Recovery communities (RCs) are important because:
- After completion of detox and inpatient rehab and/or outpatient rehab, the person in recovery is often left to return to the environment they used in, leaving them extremely vulnerable to triggers, friends they used with, and dealers. The odds of relapsing are dangerously high.
- Outpatient support is generally 1-2 times a week. Recovery communities offer 24 hours a day peer support.
- Not everyone finds success with medication treatments. Not everyone has access to the medication. Not everyone chooses to manage their addiction through medication.
- Medication such as methadone and buprenorphine do not help stop cravings to alcohol, cocaine, methamphetamine or other substances.
- Those who want to take the journey to abstinence, whether from ilicit drugs or the medication treatments should have a place to go providing them with a real chance of achievement.
- RCs are not just talk. They are places where the person in recovery is among people suffering the same issues and problems. RCs are places where families and long term friendships are developed.
- Gone are feelings of guilt, inadequecy, remorse, shame, depression as they slowly get replaced by bonding friendships, productivity, desire to help, responsibility, accountibility, feeling needed, and love.
- Recovering addicts make the best soldiers in the war against drugs and alcohol.
- Because of the lack of available sober communities does not come close to the demand for them, individuals do not have the freedom to choose what is best for them.
- The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development advocates housing choice and identifies recovery housing as an important option for persons who choose abstinence-based recovery. True choice must include the ability to afford the supports they need. Because most recovery residences do not demand abstinence, they are not supported through state block grants nor are they eligible for funding streams and so must be self-financed through resident fees, donations and private grants.
Recovering addicts have a very high rate of relapse.
When they are able to detox and have some aftercare treatment, they usually must return to the environment and friends with which they were addicted. They know that to lessen the risk of relapse, they need to cut ties with their friends and environment however this is unrealistic in most situations. There is no affordable place to go, even though it has been found that residential stability is a critical part of recovery. The longer a person in recovery remains in a sober environment, the greater the chance of achieving a long-term sobriety. Individuals with histories of addiction lack essential recovery capital, which inhibits their ability to secure stabile housing. They often face factors that contribute low recovery capital: barriers due to criminal backgrounds; low or no income; poor rental history; poor credit, limited education; and minimal work history. As a result, many of these individuals have difficulty accessing private or public rental housing or obtaining mortgages. Research indicates that recovery housing provides individuals with substance use disorders a greater chance of achieving a long-term recovery than those who do not live-in recovery-oriented environments. Peer support is so important to survival. In recovery housing peers are all working together to help each other through this journey.
You will not hear a lot of information about recovery residencies yet there is an increasing movement in support of long-term recovery programs. Slowly but surely data is being gathered and proving that long-term recovery residences work. What are these programs about? They are about saving the lives of the relatively severe, complex, and chronic addicted persons.
After treatment, whether inpatient or outpatient, many individuals return to high risk environments. They are exposed to many triggers that only increase the cravings they already have. Everyday stress can and is overwhelming for someone newly in recovery and vulnerable. Many do not have jobs to go to nor money to survive. They are truly soldiers going to war without armor.
In an article posted July 7, 2022, by Brian Coon of recoveryreview.blog, three sectors of special populations that promote long-term recovery show similarities which have proven effective. Those sectors are Collegiate recovery programs, Professional monitoring programs and Drug Court (Recovery Court, Veteran Court). He talks about the similarities including Taking the long view, use of a multi-year structure, working in the natural or indigenous environment, seeing the family as central rather than peripheral and working with person-centered goals. Mr. Coon also relates an article by Robert DuPont MD that eventual full recovery is possible and that the "Five Year Recovery" (DuPont, Compton & McLellan, 2015) should be a standard of effectiveness.
It's a problem that research data regarding the success or failures of long term rehabs and recovery communities is lacking. It becomes apparent that data is most available for solutions offered and funded by insurance companies and lobbies. Medication assisted treatments have become the "evidence based" solutions based on how the data is collected and arranged. Of course, governments use this information to decide where precious funding is going to be distributed. It's coincidental how pharmaceutical products 'fit the bill'. In order to be truly unbiased evidence, we need to collect more data on the effectiveness of long-term recovery through recovery communities and long term rehab. It has been shown that five years of abstinence will greatly increase the chances of maintaining a sober and wholesome life and there is evidence to back this up so let's look at this also. In the end, which treatment will offer the best life possible? It's not just about which option is better, but which will work best for the individual. Logic would say that all option treatments should be available and that we need to continue to find new solutions as well as continue to track and analyze data. It should be about considering all alternatives and not just dispensing medication. Individuals who are supported for the long term period needed can find abstinence to be their best alternative and we beliieve they should be allowed this alternative. By supporting abstinence, we not only offer another solution, but will also develop 'warriors' against the fight.
Here are some readings to explore showing long-term recovery and abstinence is effective:
- "Residential Rehabilitation: A Review of the Existing Literature and Identitfication of Research Gaps within the Scottish Context" Research evidence "that residential rehabilitation is associated with improvements across a variety of outcomes relating to substance use, health and quality of life".
- "American Fix', Ryan Hampton, copyright 2018, 2020 by Ryan Hampton.
Here are some websites which support our cause: