Individuals with drug addiction can receive treatment from a variety of levels. These levels may range from residential treatment to outpatient care.
Outpatient treatment programs involve attending weekly sessions at a nonresidential addiction treatment facility or a practitioner’s office. These levels don’t require patients to live on-site and can work around their current schedules.
Level 1
Level 1 outpatient treatment, or intensive outpatient treatment, allows patients to attend appointments during the day, in the evenings or on weekends, depending on their needs. This is ideal for people with busy schedules or family or work obligations.
Those who require higher levels of care may benefit from level 2.5 partial hospitalization. This treatment program operates on a school or work-like schedule and offers more supervision and medical resources than general outpatient treatment programs.
Click here to discover both residential treatment facilities. Inpatient or residential treatment requires individuals to live at a facility full-time for 30-60 days. Inpatient treatment provides access to medical and mental health professionals and can help with societal reintegration. Often, those who enter inpatient treatment have significant medical or psychiatric issues that cannot be treated with outpatient treatment.
Level 2
Level 2 of care is similar to inpatient care, but clients reside in their homes instead of living on-site or at a treatment facility. This level of care offers a more condensed program that includes group counseling sessions and cognitive therapy to help people confront their addiction.
During this time, patients live at home and maintain their daily routines while attending weekly meetings with physicians and treatment professionals. Generally, these programs last nine hours a week or less and are ideal for people who need to continue work, school or other obligations. They’re also closely monitored for signs that they need more care. This is an important step in the continuum to recovery. It helps reduce the risk of relapse by removing temptations and familiar triggers from their lives.
Level 3
Level 3 offers medium-intensity clinical services and focuses on helping individuals overcome cognitive impairments that often occur in conjunction with addiction. Examples include Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome and traumatic brain injury. This level also allows clients to socialize and reintegration into society.
Individuals at this level can continue their daily routine at home while meeting with physicians and treatment professionals for evaluation, care and follow-up for their substance use disorder. They may also access group counseling sessions and cognitive therapy to help confront their disorder.
Unlike the other levels, outpatient treatments have shorter appointments, allowing people to maintain their work or school schedules. They can also opt for intensive outpatient programs, which offer a more condensed program with up to six hours of daily treatment.
Level 4
Level 4 treatment is the highest level of care and involves medical evaluations and daily meetings with physicians. During this time, patients learn to recognize addiction triggers and how to avoid substance use when possible.
This level of treatment is based on the individual’s needs and may involve a combination of levels 2, 3 and 4. It also includes specialized care for people with co-occurring mental health conditions.
This level of outpatient treatment typically involves fewer than nine hours of therapy per week for adults and six hours for adolescents. It occurs in a nonresidential treatment center or at a practitioner’s office and is administered by addiction professionals. The schedule for this level of treatment is flexible and can mesh with a client’s work, school and family life.
Level 5
This level of treatment provides 24-hour professional evaluation, care and addiction treatment. It is for people with serious physical or emotional problems related to substance or alcohol use, those at high risk for withdrawal or those with co-occurring conditions.
This level aims to prevent relapse by helping people overcome addictive behaviors and mental health issues. This is typically done through a residential treatment program or residential and outpatient services. Those requiring more frequent, in-person meetings can undergo level 2.5 partial hospitalization. This treatment type is similar to IOP but has a school or work-like schedule so that it can fit into busy lifestyles. Those who do not have time for these programs can still receive face-to-face appointments as an outpatient.
