Secondary Care

The nature and need for secondary care is described below. Secondary care , sometimes called Extended Care, is often a 60 to 180 day continuation of treatment after detox and Primary care.  Reasons for needing more inpatient treatment are many and varied, and always pertinent to an individuals situation. What emerges for a client in primary care may be the trigger for staying longer within the therapy environment to address the deeper issues. Shame, trauma, anger, depression to name a few. Often it is just the simple physics of withdrawal associated with some types of drugs. For others it is key personal relationships are so badly wounded and damaged from the addiction that the secondary care supports healing. For some it will be attached to legal and social consequences.

Detox leading into Primary Care provides a very safe and structured environment for the early stages of recovery. Strong therapy boundaries look to provide a recovery foundation free from relapse, yet having to bring out all the triggers to relapse. Primary care can not last for ever. Real recovery is nothing until it is exposed to the real world.

Secondary care is a still a highly controlled and structured environment, very much attached to the geography and community of Primary care whilst developing a gentle exposure to outside influences.

Family visits, unaccompanied travel to and from 12 step meetings, free use of the internet and social media are all components for many secondary care programs.

However, the emphasis is still very much on intensive inpatient treatment. Secondary care therapy is longer term and thus able to really address deep trauma issues, long term depression and cater for the effects of some drugs.

Secondary Care is often needed where long term addiction covered up long term emotional pain that really can not be addressed too early into treatment. A persons first 30 or 60 days really is about giving up the drugs and alcohol, learning how to stay stopped. What emerges in this process can be too heavy to focus on too soon.

Decisions to stay on with Secondary Care can not really be judged as needed or not needed until the detox and engagement with Primary treatment has occurred.

The Intervention Service can and will help with the ongoing Intervention process by assisting with answering questions about extended care with the family and intervention group should this arise.