Sometimes in drug rehab we can get caught up in statistics.  When dealing with percentages it makes it easy to talk about what is likely to happen.  Somehow it makes it easier to discuss.  Only all to often we are faced with the fact, people are not stats and numbers.  People do not come in fractions.  Clients come in units of one.  When a client leaves a drug rehab center and returns to their addiction it does not feel like 20% relapse rate.  For everyone concerned, some days it just feels like total failure. 

Family members feel let down and crushed.  Their disappointment is only overshadowed by the fear their family member will end up dead.  There are only a couple of things that can be done at these moments.  Fisrtly, what one thing can be done to increase the safety of the client who has left?  Were they given adequate precautions about drug reuse and accidental overdose.  Remind them if that do reuse, not to be alone.  Remind them their body has detoxed and will respond much more to any drug than before drug rehab.  Remind them to find a safe place to reuse, if they are going to.  This is not giving someone permission to use.  It is information to lessen the risk if they do reuse.

You can also ask what one thing might have you done differently, to change the outcome?  This is not a scorecard where everywone beats themselves up.  It is simply to ponder if any other avenues could have been tried.  What can be done to get the client back to future focus and back to moving past addiction?  The last thing to to be thankful for the effort everyone involved who tried to help.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 7th, 2008 at 3:41 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.