The Importance of Individualized Treatment
In recent years, the importance of individualized treatment and care has been emphasized, not only in treating substance use disorders and addiction but in terms of healthcare in general. Fortunately, medical professionals have finally come to the understanding that one path of treatment does not fit all patients.
Whether it’s a medical treatment for a physical ailment or mental illness like addiction or substance use disorder, the most successful implementation of a treatment method is specific to the individual’s needs. Behavioral Sciences tells us that the key to individualized treatment is assessment, and “monitoring a broad spectrum of biopsychological health enables providers to address diverse genome-specific changes that might trigger withdrawal from treatment or recovery relapse in time to prevent that from occurring.”
Individualized Treatment for Addiction Recovery
Substance use disorder professionals have spent years trying to shift from an acute care model to a chronic care model of addiction that focuses on recovery, not just abstinence. While medical professionals, rehabilitation centers, and treatment facilities may preach about the importance of individualized treatment, they don’t always follow through.
At the Lakehouse Recovery Center, we don’t just preach the importance of individualized treatment; we implement it — and we’ve seen how it can successfully help patients maintain their recovery. We understand that each person has different needs in recovery and are here to help you find a treatment plan that works.
Understanding Individualized Treatment
The paper linked above claims that by monitoring patient routine, professionals can better help to re-intervene before a lapse or relapse. The issue facilities often run into is the fact that monitoring can be expensive, and the framework used to monitor patients often neglects to discern biological, psychological, and social factors that threaten recovery.
Some ways in which we utilize individualized treatment here at Lakehouse Recovery include:
- Making use of motivational interviewing
- Respecting clients personal beliefs and ensuring treatment is within their value system
- Not creating expectations based on judgment
- Helping patients to feel an overall sense of empowerment in their recovery
Our individualized care plans will typically consist of 1-2 therapy sessions a week. Each individual gets case management and a counselor to help you work on your personal goals weekly. Therapy sessions are more clinically driven, whereas sessions with a case manager focus on not only personal calls but education and relapse prevention. Family counseling is also offered to anyone interested.
Individualized Treatment and Chronic Care Medicine
According to Behavioral Sciences, there has been a paradigm shift among healthcare professionals, “eager to exploit a model of individualized care — precision medicine — which enables individualized treatments tailored to the specific genetic make-up of each patient.” The concept of this paradigm shift is that future interventions will consider a patient’s biological and psychological factors to predict treatment outcomes.
After years of stigmatization, addiction is finally being seen and recognized as a chronic medical illness. As a chronic illness, addiction has many factors in comparison with other chronic diseases. According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse, this includes:
- Heritability and likelihood of family members developing illness
- Influence of environmental factors on the illness
- Response to treatment and long-term lifestyle changes
While chronic illnesses can be difficult to recover from in general long-term, SUD-specific research has shown that a sustainable “abstinence-oriented” recovery can take three to five years to maintain. In terms of chronic care treatment, this would require extensive support monitoring as well as relapse intervention.
Limited access to monitoring has rendered it more difficult for this long-term care to be implemented into treatment facilities. This has been due to many variables, including budgets, lack of medical professionals, and resources in general.
Individualized Treatment and Addiction
The psychosocial model of addiction treatment has two mains goals:
- Avoid social and environmental factors present in their life during addiction
- Develop appropriate social role engagement
These findings at the time were based on behavioral science and various research trials that had been conducted for many years. Despite the logic behind the model, therapeutic outcomes were undesirable and there still existed a constant level of relapse occurring among patients.
Taking biology into consideration when developing treatment models, a biopsychosocial model, was due in part to the medical community’s better understanding of genetics and neuroscience. The Koob and Le Mal model integrated “modern genomics and neuroscience to help the addiction field better understand the physiological dynamics that sustain craving and maladaptive behaviors for years following treatment, and how biological factors influence psychological and social behaviors.”
Here at the Lakehouse Recovery Center, we emphasize the importance of individualized treatment when it comes to addiction recovery. Over the years, medical models have developed and evolved to incorporate individualized treatment for an array of medical reasons. While individualized treatment in terms of long-term chronic illnesses can be challenging, it’s absolutely possible. It’s a priority for us to offer that to you, and our qualified professionals want nothing more than to aid you in your path to recovery. Reach out to us so that we can show you how we prioritize individual treatment for each of our patients. To learn more about Lakehouse Recovery Center, what we can offer, and how we can help, call us at (877) 762-3707 today. Recovery should be about taking back control of your life, which means you should have control and power in your own recovery process. Don’t wait any longer to take back that control.