Individualized Continuing Care and Aftercare Programs

Overview

While treatment provides a natural “safe zone” where you can focus on battling the immediate crisis of addiction or mental illness, we know a new kind of work begins when treatment ends, and you’re seeking lifelong health. We take great care in developing personalized and comprehensive aftercare programs to help meet the individual needs of our patients.

This means we begin preparing you for discharge upon admission to our programs.

To form a comprehensive discharge plan, we consult with you, your family, and referents when requested. This ensures that we develop an aftercare program customized to your individual needs.

What Is Continuing Care for Addiction and Mental Health?

Continuing care planning, also known as “discharge planning,” is a critical component of successful treatment, which helps you and your family prepare to navigate the ups and downs of a life in recovery. A detailed and organized care plan can provide both stability for you and peace of mind for your family. Here are a few key components of a continuing care plan and what questions to ask as your loved one engages in and begins to conclude their treatment.

When Does the Continuing Care Process Start at Origins?

Continuing care planning at Origins begins at the onset of your treatment. Our Continuing Care Department works hand in hand with your primary therapist and your multidisciplinary team to create a personalized plan, including mental health and addiction continuing care and aftercare programs, as needed, before your discharge from treatment.

Who Handles Continuing Care Programming at Origins?

During your time with us, you will work alongside one of our Case Managers to develop a personalized aftercare mental health and addiction plan. These specialists coordinate with all auxiliary points of contact to develop your plan. Our coordinators attend treatment team meetings daily, allowing them to better understand your history and personal clinical support recommendations.

Who Does Origins Involve in the Planning Process?

While discharge planning begins with you, many other people will likely be involved in the process. Most people in treatment sign a consent form that allows providers to touch base with auxiliary points of contact, including family members. These contacts will naturally be included in your discharge planning process. Though parents or loved ones cannot ultimately dictate your discharge plan, they may provide valuable and objective insight into your aftercare needs. Together, patients, their families, referents, and Origins’ treatment team will build a mental health and addiction continuing care support plan that reflects all these relationships and support services.

Key Components of Our Continuing Care and Aftercare Program

At Origins, we take the individual needs of you or your loved one and develop a continuing care plan that includes a range of recommendations.

Counseling is a critical component of our mental health and addiction aftercare programs. Recommendations by our team may include work with a therapist or various levels of clinical support, such as Intensive Outpatient Services (IOP) or outpatient counseling. These clinical services provide support for the challenges presented by life after treatment and may include group work or individual therapy. We coordinate with trusted referents in order to guide you or your loved one to clinical services that help address issues that may arise following treatment.

Our multidisciplinary team is dedicated to providing superior medical services to you or your loved one. Aftercare for mental health patients requires adherence to the medical plan laid out for them during treatment. We ensure that you or your loved one understand how and when to administer medications after discharge. We also connect you with doctors and mental health professionals in your area who can monitor your progress over time.

Substance use disorders impact the entire family, and studies have consistently shown that recovery outcomes improve when family members engage in their own recovery program. Our treatment providers offer support to the entire family through our Family Programs. These continuing care and aftercare programs also consider every person’s needs once your family member exits our care. This type of support may involve individual or family counseling or family-oriented support groups (such as Al-Anon or Families Anonymous). This allows your entire family to heal from unhealthy family dynamics that may be present.

12-Step fellowships allow you to learn practices to improve your recovery while developing a support network. These groups often provide the much-needed guidance and motivation necessary to maintain permanent recovery. Alongside these recommendations, we offer comprehensive Alumni Services and include these recommendations in your continuing care mental health and addiction plan. At Origins, Alumni Services begin at admission and last a lifetime.

Residential treatment is a rigorous process during which nearly every minute of the day is planned. Leaving a structured environment of this nature without an idea of how to spend your time after treatment can set you up for failure. With your counselor, you will develop a working schedule that includes clinical and medical recommendations and other sober, positive activities (going to the gym, participating in service work, attending 12-Step meetings, and continuing with work and school plans). All these aspects provide much-needed structure and accountability.

Returning to an unhealthy environment can often mean disaster. You or your loved one must discharge to a living environment that supports continued wellness. As your family approaches discharge plans, we work with you to ensure those safe living accommodations are available immediately after discharge. Sometimes, your care plan may also include a step-down program such as outpatient services or transitional living.

The Goal of Origins’ Continuing Care and Aftercare Programs

Developing a comprehensive aftercare program may seem daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. While the goal of any treatment stay is sobriety, the most successful outcomes occur when you or your loved one learns to develop healthy relationships and interests that do not end at “graduation” from Origins’ care. Ultimately, recovery is about breaking old ways of thinking and learning how to apply recovery principles to everyday life. Through open and honest communication with our treatment team, the entire family can develop a practical discharge plan that includes aftercare—not only for today but for a lifetime.

Today is the day that life gets better. Call 561-841-1296.