Levels Of Care
The level of care needed for an addiction depends on the individual situation. Dr. Ashish Bhatt, MD describes the different categories of care.
Transcript
Hi, this is Dr. Bhatt with Straight Talk With The Doc. I’ll take a few minutes here to talk about how do we know what level of care is important for our loved ones or ourselves when we’re seeking treatment for substance use disorders. It’s important early on that when we are suffering with acute addiction that we get medical professional help.
At the time when somebody is coming off of drugs especially those like alcohol, benzodiazepines, opiates, these can cause significant withdrawal. Life-threatening withdrawal. It’s important that we seek treatment often in an inpatient or residential level of care, or where a medical professional is available if you elect to do it on an outpatient basis. But ultimately the first steps in seeking treatment is to get a detoxification so your body can physically come off of these drugs in a safe manner.
Ultimately those people who might need to continue and stay stable and need the support, attend groups go to individual or group or family therapies, or go to psychiatric appointments or management appointments. These people may be able to do this as an outpatient basis. But usually this is done once they have a more supportive, collective holistic environment which they can stay clean and sober in.
For those individuals who are in early recovery who have been able to abstain from substances, they may be able to obtain that recovery while on an outpatient basis. These individuals might be able to maintain their support through support groups, AA or NA meetings, individual or group therapies, or visiting with their psychiatrist or medical doctor to receive the prescribed medications in order to maintain sobriety or any underlying mental health condition that needs to be addressed.
Ultimately you want to make sure that whatever degree of recovery you’re in or whatever degree of addiction you’re suffering with, you’re matched up with the right level of care. And that’s the important take home point.