Lindsay Lohan's Legal Troubles Remind Delray Recovery Center of the Value of …
At Delray Recovery Center we have seen countless numbers of patients try and fail in the rehab process. We now institute a Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy or REBT approach to helping address the true roots of addiction, and work on those problems.
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Addiction treatment center opens in Bridgeport
Cambio Life Recovery Center opened its doors with a ribbon-cutting Nov. 30. The private, 16-bed inpatient and outpatient addiction treatment facility occupies space in the Medical Office Building attached to North Texas Community Hospital. Its …
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Straight Street opens addiction recovery center on West Main Street
An addiction recovery program has found a home in downtown Ionia and is turning people's lives around. The community is invited to come and take a look at Straight Street Recovery Center's new facility at an open house Friday beginning at 6:30 p.m. …
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New Missoula addiction treatment center to open in April
The center is a project of the Western Montana Mental Health Center, and housing and development director Patty Kent said the campaign will help bring in part of the remaining $ 300,000. The Mental Health Center already has raised $ 3 million so far.
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Addiction treatment center opens in Bridgeport
Cambio Life Recovery Center opened its doors with a ribbon-cutting Nov. 30. The private, 16-bed inpatient and outpatient addiction treatment facility occupies space in the Medical Office Building attached to North Texas Community Hospital. Its …
Read more on Wise County Messenger

Straight Street opens addiction recovery center on West Main Street
An addiction recovery program has found a home in downtown Ionia and is turning people's lives around. The community is invited to come and take a look at Straight Street Recovery Center's new facility at an open house Friday beginning at 6:30 p.m. …
Read more on Sentinel-Standard

Epidemic of Painkiller Addiction Strikes Newborns
Babies born addicted to painkillers have a range of symptoms — they continuously cry, vomit and jerk their limbs; many have severe diarrhea and cannot sleep soundly. And because the problem is a relatively new one, most neonatal treatment centers have …
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St. Jude's Hero From Brookfield Exceeds Goal Before Disney Marathon
“I read about the treatment for leukemia,” she said. “She knows things about pain that no child should know. … Mrs. Heidorn has promised to share her experiences when she returns from Florida. Ms. Heidorn said her husband is not a particularly …
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Top Ten most viewed Richmond stories of 2012
7. Missing teen found in Henrico prostitution ring bust. A terrifying case for a Florida family came to an end in Central Virginia, with the bust of a prostitution ring. A middle school student, 13-years-old, was found 1,000 miles away from home in a …
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Question by Danyel: What type of education would I need to become an RN at a substance abuse detox facility?
I am currently going to school for pre-health with a nursing concentration, until I have the requirements to apply for nursing. I would like to be able to work as an RN in a substance abuse facility. I was wondering if anyone could give me any advise as to how to go about doing this? I do not know if I will need to specialize in a certain area in order to do so or not? If anyone could help me out in regards to what to do education wise I would really appreciate it! Thanks!

Best answer:

Answer by MeMeMe
Hi,

First off, good for you for wanting to work in addiction treatment! I’m an addictions counselor and have been working in mental health (mostly suicide prevention) for 7 years and we certainly need more qualified RNs in the field. So I think you will have an easy time finding work once you’re finished with school.

As for your question… To become an RN, you need to go to nursing school. Although I’m sure you already know this. As for specializing in addiction treatment, I don’t believe there are any additional requirements, but it would be good if you have experience working with addicts or at least a greater knowledge of treating clients with addiction. So I would suggest trying to get an internship of some sort with a treatment center in your area. They may not let you do much while you’re in school, but you will be able to put it on your resume. You can learn a lot from observing how things work in treatment. The other suggestion I have would be to take some extra classes that focus on substance abuse. Drug addicts and alcoholics face a variety of special issues separate from the “normal” population you would be working with in a hospital. Most community colleges and some universities now offer programs where you can learn more about these issues. I don’t know where you live, but you may want to start looking for college programs titled “Addictions Counseling” or “Addictions Studies.” Classes you may want to take would be any type of pharmacology, a bloodborne pathogens/infectious disease class, and even alternative treatments to addiction classes. It could also help to take a few classes for addictions counselors like group therapy, individual therapy, or something similar. These will definitely help you in the future in terms of communicating with your clients.

The most important thing I would think an RN working in addiction should have to be educated about is prescription drugs of abuse. Normally when I do an intake on a client coming into treatment, they have been medically prescribed multiple addictive drugs that only contribute to and exacerbate their disease (addiction). Usually these include opiate painkillers, benzodiazepines, and other sedatives and tranquilizers. I had a client once who was on NINE different benzos which she had been on for years, all prescribed by doctors for things like insomnia, anxiety, and even hypothyroidism. This is so egregious and disgusting to me! They were killing her. She obviously had to be medically detoxed for risk of seizures and death from her meds. And needless to say, after being evaluated by our MD, she didn’t NEED any of the pills.

Anyway, I’m rambling. Just excited to see someone wanting to help in the field of addiction treatment. It is rare these days, it seems. But what a satisfying and rewarding job. Good luck to you!!!

What do you think? Answer below!

WITHERING HOPE

Image by freebird (bobinson|??????????)

Inevitable. This image portraits everything we had witnessed at a AIDS rehabilitation center we had visited……

And if ur still worried about something and yourself then you are a FOOL !

There is a discussion here

Sadly, this time I am not talking about rain, misty mountains or anything of that sort. Its about silence that we can hear & about love, care and support shown by a few to a group of less fortunate people.

initial discussion and planning is here

Today a group of us went to to snehadaan a PWHA ( people with hiv & aids) rehabilitation / treatment center. its a very clean, peaceful, well kept place with cheerful co-ordinators. We were welcomed by a cheerful garden & then refreshing scent of the cleaning agent they have used. We waited for a while and then spoke to co-ordinators and tried to explain why we the bangalored software engineers are here. We were not having much idea about what we are about to see or exactly whey we are there. One of the co-ordinators gave us a briefing of the work they do and opened the doors to the dormitories where the people who were spending probably their last days / hours lived – or may be there is no time its just the pain, agony, stigma and the silence which is loud enough to make a healthy man deaf.

While we walked the corridors with our guide I never looked at the people who were with me. Our companion was telling the names of diseases the inmates are infected with. I peered through a veiled window and saw a woman curled on a bed. A man was carried in a wheel chair and he is the only person who gave me sane smile. There was a dull green coloured creeper trying to make its way through a white iron grill. Unfortunately, the creeper will never find light and its desperate efforts will be stopped by the roof.

Now we are inside the refectory which is again exceptionally clean. Later we found people having lunch here and man whom I found on the wheel chair agian smiled at me. We moved on and the only object in the long hall way was a wheel chair. Light was arguing about its particle-wave dual nature with it and making magical shadows in the process. We are in the gym now. The only other place after the refectory where I could get in without the fear of getting infected with any of those diseases our companion was explaining. At some point I thought he will provide us hand gloves and masks. But after spending sometime in the premises my fear disappeard. Probably it wasn’t fear. It was a strange confusion.

Someone made a comment about the cleanliness of the place. And our companion explained how badly it was smelling last week. One of the patients had a small wound upon cleaing it became widened and started giving a foul smell. Now its healing and he is almost fine. We moved to next set of wards. Again I saw figures and our companion kept on explaining. Some of them looked very healthy and some were not. Some were infected while entertaining. Some were infected because their dear ones were entertained. For some it was bad luck. Some don’t know what happened to them. We were shown offices, doctors rooms, councelling center etc. We made a circle around the place and now we are at the end. The mortuary. Near the mortuary building there is a big cage for the love birds and they were making noises which may be songs about the security they enjoy in the cage or the freedom which their great grand fathers enjoyed and which they never will.Or may be they are just coughing.

We asked the co-ordinator about what is that we can do. At the end of visits to every similar place usually we decide to work and turn the world upside down. We were asked to meet the another co-ordinator as well. We decided to wait and we walked to the garden, walked a bit around the mortuary and then two more friends joined us. We took the late comers ourseleves and showed them the place and shared the little piece of information we have learned. After finishing with them I think I walked around the place once or twice.

We were discussing what we can do. As a friend said, what the inmates needs is love and care. The silence around the place is probably getting into everyones nerves by this time. Probably more than anything the inmates what the inmates needs is attention. We learned that children from a nearby school are visiting these people on sundays and spending time with them. The best thing may be to join the children and spend time the inmates.

Well we discussed with the co-ordinators and found out that the following items are the most needed items there:

1. A sliding food trolly / or platfrom attached to the bed which will help
patients who are not able to leave their beds to have food from their
bed itself. Now they are keeping the food plate on the bed itself.

2. few wheel chairs which are softer

3. A music system.

We took the address of a surgical appliance dealer in Bangalore, recieved the brochure of snehadaan and the co-ordinator expressed his gratitude for the visited and we shook hands and left the place after discussing for some more time

At home my lovely friend who had adoped me as her brother had prepared delicous lunch and waiting for me. I was worried whether they will ask me take bath before having lunch with them. They never said a thing and she was surprised to hear that I haven’t taken any photos from the snehadaan.

Enevitable. The encroching darkness will eliminate the light in no time. Unfortunately we can’t prevent the inevitable darkness. But we can definately slow it down. We can control. We can give them hope. We can make people aware.

I think our best take away from the visit are the following:

HIV / AIDS is no more as deadly as it was.
Lack of awareness is the biggest problem we are facing today

Can we reach out and help ? There is still hope. Can we help before that last leaf falls ?

This plant needs is a little support and it will fight its way out. But probably the inmates of that silent out of the world place will never hear anything from us, the mosambi’s we took will be over by now and all that is left is the above 3 phots and the words I have conjured up

Or can we really reachout this time ?

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Excessive alcohol intake can be fatal if not properly treated. Some think of alcohol treatment as impossible. Truth of the matter is, as any addiction it is never easy but with the best attitude and discipline it is very easy. Alcohol treatment is a journey so patience is of essence. It starts by one admitting that they have a problem with alcohol, you should not wait until it becomes uncontrollable.

There are many and effective alcohol treatment options like seeking a professional help or even going to a rehab. Believe it or not but you can also help yourself stop drinking and have control over alcohol The first and the most important thing to do is to commit to stop drinking. One should not allow denial to derail him. You might find yourself making excuses and sometimes not admitting you have the problem. This results into slower recovery. In this case keeping in mind the disadvantages of alcohol will help you to remain focused. You can consider how not drinking makes your relationship improve because you can handle problems with a sober mind. It also makes you feel good mentally. Finally it increases your productivity at work.

You need to surround yourself with people who have similar opinions and those who encourage you to stop drinking. This means you might need to avoid your drinking friends which is a worth course for the sake of your health. It also makes you a more responsible person rather than an ignorant person since alcohol gets in the way of your job performance and family duties.

The second stage of alcohol treatment and of necessity is to set goals and prepare for change. There are people who just want to cut drinking and those who want to stop completely. This depends on the severity of your alcohol intake. Abstinence is considered the safest and easiest. However if you just want to cut drinking you can decide which days you will take your drink, how many drinks you will take. If your case is to stop completely, you should know it is a gradual process which might also help to have a quit date, like 1 month, 2 months, 6 months and so on depending on your choice.

Temptations should be avoided at all cost like doing away with alcohol reminders, bar ware from home and office. Also let your friends, family members and colleagues know your intentions regarding alcohol recovery so that they accord you the support that you need. Discipline yourself from bad influences, where you limit yourself from alcohol and respecting those limits. You can talk to your doctor, join guidance counseling and peer group or even seek help from your health insurance company for encouragement and to keep you focused.

You must remember getting sober safely is also of importance. Due to the long time of alcohol intake when one stops drinking he might get mild headaches, his body parts shaking like the hands or even high blood pressure. When this happens its advisable to seek medical help.

To finally stay alcohol free you need to build a new you. This is in reference to taking good care of yourself, concentrate on eating the right food take daily exercise to help you relieve stress and promote your mental and physical well being. Develop new interests that leave you fulfilled therefore making you feel better about yourself and boost your self esteem.

A good alcohol treatment should plan for future triggers and cravings. These are major challenges and you should counter them with developing new skills to deal with stressful situations. Am mentioned earlier, discipline plays a major role in this treatment therefore saying a firm no is very important.