Cathy Patterson-Sterling, MA, RCC
Cathy Patterson-Sterling, Director of Family Services for Sunshine Coast Health Centre, shares why it is so important to have a strong after-care plan and support network after addiction treatment.
Cathy Patterson-Sterling, MA, RCC
Cathy Patterson-Sterling, Director of Family Services at Sunshine Coast Health Centre, discusses how to handle your concerns if a loved one returns to using mood altering substances shortly after treatment.
Cathy Patterson-Sterling, MA, RCC
Cathy Patterson-Sterling, Director of Family Services for Sunshine Coast Health Centre, talks about why it is important not to “expert-manage” your loved one’s behavior after they have been through addiction treatment.
By Daniel Jordan
General Manager
Sunshine Coast Health Center
For the families we are privileged to serve at Sunshine Coast Health Center, starting residential drug rehabilitation can be a roller coaster of emotions. Starting treatment is really about wholesale change since, by the time we get involved, addiction has progressed to the point where everything our clients hold dear - family, friends, health, and home - is in jeopardy. For clients and their families alike, addiction treatment can be symbolized as the light at the end of a very dark tunnel.
Starting Treatment Can Be Overwhelming
Unfortunately, however, clients may be hopeful but can also be awash with conflicting emotions, particularly fear. Regardless of how dysfunctional their addict lifestyle has become, at least it’s familiar. Judging by the questions we get, nothing about treatment is familiar. Where am I going? Who will I be sharing a room with? How long am I going for? Can I use the telephone? These are basic questions but most clients at this point in their recovery are in no shape to go to our website and research our program beforehand.
In 2008, Sunshine Coast Health Center managed a retention rate of 89.41 percent for clients who were admitted to treatment. So our internal research gives families pretty good odds that their loved one will complete treatment.
Another piece of good news is that the majority of the 1 in 10 that did not complete treatment * left in the first week. Therefore, if your loved one makes it through the first week the actual likelihood of completing treatment at Sunshine Coast Health Center is closer to 93 percent.
The third piece of good news is that there are steps that family members can take to make the odds even better. By following some basic recommendations, family members can actually help keep their loved ones in treatment.
(*) Note: includes clients who left due to either leaving against staff advice (ASA), at staff request due to a dischargeable offense (ASR), leaving without notice (AWOL), or due to medical complications (MD).
Why Some Clients Want to Leave Treatment Early
First off, it’s important to understand why some clients want to leave treatment early. It is easy to dismiss a client’s decision to leave treatment early as nothing more than ‘not being ready’ or an overwhelming desire to get drunk or high. However, as is often the case with addiction, it’s not that simple. Most clients in early recovery struggle with ambivalence. Early recovery offers the promise of better days, the expectations of significant others, the uncertainty of a life in recovery, and the daunting task of cleaning up the huge mess that awaits them back home. Usually, when confronted by reality, the automatic response for addicts is to escape with drugs, alcohol, gambling, or sex. In treatment, however, that is not an option.
Clients Often Call Home Before They Leave Treatment
There is really no prevailing behaviour for clients who decide to leave treatment early. Some don’t hesitate to make their intentions clear the minute they arrive, while some clients keep it such a secret that staff don’t know until they find a note on a pillow the next morning. Somewhere in between these two extremes is the client who calls home first before leaving treatment. If you are one of those unfortunate family members who gets that call in the middle of the night, it is important to remember that you may be the first person who is aware of your loved one’s decision. Staff may be busy performing their duties, unaware that a client in their midst is moments away from ‘making a run for it’.
Why Clients Call Home Before Leaving Treatment
If we take a moment to reflect, it’s actually a huge opportunity for positive change when clients call home before they leave. After all, if someone was really intent on leaving, they wouldn’t complicate matters by calling home first. That phone call can represent one of two things: (1) they don’t have the resources to leave or (2) they are seeking approval before they leave treatment. Either way, you as a family member are far from being a helpless victim to your loved one’s intentions.
Three Possible Outcomes for The Same Scenario
To learn how to effectively deal with a loved one who calls home and is intent on leaving treatment early, one scenario is presented with four different scenarios based on how you, the family member, respond to your loved one.
Scenario: A client calls home late one night wants to leave treatment. You, the family member, have a telephone conversation with Cathy Patterson-Sterling, Director of Family Services, the following day:
Family Member: “Hi there. Keith called me last night and told me that his stay there wasn’t how he thought it was going to be. He complained that he just can’t relate to the other clients there and he just can’t imagine having to stay there for 6 more weeks.”
Cathy: “Oh, that’s unfortunate. Now, remember what we talked about while Keith was on his way to the treatment center? I pointed out that individuals in their first week of treatment have to contend with unfamiliar surroundings and strangers. To complicate matters, they are also going through withdrawal and don’t have their drug of choice to fall back on, so they will often try to think of a reason to leave treatment. Do you remember our conversation?”
Family Member: “Yes, I remember that.”
Cathy: “Right. That is why we reviewed all of the excuses that you could expect were going to come up and one of them was that about the “wrong peer group”. So, when Keith told you he wanted to leave, how did you respond?”
Response A
Family Member: “Well, I thought about what you said but then I thought what’s the point of Keith staying in treatment if he’s just going to be hiding out in his room the whole time he’s there? So I booked a flight for him.”
Conclusion to Response A: The client packs his bags and leaves treatment. The family member pays for his flight. Keith flies home.
Response B
Family Member: “Well, I thought about what you said and I told him that I wasn’t going to pay for his cab or his airfare to come home. Besides, I told him, if he does come back he won’t be staying here and I won’t be paying his car insurance either. Then I hung up.”
Conclusion to Response C: The client, realizing that he’s got nowhere else to go, decides to stay, at least for as long as he can figure out another option. Treatment center staff remain unaware of the situation.
Response C
Family Member: “Well, I thought about what you said, so I immediately hung up the phone, then called the treatment center and talked to one of the night staff there.”
Conclusion to Response B: A counsellor was called in to talk to Keith. It turns out that Keith was homesick for his daughter. Keith feels he has not been much of a father due to his preoccupation with his addiction and was overwhelmed with guilt. The counsellor was able to talk Keith through his overwhelming emotional state. Keith decided to stay in treatment for at least a week and try to work through his feelings of guilt with his assigned counsellor and peer group.
Response D
Family Member: “Well I thought about what you said and reassured him that he was probably just going through an adjustment period. I also told him that there was no way he could come home until after he completes treatment. Then I hung up and called the treatment center.”
Conclusion to Response D: Client feels he has no other option but to stay in treatment. Staff are aware of the situation with a conclusion similar to Response C. However, this time the client, realizing that he is not welcome at home until he completes treatment, commits to staying for the duration of treatment.
Conclusion
Obviously, conversations of this nature are not always as cut and dry as what was presented here. Remember, if a loved one calls home and tells you that he wants to leave treatment, it’s because he needs your money, your approval, or assurance that life can return back to the way it used to be before treatment.
Regardless of the rationale, you are not powerless in the face of apparently dire circumstances.
Furthermore, taking a firm line with your loved one and partnering with the staff in crisis situations is critical. So, the minute you hang up the phone with your loved one call the treatment center for support. Don’t assume that staff know about your family member’s intentions. Finally, don’t worry about being a nuisance. Typically, these types of calls happen late at night when clients are not busy engaged in the program or have the support of their peers. Don’t worry about it being too late at night to call. Staff are here, 24/7 and are prepared for these little emergencies.
For more information read the Sunshine Coast Health Center pamphlet, Contact Guidelines for Family Members.
By Daniel Jordan
General Manager
Sunshine Coast Health Center
In Part 1 of this article I highlighted the importance of designing a clinical brochure that is current, user-friendly, and comprehensive. Originally, I had planned to jump right in and explain our “integrated approach” to addiction treatment. However, as I was preparing for Part 2 I realized that exploring the complexity of residential addiction treatment is a necessary first step before attempting to explain our unique method of treatment.
Complexity #1: The Living Vs. Non-Living Universe
This may seem obvious but living entities are much more complex than inorganic objects. Neuroscientists point out that there are more synapses in the brain than stars in the galaxy and that the brain is the most complex device in the known universe. * The interesting part, however, is how we approach problems associated with living vs. non-living objects. In his book, Guide for the Perplexed, economist E.F. Schumacher argues that there are two types of problems in the world: (1) convergent and (2) divergent.
Convergent problems are ones in which attempted solutions gradually focus on one solution or answer. Of primary importance is that convergent problems are those where that all tend to point to the non-living universe. Take, for example, the problem of manned flight. In the early days of aviation, there were many different contraptions that inventors hoped would become the first successful flying machine. Perhaps you have seen the old movie footage of planes with 4 sets of wings, or wings that would flap up and down, etc. Finally, after a lot of trial and error, Orville and Wilbur Wright made the world’s first flight in a powered, heavier-than-air machine on December 17, 1903 near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. 100 years later, aeronautical engineers continue to improve on the Wright Brother’s original design, however, all manufacturers such as Boeing, Bombardier, or Airbus, build planes that follow remarkably similar design principles. The same is true for automobiles, cell phones, and portable computers.
Divergent problems are ones which we must find multiple solutions to a single problem and are typically found when we are dealing with living organisms, particularly human beings. For example, if you are trying to solve the problem of HIV/AIDS, handing out condoms or clean needles may be a start but it’s not going to completely solve the problem. Another agency may start a 24 hour help line and this may help as well. But these are just 2 of many possible solutions. The ongoing search for a cure to cancer, which is basically a living organism within a larger living organism (us), is another good example.
(*) Source: Nuts, bolts of who we are, Princeton Weekly Bulletin, May 1, 2000.
Complexity #2: Chronic Conditions Vs. Acute Conditions
While many people may consider addiction a chronic condition *, the truth is that addiction has a lot more in common with diabetes, high blood pressure, and arthritis than it does with acute medical conditions such as a broken leg or appendicitis. This misconception is clearly evident whenever scientists claim to have found the gene responsible for alcoholism or pharmaceutical companies promote a new drug as the cure for addiction.
Even residential alcohol and drug treatment centers that should know better typically operate like hospital emergency wards, throwing everything they have at the client during primary treatment and leaving precious few resources for follow-up or relapse.
(*) Note: for more information on the chronic nature of addiction refer to William White’s articles on bhrm.org .
Complexity #3: Addiction Impacts All Life Domains
Unlike many medical conditions, addiction cannot be treated by localising the problem to a particular part of the body and then treating it. Addiction is a Biopsychosocial condition that impacts all life domains - biological, psychological, social and spiritual. For example, all may be well with a client while he is in the safe confines of residential treatment, however, what happens when he gets home where the same job, family, and old haunts await his return? Furthermore, most addictions impact negatively on the body (liver damaged by alcohol, tooth enamel destroyed by crystal meth or crack cocaine, etc.). Psychotherapy can be particularly challenging if a client is also suffering from cognitive impairment, or mental illness.
Not only does addiction require a diverse team of professionals to be involved in treatment, it means that often treatment often has to be applied concurrently, and that the discharge plan must include community resources that also embrace the Biopsychosocial nature of addiction.
Complexity #4: Addiction Defies Simple Definitions
The origins of addiction have been a source of lively debate for hundreds of years. Is it a learned behaviour or is it a disease? Is addiction a choice or is it a genetic predisposition? Is addiction caused by developmental factors or do some people have addictive personalities? Are addicts created by eating a diet deficient in certain nutrients? Or is addiction a response to feeling disconnected from the world?
As Ken Wilber in his book Integral Psychology states, “The great problem with psychology as it has historically unfolded is that, for the most part, different schools of psychology have often taken one of those aspects of the extraordinarily rich and multifaceted phenomenon of consciousness and announced that it is the only aspect worth studying (or even that it is the only aspect that actually exists).” Dr. David Burns, author of Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy, calls it the “schools over tools” approach. This tendency towards over-simplification, commonly referred to as reductionism, is alive and well in the treatment of addiction. This is most unfortunate since addiction is a complex condition that impacts all aspects of health and lifestyle.
Now combine debate among competing schools in psychology with the medical community and you begin to see why the matter of deciding on effective treatment for addiction is far from settled.
Complexity #5: Addiction Requires More Than Mere Abstinence
Even the goal of addiction treatment is a topic of lively debate. Some will reason that if only the addict will stop using his/her drug or process of choice (gambling, online porn, etc.) then the problems associated with addiction will go away. Unfortunately, just as health is more than the absence of disease, recovery requires a fundamental shift that impacts all life domains mentioned in Complexity #3.
At Sunshine Coast Health Center, we believe that abstinence is a by-product, not a goal of alcohol and drug rehabilitation. When an individual discovers his true calling and begins the process of living a life of purpose, we believe that ’external’ solutions and unhealthy attachments will be discarded in favour of being true to one’s self.
Complexity #6: Not Everyone With an Addiction is Motivated to Quit
Another point to ponder is that people with addictions actually need a reason to stop. Having something to lose (health, marriage, career) may work for a brief period of time but, long term, a fundamental shift or transformation is often required for abstinence to become permanent. Unlike most disorders or medical conditions, addiction produces a positive benefit for the individual such as dissociation (numbing out) or escaping from, what Narcotics Anonymous calls, the ”meaningless, monotonous, and boring” life of an addict.
Complexity #7: Primary Residential Treatment Vs. Outpatient Treatment
The last point to make on complexity is that residential addiction treatment, is more than just counselling with room and board thrown in for good measure. Social skills associated with the give and take of living 24/7 with a peer group is an issue for residential treatment while the same can’t be said for outpatient.
Furthermore, group therapy, commonplace in residential treatment, is rarely provided in most outpatient settings. Group therapy is, by nature, a dynamic process that can have remarkable therapeutic effect in the hands of a skilled psychotherapist.
Complexity #8: Addiction is More Than Just Drugs and Alcohol
Cross-addiction (having more than one addiction) is a common occurence for individuals who struggle with drugs or alcohol. Sunshine Coast recognizes this tendency and is redesigning its program to expand the definition of addiction to include process addictions such as gambling, gaming, sex, even eating disorders.
Conclusion
Addiction is a complex condition that requires an equally complex approach to treatment. Sunshine Coast Health Center recognizes these challenges and has been continually finding new ways to enhance program effectiveness. in Part 3 of The Challenge of Writing a Clinical Brochure, I will examine how other individuals and groups are integrating their approach to address complex problems.
By Daniel Jordan
General Manager
Sunshine Coast Health Center
If there has been one thing that has been a constant at Sunshine Coast Health Center, it’s change. Changes at our residential addiction treatment center tend to occur under four broad categories: (1) program, (2) staffing, (3) services, and (4) facility. Since one of my responsibilities is marketing, it dawned on me that the corporate brochure that we created in the spring of 2007 was due for an overhaul. So, back in March, a new pamphlet was produced that showed our newly-expanded drug rehab center (new building, new indoor exercise pool, expanded fitness center, landscaping, etc.) and enhanced services (mental health services, on-site fitness, off-site recreation). However, after inserting all the new photos that highlighted our facility and campus, there really wasn’t much space left to detail how the clinical program has changed.
So, since the spring, we have been working on creating a brochure that provides additional information that is primarily clinical in nature. Having committed to this project, however, I soon realized that creating a clinical brochure that is comprehensive, user-friendly, and current is a big job!
The Challenge of Being User-Friendly, Current, and Comprehensive
In many ways, this reminds me of the work leading up to our publishing of the 1st edition of the British Columbia Alcohol & Drug Services Directory last November. It was the first time in 8 years that anyone had published anything similar to a directory of this nature (the last Kaiser Directory was published in 2001). I had found a number of BC addiction directories but all of them had one problem or the other. For example, either the information was outdated (again, the Kaiser Directory, many addiction directories found online), or was not presented in a user-friendly fashion (the Red Book in BC has quite a few listings but suffers from excessive categories and bulk), or was not comprehensive (no addiction listings felt that private practice therapists that worked with addicts or 12-Step meetings were worth listing). So, the challenge then became to integrate all of the available information into a publication that was better than the sum of its parts. Based on feedback we have had from many health professionals across BC, it seems as though we have succeeded in our objective. But while I thought the directory was a challenge, it seems as though creating a clinical brochure is a much more difficult task. After five months of internet research and countless visits to libraries, and used bookstores, I figure it’s time to start putting it all together, and what better place to start than our blog?
Challenge #1: Being User-Friendly
When it comes to having a user-friendly clinical brochure a logical presentation of content is necessary. However, a clinical program can’t be arranged in a simple, linear fashion like a novel or historical account. Instead, a framework needs to be designed so that all of the pieces are arranged in such a way that makes sense.
Finding material to aid in the development of a framework has been interesting, to say the least. Philosopher Ken Wilber has been instrumental in creating integral models that embrace the human condition from a subjective (”I” and “We”), objective (organism and environment), and structural (mind, body, soul, spirit) perspective. Ervin Laszlo, a pioneer in systems thinking; Roger Martin, author of The Opposable Mind; and economist E.F. Schumacher have all written on designing models that help explain complex systems. However, incorporating a system so that the system itself does not become the focus of the brochure is going to test the limits of being user-friendly.
Another aspect of being user-friendly is avoiding jargon that is so prevalent in health sciences and philosophy. Relapse Prevention expert Terence T. Gorski once pointed out to me that it’s often a question of languaging: communication can break down when we fail to understand that different words are used to represent the same thing. For example, one clinician may use the term resistance while another uses the term denial to represent the inability or unwillingness of a client to make healthy changes. So, a user-friendly clinical brochure must be presented in a way that doesn’t just assume familiarity with terminology commonly associated with alcohol and drug treatment.
Challenge #2: Being Current
Sunshine Coast Health Center is an evolving entity and that is by design. However, when creating a clinical brochure, information about staffing, programs, and services must be presented in a way that can embrace these changes without becoming outdated. For example, we may decide to change out an adjunct therapy (massage, relaxation, ozone, etc.) based on published research, client feedback, or staff turnover. However, such changes to the clinical program at the programming level does not automatically mean that the program, for example, no longer addresses the physical aspects of addiction.
Highlighting qualifications of staff must also be presented in general terms (such as all counsellors requiring a minimum of a master’s degree) rather than focusing on particular techniques (Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, etc.) that individual counsellors possess.
Challenge #3: Being Comprehensive
Addiction is a complex condition that defies a simple solution. While it’s somewhat straightforward to simply provide a list of programs and services, explaining why clinical elements have been included and how all of the clinical elements work together (our philosophy) is another story. A drug treatment program is far more than just it’s ‘bits and pieces’. Furthermore, a good clinical brochure should be able to demonstrate that its programming is supported by evidence-based research if it expects to be supported by the health professional community it needs to remain viable. And then there’s the addiction treatment-specific issues that always come up such as ‘how do you deal with disruptive clients?’, or ‘what happens when a client has a relapse?’. Answers to these policy questions often reveals a lot about a program’s philosophy.
Conclusion
Explaining how our program has integrated all of its clinical elements in a user-friendly, current, and comprehensive fashion is proving to be more challenging than originally anticipated. In Part II of this series, I will expand on why our program, based on our unique integrated approach to addiction treatment, is particularly challenging to summarize in a clinical brochure.
Cathy Patterson-Sterling, MA, RCC
Cathy Patterson-Sterling, Director of Family Services for Sunshine Coast Health Centre, cautions against “expert-managing” your loved one’s behavior in addiction recovery and offers tips on healthy emotional detachment.
Cathy Patterson-Sterling, MA, RCC
Cathy Patterson-Sterling, Director of Family Services at Sunshine Coast Health Center, talks about addiction treatment as a foundational tool in recovery and offers steps to take in the case of a slip or relapse.
By Daniel Jordan, General Manager
Sunshine Coast Health Center
For the past few weeks, I have been putting together a new corporate brochure that highlights the main features of our program, facility, and staff. We still have some of the old brochures left but since we added a whole new wing and swimming pool to the building and landscaped the yard, the brochures didn’t really put our best foot forward. More than just the physical changes to our facility, however, a new brochure was also necessary to reflect that we are now staffed with a psychiatrist, masters level therapists, and a kinesiologist.
Most of these changes to the corporate brochure were pretty straightforward and it didn’t hurt that we had some great new photos to enhance the presentation. However, when it came to changing the “Our Philosophy” section, that took some work. For those of you who have ever had to figure out your company’s philosophy or mission statement, you will know that it is no easy task. It’s actually a very personal experience since your company philosophy is really meant to tell the world what you value as a human being and why you are in your chosen profession.
OUR PHILOSOPHY at Sunshine Coast Health Center
So, after some soul searching and a lot of discussion with staff and various stakeholders, this is OUR PHILOSOPHY:
At Sunshine Coast Health Center, we believe that it is not enough simply to treat the ‘addiction.’ Instead, a client’s experience with us facilitates ongoing personal transformation, the goal being healthy, thoughtful men who are inspired to live with a renewed sense of vitality and purpose. Our therapy program prepares clients and their families for a deeper, more fulfilling life.
Sunshine Coast Health Center focuses on providing the most effective, evidence-based treatment, exceeding expectations by paying close attention to four key therapeutic principles:
Respect: We treat others as we would wish to be treated. This respect is the foundation of our program and pervades everything we do, how we conduct ourselves and how we interact with each other.
Gratitude: We feel privileged that clients and their families put their trust in us.
Empathy: We support our clients through the good times and the bad, free from judgment.
Humility: No matter how proficient we are at treating addiction, we know that the client is always the expert in his own recovery.
OUR PHILOSOPHY Now Reflects Our Values
Basically, our corporate philosophy now reflects the values of ownership. Respect, humility, gratitude, and empathy rose to the top in terms of importance. This process of prioritizing virtues was actually quite fascinating. For example, why not courage? How about creativity? In the end, it came down to the most salient values we share in common with our clients. In other words, any value that staff and management practice on a daily basis will also benefit our clients, but some more than others.
The Biggest Change Reflected in OUR PHILOSOPHY: Our Approach to the Client
One of the biggest changes we made in our philosophy was our approach to the client. This change is especially notable in the first sentence (see above). Nowadays, we don’t actually treat ‘addiction’ or an ‘addict.’ We treat a unique human being who happens to suffer from addiction. This is no small change. Treating an ‘addict’ or an ‘addiction’ can be an extremely dehumanizing process where, by virtue of being addicted, treatment programs can mistakenly assume that their clients suffer from;
-Narcissism
-Denial
-Addictive personality
or is a liar and a manipulator, is incapable of making any healthy choices, etc., etc.
The Inclusion of ‘Personal Transformation’ in Our Philosophy
Personal transformation is a term we have intentionally included in our corporate philosophy. From my experience, most treatment centers don’t spend a lot of time talking about transformation since it is more spiritual than psychological in nature. However, ownership at Sunshine Coast has always had an interest in the idea of enlightment, even going so far (in our own imperfect way) as making it a way of life. Since getting involved in addiction treatment, ownership has been inspired to pay more attention to self-development and spirituality. After all, the process of recovery for our clients often needs to be a total, rather than incremental, shift.
Conclusion
So there you have it. Admittedly, it’s nice to be able to move on to other projects now that the new corporate brochure is finally going to print. In the short term, we can hand out some nice new shiny brochures but I’m sure that we will be back making a new version in another few years. I have a feeling, however, that the OUR PHILOSOPHY section may not change so fast. I guess time will tell.
Item 4 from this list is worth special mention: flexible, more affordable alumni services.
More Options for Alumni Means Long-Term Value For Families
A few months back, Daniel Jordan (Sunshine Coast General Manager) and I talked about making lifetime commitments to our clients. This commitment involves a multitude of free support services including online and telephone counseling, family programming and weekend visits. We know that any client who continues to work with us can find the answers he needs to maintain abstinence, healthy relationships, and improved quality of life.
One way that I felt we could improve our offerings was to offer a more flexible relapse stabilization program. Typically, private treatment centers require their relapsing clients to return for another full treatment stay – often 42 days or longer. However, at Sunshine Coast, we find that returning clients often have the basics and their needs are more specific so a shorter stay is often sufficient. Furthermore, the additional expense of a second 42-day stay can create unnecessary hardship when a short-term follow-up could have sufficed.
At Sunshine Coast, we have offered a shorter 30 day program for our alumni at a reduced rate for more than 2 years. In the fall of 2007 we added a 7 day rapid stabilization for clients who had a short relapse so that they could quickly get back to their families and careers. Many of our alumni take advantage of these relapse prevention services and can refocus their recovery for less than half the price of what it would cost at other centers.
It’s this commitment to a lifetime of care with very inexpensive and short relapse program opportunities that creates real value for our clientele. Families can now access shorter, more affordable treatment that has a length of stay appropriate for the individual needs of the client.
Many of our alumni have successfully bounced back from a short relapse with little more than a week or two of relapse prevention work. These alumni seem to know when they have had enough time in the center and when additional therapy has met their personal recovery goals. It is this trust that they know themselves and their recovery needs that increases their confidence in their recovery work and enables them to move forward with fewer, less intensive, and shorter-duration relapses.
Conclusion
In these economically uncertain times, we at Sunshine Coast are committed to increasing value when it comes to residential drug and alcohol treatment. That means not only making treatment more effective, it also means providing flexible and affordable “refresher” programs for alumni. In the end, it is a treatment center’s long-term commitment to clients and their family members which separates real value from a quick sale.
About the Author
Melanie Alsager is the Administrator of Sunshine Coast Health Center and oversees administration, operations and clinical programming.
Sunshine Coast Health Center is a provincially-approved drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility licensed by 
Facility No. gtHN-5WNS4d
Copyright © 2008 Sunshine Coast Health Centre (2005) Ltd. All rights reserved.
