What about the drug and alcohol rehab center itself? What should it’s goals ultimately be? My personal opinion is that a rehab might want to consider the goal of zero/zero. By the first zero I mean a rehab center would have zero tolerance to alcohol or drug possession and use, as well as zero tolerance of violence or sexual behavior. Zero tolerance implies you are removed from the rehab center for violation of these rules. No suspensions or extra duties as these are the core safety boundaries required for clients to feel safe.

At the same moment the next zero implies no clients are actually removed. By this I mean the policies and procedures are so tight, so clear and intrusive, that no one actually gets removed from the center. People are coached and helped before they use or cross any lines. Is the really possible? Most likely in today’s world, not. Good reliable fast drug testing has really helped. High tech security systems are another major help. Just because a goal may be impossible to achieve at the present doesn’t mean it is not a worthy goal. Most worthy goals are not really achievable when first imbarked upon. You may think a Goal for a rehab center should be about how many clients stay sober when leaving. This is a valid statistic and an important one. However, if a rehab was truly zero/zero and the clients stayed for 90 days, the results would be impressive.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 31st, 2006 at 8:21 am and is filed under Drug Rehab. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.