Drug Rehabilitation Statistics

When an addict, or his or her family, is considering drug rehabilitation treatment, it is important to uncover just how effective that facility has been in helping people overcome their addictions in the past.  One way to accomplish this is to find out their success rates. These will differ from facility to facility, with the better ones having the highest rates. Success is measured in a number of ways and may include average length of stay, percentage of known relapses (including how long after treatment). Some rehab facilities will keep these drug rehabilitation statistics and others will not. Typically, the drug rehabilitation programs that are most proud of this information will, because high success rates can be a very strong selling point.

When an addict has reached a point in his or her life when they are ready to get help, they may just want treatment and are willing to accept help seemingly from anywhere or anyone. They might not be thinking about success rates or how long they might have to stay in a facility. Though this may not be the initial focus, this information is very important and may be indicator of whether or not a rehab facility can actually help them. Receiving poor or low quality drug rehab help can do more damage then good and will likely result in the addict using again very quickly even after treatment. Helping an addict get off drugs, even for top-rate rehab centers, is tough. A bad facility will have instances of failure and might even make matters worse.

The type of services that a particular drug abuse rehabilitation program offers will differ. However, a good number of them will provide outpatient, day and inpatient treatment. Outpatient drug rehab usually offer counseling (one-on-one or group) and various classes. Patients generally only visit the center a few hours a week. Because this type of treatment may not be incredibly intensive, a treatment facility may not keep many statistics on the success of these patients. One statistic they may keep, however, is length of stay. According to the website, www.dasis.samhsa.gov the average length of stay in an outpatient facility is about 76 days.

Inpatient drug rehab is the most intensive and involved of all the options. Here, patients stay overnight and receive treatment throughout the day. They can not leave the facility at night and are constantly monitored. People who enroll in this type of treatment are either are the very bad off or are the “fortunate” addicts who can afford this level of treatment. Most inpatient facilities require patients stay at least 30 days. However, unless the treatment is court-ordered, patients can always check them self out and leave before that. On average, a patient stays in this type of facility for a period of 53 days (source:www.dasis.samhsa.gov).

More Drug Rehab Stats: As stated above, not all drug rehabilitation clinics keep good, statistical records, particularly as it pertains to success, drop out rates and length of stay in their facilities. Therefore, any group attempting to determine how well drug rehab works overall would be hard pressed to come up with an accurate figure. They simply have to make due with what’s available.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) gleans statistical information from rehab facilities that are state certified or licensed. One recent study found that about 24% of patients drop out of treatment before completion. 24% more had to quit prior to completion because they were jailed or for other reasons. Just 44% successfully completed treatment.   No information on whether or not they continued to stay clean and for how long.