Addiction Rehab

The adage says, “If you don’t schedule your work, your work will schedule you.” Addiction often forms from a disorganized lifestyle. Whether through stress, trauma, depression, or other factors, there’s usually something that makes you feel a loss of control over in your life when you first become dependent on drugs or alcohol. Recovery from addiction is a lifelong process of healing and reaffirming your sense of control so you no longer need substances to manage. Being able to manage a healthy lifestyle is just as difficult as overcoming the initial detox, and is best executed with a drug relapse prevention plan. At our San Diego rehab and detox, we focus a lot on helping our patients not only recover from their addiction but to transition into a life of manageable drug relapse prevention. Drug relapse prevention is a multi-faceted process, which means juggling an effective daily schedule, stress management, and social life in a way that contributes to your recovery.

Managing Drug Relapse Prevention

An effective daily schedule is fundamental to our health. If you’ve ever pulled an all-nighter, you should know that no amount of caffeine can make up for the lost hours of sleep. Our bodies have an internal clock that dictates our patterns of drowsiness and alertness, sleep and wake. Letting your body function on its own clock will keep your circadian rhythm in tune with the responsibilities of your life. Studies have shown that out-of-sync circadian rhythms can lead to sleep deprivation, mental health issues, and even the formation of cancer. AToN focuses a lot on maintaining a healthy schedule, including time for social and physical health activities, like jogging, swimming, or outdoor aerobic activities with groups. Not only do these activities improve your health, but some research indicates that exercise can promote healthy highs which reduce the impact of drugs and alcohol and improve your resilience to addiction and relapse.

Self-Care and Addiction

Proper self-care is more than just exercise, however. Even with a strong daily schedule, healthy habits like diet and aerobic exercise, we still need to keep our mind healthy and tuned up. Mindfulness exercises and cognitive behavioral therapy are two great options to improve drug relapse prevention by managing the negative symptoms that not only contribute to addiction. Both focus on relaxing your mind and body by understanding the direct physical consequences of stress, anxiety, and cravings. By learning to understand the symptoms, you can direct your body on how to better manage them. The best part about these therapies is, once you learn them with a trained therapist, you can take them home with you and use them at any time. We can’t predict every twist and turn life will throw at us, but by having tools to manage these situations as they arise, we can reduce the impact they have on our mental and physical well-being.

Community Prevents Relapse

Our social health is just as important to well-being as our physical and emotional health. Friends and family are often the best way to motivate ourselves to persevere through the toughest parts of life. We spend a lot of time setting up fun, friendly, social events like road trips, hiking, and sports to encourage our guests residents to develop new and powerful bonds with others on the journey to recovery. Close friends with similar life goals make great accountability partners, holding you responsible for your recovery and offering a helping hand whenever you might need it.

Addiction fragments families like no other disorder. Many people see their loved ones becoming addicted as a loss of trust and a shattering of expectations. Under the influence of drugs and alcohol, some people may act more impulsively, be prone to depression, anxiety, or rage. These are all signs of serious chemical imbalances caused by Substance Use Disorders (SUDs). We’ve all done and said things we deeply regret under stress or frustration, but addiction can bring out the worst of those vulnerabilities.

Addiction keeps us in a self-conscious, self-loathing mindset, even when surrounded by loved ones who want nothing but the best for us. Even close-knit families can keep an icy distance when the people they love no longer act like themselves, which is why addiction can cause so much damage to a family’s harmony. Sometimes this damage can seem irreparable because of all the history and emotions behind it. Family therapy, however, can be a powerful tool to navigate these hurt emotions, and re-establish trust between spouses or families.

What is Family Therapy?

Family therapy seeks to understand the negative emotions between members of a family and to unpack those emotions healthily and productively. While addiction is ultimately the disorder of focus in rehab and recovery, the family relationships as a whole might be damaged in their own way. Addiction often stems from dysfunction, so it’s just as likely that a toxic family environment could have contributed to addiction, as addiction could have hurt a family’s relationships. There’s even data suggesting that the quality of a family’s relationship can have a greater impact than more socially-accepted explanations like peer pressure.

How Can Family Impact Addiction

“At least 1 in 10 children in the United States is born into a chemically dependent family”. Even when a parent or parents can break free from addiction, it’s not uncommon that the environment, the behaviors, and the mentality that made addiction possible can persist and have a strong influence on the child. Simply quitting a drug “cold-turkey” on your own, without any form of therapy or rehabilitation, can cause the risks of intergenerational dependency to persist.

There are several ways that an unhappy, stressful, restrictive, or downright toxic environment can impact the development of a child, or even an adult. It’s been known for years that happiness has a direct impact on addiction, suicide, and other mental health epidemics. Many Americans are doing their best to create a rich and rewarding home-life for their families, yet still finding that their children, their spouses, and even themselves are not happy. Unfortunately, no one has an instruction manual for life and child-rearing and maintaining healthy relationships, so we can only do our best. Sometimes, it’s just not possible to see where we can improve without someone from the outside looking in and guiding us along.

Why Family Therapy for Addiction

Family therapy is a process that can analyze the underlying tension in a family, and the different personalities, beliefs, and mindsets in the group can lead to different outcomes in health and addiction. Through therapy, many families can learn to not only heal the family as a whole, but to heal their past traumas, insecurities, and unhealthy mindsets. If you, or someone in your family, is suffering from addiction and you feel that family therapy might improve their quality of life, call us at (619) 639-7325 to learn more about our rehab and recovery in San Diego.

“Karoshi” is a Japanese term for “working yourself to death.” Such a culture of self-sacrificing commitment to a career has left the country with high levels of burnout, suicide, and an entire generation putting off childrearing to meet unrealistic work expectations. Here in the US, our San Diego drug and alcohol treatment center is seeing a frighteningly similar pattern of overworked executives pouring every ounce of themselves into their work—leaving their bodies, minds, and homes empty. Practically every scientific study and professional self-help book tell us the same thing— “take care of yourself first!” High stress from overworking can cause issues with metabolism and glucose levels and is a key factor in the forming of addiction. Addiction is not a moral failing, it is a response to trauma, stress, depression, and unhealthy work-life balances. Overcoming addiction often means re-evaluating ambitious definitions of success and finding ways of living that harmonize health and productivity.

The Executive Mindset and Addiction

It’s so easy to let ourselves fall into short-term “effective” habits, like ordering dine-in and eating while we work. We often forget that our brain is a living organ, not a machine, and that organ is responsible for all of our business success. Everything from a healthy diet to exercise to managing addictive behaviors are extremely important to the health of your brain. Millions of us have become addicted to caffeine because it’s a quick and effective replacement for sleep, even when we know that’s just a comfortable lie that will leave us feeling drained and sleepy by 2 PM. What we must focus on is changing our behaviors to make the greatest use out of our brains, bodies, and business potentialStephen R. Covey’s best-selling self-help book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, refers to this as “sharpening the saw.” If you’re tasked with chopping down a forest… does it make sense to charge headfirst, or to spend a few minutes sharpening your saw to reduce the workload for every tree? If you don’t treat your body and brain right, how can you expect it to continue to produce amazing results?

Untangling the Executive Brain in Therapy

Happy hours are not an effective therapy tool. Too often, we see hardworking professionals turning to alcohol to reduce stress. While drinking or smoking seems to calm nerves temporarily, they do so by masking the life factors that stress us rather than treating them. As we bury these cognitive quirks deeper and deeper, they begin to pile up. We grow more agitated towards others, jaded towards our work, depressed, and stressed. Because we’ve numbed and suppressed these root causes, it becomes difficult to locate the source of all these negative emotions in our livesOur San Diego rehab offers executive inpatient treatment options, which focus on improving the functionality of your brain in two major ways.

The first is simple detox and health routines. Your business runs on a schedule, so should your brain. If you ever feel drained halfway through the day, detoxing and fixing your circadian rhythms can help you function longer and more effectively.

Our second way of improving your brain is by untangling the negative thoughts & cognitive distortions from years of stress coping. All of our therapists are doctorate-level specialists and are trained in a variety of approaches to helping you achieve a healthy and successful recovery that will improve your life as a whole. Are you considering treatment or rehab? We encourage you to call us at (888) 977-3402 to learn more about how treatment can benefit you.

What if we told you that the most exciting and spiritually challenging journey of your life could include table tennis, a luxurious pool and spa, and gourmet meals every day at a beautiful San Diego facility? 90% of the people who need drug and alcohol rehab don’t seek help from a rehab provider. There are many reasons we become addicted, from trauma to stress, to chemical dependencies.

Why Luxury Treatment?

Luxury treatment can prepare you for a life of sobriety safely and more effectively than going cold turkey on your own. While the denotation of “luxury” can make it seem easy or pampered, the truth is that addiction is ~~a~~ crucial to overcome and that decades of research went into finding the best techniques and strategies to treat it. Our luxury treatment offers you the comfort of a full-service resort with the highest quality of care providers, but there is still a critical healing process underlying the whole experience. Our treatment specialists are all doctorate-level experts with proven clinical techniques in their arsenal of tools.

Rehab and Recovery

Rehab is an opportunity to focus on the mind, body, and self. The detox process is difficult on its own, made even more challenging with certain addictions like opiates, which pose serious physical harm in detox without professional oversight. One study found that as few as 25% of people going through detox managed to maintain their sobriety. While detox simply focuses on purging yourself of the drug and breaking the chemical hooks of addiction, it doesn’t do anything to prevent relapse. In an inpatient, luxury rehab, you have the unique opportunity to detox and heal while practicing the therapy and skills needed to maintain long-term sobriety.

Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation Means a New Life

Detox is a simple, mathematical process. Go sober for a certain amount of time, and you’ve detoxed. Anyone can stop using for a week or two, but few can break the need for drugs and alcohol long-term on their own because the problems in your life that made addiction possible are still unresolved after detox. Eventually, we’ll run into the same or similar circumstances that propelled us to drug use in the first place. We’ll experience heartbreak, boredom, financial troubles, trauma, and stress because we’re still the same person in the same environment. Treatment means changing ourselves to be stronger for the world we have to embrace, or changing the environment that makes us vulnerable.

Addiction takes away something from everyone. Some lose their health, their young and adventurous years, others lose their finances, their family and friends. Drug and alcohol rehabilitation focuses on restoring the lost aspects of your life, to help you live a full and healthy lifestyle, breaking your reliance on drugs and alcohol by empowering you. You will always end up facing challenges in life, but after therapy and rehab, you’ll have a new way to handle those challenges. You will be able to foster a new mindset and adapt to the challenges instead of coping with drugs and alcohol.

If you’re ready to start the recovery journey and want the highest quality of luxury care available, we recommend you call us at (888) 977-3402 to learn more about the process of detox and rehab.

What’s your poison?

Chemical dependence is when your brain and body don’t feel “well,” without certain chemicals in your system. Addiction is when these chemical dependencies begin to have negative consequences on your life, from injuries and blacking out, to strains on finances, family, work, or other aspects of your life. Many develop addictions to a variety of substances, and simply don’t recognize it until it’s pervasive through their daily life.

Polysubstance Dependency – Our Own Mood Cocktails

Many of us rely on a cocktail of substances, products, and manufactured experiences to maintain a sense of well-being. It’s become a simple ritual that snuck its way into becoming our daily life: a morning coffee, a few cigarettes timed throughout the day, alcohol, marijuana, and TV throughout the evening, and an occasional Amazon shopping spree to cope without anxiety or stress. We hardly seek out new and meaningful experiences, but rather rely on simple, easy, repetitive comforts. We are no longer in pursuit of the great exploration of life, but rather obsessed with using substances to keep ourselves feeling “content” and “normal.” Through this lifestyle, polysubstance addictions can become a habit without us even noticing.

Detecting a Polysubstance Addiction

Polysubstance addiction can be tricky to diagnose, and challenging to overcome. Most people are aware that using illicit drugs like heroin can be dangerous, but they might not realize that regularly smoking a joint “to fall asleep” can be another sign of addiction and dependence. Likewise, they may realize that they need help after a DUI with alcohol, but don’t consider that their drinking and nicotine addiction may be rooted in the same internal causes and conflicts. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), depression, and other illnesses are often tied with polysubstance addictions because addiction is a coping mechanism for other negative life factors. Healing through these addictions often means diagnosing the underlying trauma and buildings the skills and network you need to cope.

Risks of Addiction to Multiple Substances

Because polysubstance addiction often deals with drugs with similar side-effects, it can be a particularly dangerous situation. A common means of accidental overdose happens when two depressant or “downer” drugs, or two stimulants are combined. Depressants can lower blood pressure, breathing, and other body functions, leading to death by suffocation or heart failure. Combining depressants can exponentially increase this risk, especially with street drugs where the quantity of active ingredients isn’t clearly labeled. Likewise, double-doses of stimulants have the opposite effect, increasing the risk of high blood pressure, stroke, and heart attack. Treating these addictions means understanding the risks and side-effects of these drugs, and being able to counter the withdrawal symptoms that come with detox.

Trained facilities like our San Diego rehab and detox can provide proven medication, therapy, and guidance to ease the detox symptoms and prepare you to resist cravings and avoid relapse. Relapse is a pivotal concern in the recovery of polysubstance abuse. Cutting down on a substance without learning techniques to maintain that sobriety has a low rate of success. However, detoxing flushes the chemical dependencies out of your body, and with it, the tolerances. Someone using a strong opiate at a full dose for years, and suddenly going sober, can risk overdose if they relapse because their body is no longer prepared for such a heavy dose of the chemical. This is a vital reason why we always recommend professional detox and rehab, to help monitor your health, teach you coping techniques, and warn you about the expectations of a life free from addiction. If you or someone you know is seeking a sober life, please call us directly at (619) 639-7325.

Addiction recovery centers are learning a lot about the bonds we build from astronauts. Addiction care is only partly drug and alcohol detox and recovery. Aftercare is preparing residents for a life without the comforts and oversight of a recovery care home. As it turns out, one of the most important factors of long term health is building and creating bonds. According to a recent study from the National Institute of Health, astronauts returning from space experience a greater connection to humanity, and a desire for “the greater good.” These feelings of unity and a desire for a positive common goal are some of the same themes recovery plans explore through social bonding and group therapy.

Social Addiction and Detox

Many of us realize we are entrapped by an addiction years after it’s taken hold, making the journey back to recovery more difficult. We often build bonds with groups that can evoke the worst aspects of addiction within us and exacerbate our illness. A study in the National Library of Medicine found that social media users who discussed drug use frequently are surrounded by or included in groups that also reinforce negative behavior in their own private conversations.

Sometimes, the most important step in recovery is taking one step back to survey these bonds with the distance of an astronaut. Ignore the tiny, microscopic surface problems and stressors that suck out our daily energy. Instead, observe how larger systems in our lives interact: how time spent with friends, family, and our occupations motivate us towards our goals, or distract us from who we want to be.

Changing your social environment doesn’t mean ignoring or losing friends and family bonds we created. It means understanding your goals, your plans for recovery and long-term health. It means strengthening your social connection to those who encourage your success.

Either by meeting new people, or simply understanding those in our lives better, we can see how our bonds with the people around us can influence our health. Do your interactions with friends motivate you towards your ambitions, or do they distract you with drugs and alcohol? Our SMART recovery plan helps you form new and motivating bonds, and unifies your goals with your family and friends.

Why AToN Center focuses on Group Connections.

Social bonds are an essential part of health. Because of this, group therapy is an indispensible tool for long term aftercare. Many patients develop lifelong connections with friends through groups in rehab, which empowers them to live a healthy, drug and alcohol free life. A study in National Institute of Health found that peer support groups reduced substance use and cravings, and improved the effectiveness of treatment. Research even suggests that strong social connections through challenging times can reduce aging and genetic disorders by preserving our DNA telomeres (the caps that “hold” chromosomes together). Simply put, connections with others not only improve our emotional and mental health, it preserves our physical health.

Group therapies and social bonding programs have been part of rehabs since their inception, but our SMART program puts a heavy focus on group education and continued learning, to give you the tools and resolve to own your recovery. Most importantly, we provide you an opportunity to step back, see things from afar, and plan a long and healthy life here on Earth, with family and friends, new and old.

Clinical Team – AToN’s Clinical Team includes six full time Licensed Clinical Psychologists and four full time Certified Chemical Dependency Counselors. Some Clinical Team members have been at AToN for over 5 years.

Individualized Treatment – Residents receive daily individual sessions, Monday through Friday. The AToN Clinical Team meets daily to discuss each resident and their treatment plan. Groups are small, no larger than 7 residents! There is NO getting lost in the shuffle at AToN! Residents participate in at least 20 hours of treatment a week.

Non 12 Step AND 12 Step – AToN Center encourages residents to design the community support program that works for them. We support our resident’s efforts to attend both Non 12 Step modalities and 12 Step meetings.

Curriculum – The AToN Clinical Team is continually redesigning our curriculum based on the most recent evidence based research. Specific evidence based modalities utilized are: Motivational Interviewing, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Relapse Prevention Skill Building and Assertiveness Training. Based on clinical need, residents may also attend peripheral biofeedback training and/or 90 minute EMDR sessions.

Family Contact – Ninety percent of our residents choose to participate in at least one family session.

Discharge Planning – AToN Clinical Team coordinates closely with sober livings, PHP/IOP programs and outpatient providers to create a solid and structured discharge plan.

Exposure Sessions – AToN takes residents on 2 supervised exposure outings a week. Residents may also attend individual exposure sessions with clinicians as needed.

Electronics – AToN Center allows electronics (including cell phones, tablets and laptops) for the entirety of the treatment episode. The Clinical Team monitors use closely and views outside triggers and distractions as valuable treatment opportunities.

Aftercare – Residents who complete treatment at AToN receive weekly phone calls and are invited to attend weekly Aftercare meetings. Additionally, AToN holds quarterly Alumni events.

Outcomes – AToN has not been shy about revealing our outcomes! AToN conducted a literature review to understand baseline relapse rates of individuals receiving substance abuse treatment as broken down by timeframe from last use.  Our sobriety rates exceed that of the National Baseline, which is to say, that we know that our treatment is more effective than the average treatment program.

In a one year long research study conducted at AToN, residents were assessed during the first three days of treatment and on their last day of treatment on the following domains: Distress Tolerance, Abstinence Self Efficacy and Coping Responses. Residents improved in all domains! Distress tolerance improved at 32 percent! Abstinence Self – Efficacy increased in average score from admission to discharge. Coping Responses increased from average ranges to somewhat above average ranges. All increases were found to be statistically significant

Ongoing outcome analysis post AToN has demonstrated that our Alumni have improved quality of life after discharge in multiple domains: physical health, emotional health, sober support and others!

For details and ongoing updates on relapse rates and other outcomes visit this page.

Liver disease from alcohol ingestion can develop when a certain threshold is reached. When someone drinks on a daily basis for 10–12 years with amounts that exceed 40-80 g of alcohol a day for males and of 20–40 g of alcohol a day for females most will have reached the recognized threshold. This, however, does not mean that everyone will develop liver disease. In fact, only 10–35% of heavy, drinkers will develop alcoholic hepatitis and only 8–20% will develop cirrhosis. The risk of serious liver disease increases with the added presence of a Hepatitis C infection.

There are two forms of fatty liver disease, one is alcohol-related (ALD) and the other is non-alcoholic related liver disease (NAFLD). ALD and NAFLD have similar issues that range from simple hepatic steatosis to steatohepatitis, liver cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma. Most people who drink excessive amounts of alcohol or eat excessively will develop a simple hepatic steatosis and a small percentage of individuals will develop a progressive liver disease. ALD and NAFLD have the potential to cause additional, life-threatening health issues. For ALD patients this will include arteriosclerosis (20%), liver cirrhosis (17%), unknown causes (16%), and extrahepatic cancers (14%) in ALD patients. The main causes of death in NAFLD patients were arteriosclerosis (38%), unknown causes (19%), extrahepatic cancers (17%), and infections (8%).

Treatment

The gold standard for treatment of ALD is abstinence, nutritional therapy, medication therapy including steroids in patients with moderate to severe alcoholic hepatitis.

Naltrexone and Acamprosate/Campral have been helpful in reducing the cravings for alcohol. Naltrexone is an opioid receptor antagonist that blocks the effects of alcohol. It may be prescribed to patients who are struggling to abstain from alcohol. Campral is often used as an alternative if the patient can’t tolerate Naltrexone.

Disulfiram/Antabuse, creates a negative reaction, similar to a hangover, when alcohol is consumed. Patients can become violently sick if they drink while taking Disulfiram.

Topiramate/Topamax) aids patients by decreasing both craving and withdrawal symptoms.

Baclofen has a low liver metabolism rate so it passes through the body unchanged. It can be useful in controlling craving and encourages abstinence in patients using alcohol. There have been no reported cases or adverse effect associated with Baclofen, therefore it may be useful for patients with liver cirrhosis.

Many patients with ALD and cirrhosis suffer from severe malnutrition and other complications including infections, encephalopathy, ascites, and variceal bleeding, which have been associated with protein-calorie malnutrition (PCM). Deficiencies of folate, vitamin B6, vitamin A and thiamine are often seen. Deficiencies of some minerals or elements, such as selenium, magnesium, zinc, and others can also be lacking and will need to be replaced.

The role of steroids in patients with moderate to severe alcoholic hepatitis is gaining increasing acceptance. Glucocorticoids have been in use for decades for the treatment of liver disease and alcoholic hepatitis, but the research study is still being hotly debated. The primary reason for using steroids is to reduce the inflammatory pathways in alcoholic hepatitis.

Organ transplants can be a life-saving measure for people with ALD, but it is still very controversial in the medical field. It is believed that six-months of abstinence are needed before having a liver transplant. This does not work well for patients who have severe hepatitis or for patients who won’t survive six months. This leaves the medical field in a quandary because the first rule of medicine is do no harm. A liver transplant procedure can save lives, but it does not treat alcoholism or potential relapses. There are many stages to relapse, which can take the form of occasional slips or harmful drinking. In addition to evaluation pre- and post-transplant, it has been determined that counseling and a treatment program may minimize the relapse of alcoholism after liver transplant

Inpatient Programs

Patients in recovery often need treatment in an inpatient program and therapy should include groups and individual counseling. Patients that are experiencing severe symptoms of withdrawal, including delirium tremens associated with alcohol withdrawal need to be monitored closely until they are more stable. All symptoms of detoxification need to be monitored by an RN who will assist the patient going through withdrawal. The nurses are also there to provide care for chronic medical conditions, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease, should they arise.

Psychologist and clinicians can also help monitor for withdrawal symptoms, as well as attend to the emotional and psychological problem. Psychological counseling helps patients talk about their feelings and why they started using substances in the first place. Therapy can help the patient deal with feelings of shame, grief, or depression. Cognitive-behavioral therapy is often used in the inpatient setting. It can make the patients see how their thoughts can affect their behavior. If patients can recognize how their thoughts contribute to their behaviors, they may be able to change their dysfunctional habits of turning to alcohol when feeling overwhelmed.

Group therapy with family members is a very important part of the healing process, and it is usually facilitated by a psychologist. Family therapy allows patients and family members to get together to talk about addiction and how it has impacted their lives.

Outpatient Program

Outpatient treatment usually takes place within the community under the supervision of trained therapist who specializes in alcohol addiction. Group therapy may be provided as part of an outpatient program, and it is a chance to meet and talk with other people who are also struggling with alcohol.

Finally, Alcoholics Anonymous may be an option for some patients. If the person is drinking because of loneliness or isolation, a group such as AA can also provide a social outlet for people who are experiencing their own struggles with addiction. As do other self-help groups such as Refuge Recovery or SMART.

References

Toshikuni, N., et al. (2014). Clinical differences between alcoholic liver disease and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. World J Gastroenterol. 2014 Jul 14;20(26):8393-8406

Toshikuni, N., Tsutsumi, M., & Arisawa, T. (2014). Clinical differences between alcoholic liver disease and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. World Journal of Gastroenterology : WJG, 20(26), 8393–8406. Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4093692/

Onishi, Y., et al. (2017). Risk of alcohol use relapse after liver transplantation for alcoholic liver disease. World Journal of Gastroenterology, 23(5), 869–875. Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5296203/

Johnina Noar, CADC-II

AToN has been on the forefront of research in resident outcomes from it’s inception.  I was hired in 2011 with a major goal of evaluating AToN’s success in a number of areas.  For specific studies completed, please go to: AToN Center Research Outcomes.

However, there are two major pitfalls in AToN completing our own research.  First, many individuals do not trust a facility that conducts their own research as there is an obvious incentive to having positive results!  Second, how does AToN compare with other treatment facilities if we aren’t measuring the same variables?  To bridge this gap, AToN has partnered with Vista Research Group who assesses our resident’s outcomes and assists AToN with identifying our programmatic strengths and weaknesses for our continued improvement.  AToN has just received our Treatment Effectiveness Report encompassing September 2017 through mid June of 2018.  A series of blogs will be dedicated to these results.

One area that was studied was Resident Satisfaction.  Resident Satisfaction is based on a number of variables – anywhere from the comfort and cleanliness of a facility, to obtaining treatment goals!  The benchmark responses of a total of 9,848 patient reports from other facilities conducting program evaluations with Vista Research Group indicate that 73% of residents are Very Satisfied with their treatment.  In comparison, 90% of our residents are Very Satisfied with our treatment!

Our Resident Satisfaction is 17% HIGHER than other treatment centers.  Eight percent of our residents are “Somewhat Satisfied,” while 1% reported feeling “Neutral” about their treatment and 1% reported feeling “Somewhat Unsatisfied” with their treatment at AToN Center.  These results are highly encouraging for our staff, as they demonstrate that AToN is succeeding (and surpassing other treatment centers) in providing exceptional quality of care.

Stay tuned for other results!