The Best Options for Drug Rehab and Treatment in California
California has some of the best options for addiction treatment in the U.S. With facilities that are on the cutting-edge of the developments in the addiction treatment field, Californians have no shortage of options.
The Cost of Addiction
It’s no secret that drug abuse and drug addictions are dangerous. That’s true whether you live in California or somewhere else altogether. But you may not know that the number of people developing a drug abuse problem — along with the number of people dying due to drug abuse issues — is on the rise.
According to the National Safety Council, Americans have a 1 in 96 chance of dying due to an opioid overdose. Americans have a 1 in 103 chance of dying in a car crash. This is the first time that opioid overdoses have overtaken car crashes, and public health authorities are understandably worried about these statistics.
Treatment centers are working to reduce that death rate. Through therapy, these centers hope to help people with addictions to build healthy habits, so they will be able to stop abusing high levels of drugs and putting their health in danger.
These addiction treatment facilities offer a range of services.
- Medical detox
- Inpatient or residential care
- Outpatient services
- Evidence-based treatment
- Complementary or alternative therapies
- Ongoing aftercare
Many treatment centers are located in California. That’s good news if you are a Californian looking for care. You’re likely to find the help you need close to home. But you will need to choose your treatment partner carefully, as some of the options open to you come with very real risks.
The Scope of Addiction in California
Prescription painkillers, or opioids, are an issue for the residents of California, just as they are for people who live elsewhere in the United States. But changes in prescribing rates and awareness of prescription painkiller misuse are causing a shift in the types of drugs people use in California.
Prescription painkillers contain active ingredients that act on the brain in a similar manner to the ingredients found in heroin. Prescription painkillers can seem safe to those who abuse them since pills are made in a factory (not on the street) and prescribed by a professional. But these drugs have much in common with heroin, and in California, many people are shifting from prescription drug abuse to heroin abuse.
According to the California Department of Public Health, the number of emergency department visits and overdose deaths attributed to heroin have increased since 2011, while the number of prescriptions written for painkillers has dropped. Put together, these numbers suggest that fewer people are taking painkillers and more are taking heroin.
In addition, according to a report put out by the Obama White House, drugs seized at the border between Mexico and California are shifting. At one point, marijuana dominated the seizures. Now, methamphetamines are on the rise.
Statistics like this suggest that the scope of drug use in California is changing. People are moving from using pills created by doctors to using drugs cooked up in other countries and smuggled here illegally. That shift could lead to all sorts of consequences no one had considered.
Illegal drugs can be cut with substances users don’t expect. For example, some drug dealers add the prescription drug fentanyl to their heroin batches, hoping to create a substance that is very powerful (so users buy it again) but cheaper than pure heroin (so they make money). Contamination like this can quickly lead to overdoses, as users may have no idea the drug dose they are about to take is stronger than the last one they took.
Illegal drugs like heroin are also typically administered with a needle, and that can lead to significant health problems.
- Collapsed veins
- Deep infections
- Hepatitis C
- HIV
Users in California making the shift from pills to needles could emerge with very difficult health issues that could take months to recover from or years to manage.
No matter what sort of drugs people in California tend to take, there are treatment programs that can help.
Treating Addiction in California
There are a number of substance abuse treatment programs in California that can help with an addiction issue. In fact, according to the California Health Care Foundation, there were more than a thousand facilities offering outpatient addiction care in 2015, and there were more than 500 that offered inpatient care. These numbers highlight just how many choices people have when it comes to fighting back against an addiction in California.
Those who want to ensure that they don’t have to pay a great deal for care can enroll in Medi-Cal. As the California Department of Health Care Services points out, Medi-Cal is California’s version of Medicaid, and it is designed to help people of low income levels get the medical care they need. People can access that care through funds that originate at both the state and the federal level.
Not all addiction treatment facilities accept Medi-Cal, but those that do could offer people the care they need at a very low cost. But the facilities that do accept Medi-Cal can come with some issues people may not appreciate.
The California Health Report suggests that thousands of people that accessed care through Medi-Cal complained about the courtesy and service of the medical professionals they encountered. These patients felt that showing their Medi-Cal enrollment card meant subjecting themselves to prying eyes and judgment, and that made their health care experience far from positive.
People with addictions already face stigma about their choices, their skills, their willpower, and their relations with others. Even though addictions are medical conditions, not conditions of willpower, people can feel judged for their addictions. Adding stigma from health care providers to the mix could make the treatment experience seem unbearable.
There are private plans that are designed to help, and many of those programs do not accept Medi-Cal payments. But according to Capitol Public Radio, some of these California companies enroll patients in private health care plans, and then bill those plans for treatments that do not work. They are not trying to make their patients better, as doing so would cause the payments to cease. Instead, they are hoping to continue the treatment indefinitely, so they can keep cashing checks.
Find Treatment You Can Trust
How can you ensure that you work with a company that provides care that is appropriate for you and that won’t judge you for the choices you have made in the past? According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, families should prepare to ask many questions of the facilities they are considering.
People shouldn’t be afraid to ask about the therapies used, and they should be ready to ask about success rates too. Reputable companies will open up about the work they do and the successes they see, and these companies should be able to provide hard numbers that prospective clients and their families can understand.
Reputable companies should also feel comfortable with providing photos, testimonials, and tours to those who have questions. These businesses should have nothing to hide, and they should be ready to talk honestly with those who are considering enrollment.
Get the Help You Need
At Resurgence Behavioral Health, we take this model very seriously. We’re always happy to talk about our work and our successes. We have numbers handy that justify our successes. And we have plenty of testimonials, including on third-party sites like Google, that can help families feel reassured that others have benefitted from our work.
Our facility is located in Costa Mesa, and we’re incredibly proud of the therapeutic community we have built. We would love to show you what the facility looks like on the inside and tell you more about why we think we’re the best option for families searching for care in California.
