PURPOSE

The purpose of this final phase of the twelve-week program is to help clients maximize their capability to successfully transition from the safety and supervision of a structured treatment setting back into the community, prepared to assume full responsibility for their own recovery. Our twelve-week length of stay is consistent with research by the US National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), which concluded that for most individuals, "the threshold of significant improvement is reached at about three months in treatment."

This time frame correlates with the most challenging period of post-acute withdrawal, which can continue for weeks or months after clients complete medically supervised detoxification. Active addiction dramatically changes brain functioning in the areas that govern thinking, feeling, and behavior. During post-acute withdrawal, when the brain and body are beginning to heal and rewire themselves to adjust to living without substances, difficulties in thinking, concentration, judgment, memory, sleep, appetite, and mood are quite common. The discomfort of post-acute withdrawal is a driving factor in the relapses of many people during early recovery. A twelve-week length of stay has the additional benefit of providing therapeutic shelter until the storm of the most severe symptoms of post-acute withdrawal can pass. We want to give clients the best possible chance to continue their recovery.

PHILOSOPHY

Like any structure, recovery will only be as strong as the foundation on which it is built. Phase III assists clients in solidifying the foundation of their recovery by providing expanded opportunities to practice their new, recovery-oriented lifestyle in a setting where positive changes in thinking and behavior can be nurtured. Moreover, their emerging attitudes and behaviors can offer positive models for newer clients. In Phase III, clients are allowed additional privileges, such as off-site passes and attending twelve-step meetings with their temporary sponsors. This gradual, progressive, and supervised re-integration into their family and the community gives clients the ability to process difficulties as they are encountered, while still within the safety of an intensive inpatient treatment environment.