers amenities like aromatherapy and other types of treatment to relieve stress.
Partnering with the community, the Phoenix Center allows their patients to use the Equinox, a full-service gym, to help them focus on getting in shape and healthy. The new facility can accommodate 125 patients in-house, and is in the network of over 50 other alcohol and drug treatment centers around the US. The network has, in the past, primarily focused on low-income drug-addicted patients in both rural and urban areas of America.
The opioid abuse epidemic in America, and its wide reach to both big cities and small towns, has far surpassed other drugs of choice by any other generation and at any other time in history. Currently, opioid overdose is the cause for one out of fifty deaths in the US. The old stereotype of heroin-strung-out addicts or crack houses has been replaced by average teenage kids in middle America, seemingly functioning normally — until they are not normal at all.
Unfortunately, drug rehabilitation to date has done little to decrease drug use in America. In fact, the number of overdoses and usage continues to climb. Very little success has been found in older rehabilitation programs, especially in lower- or middle-income addicts.
The Phoenix House is a not-for-profit group that receives as much as 5% of its revenue through donations, with the rest coming from third-party contributors and governmental subsidies. So although the budget is not tremendous, it doesn’t make much sense to continue to try to charge patients for programs that don’t work and then make them come right back.
Or worse yet — having patients end up in the morgue. The hope is that the new center will show promise to help under served individuals suffering from addiction who don’t have the resources for a healthy and all-encompassing rehabilitation program. If it’s successful, and high-end institution luxuries are the key, luxury drug rehabilitation will be less costly than paying for patients who relapse over and over again.