Amber Hollingsworth explains the differences between three types of addiction treatment: free (usually nonprofit, religious, or government-funded programs), public/state-run programs, and private treatment (large corporate or smaller private centers). She lists pros and cons for each: free programs are low-cost but often have strict rules and long wait lists and may suit people who are highly motivated or homeless; public programs are clinically licensed and may accept insurance or sliding scales but can contain many court-mandated clients which affects group culture; private programs can accept private insurance or be out‑of‑pocket, often provide more tailored services but may be limited by insurers' coverage rules. Key point: whoever funds the treatment (charity, government, insurer, or client) influences treatment decisions. The video concludes by directing viewers to a downloadable guide about levels of care, costs, and insurance.
Chapters
In this video, I'm going to help you understand the difference in three types of addiction treatment programs. Private addiction treatment, public addiction treatment, and even free addiction treatment programs. Understand that your options is the first step toward recovery. Because if you choose wrong, it can not only waste thousands and thousands of dollars, but years of heartache. And you really don't know how many chances you're going to get to solve this problem. Let's start by talking about free addiction treatment. All over the country and probably all over the world, there are free addiction treatment programs. They're ran usually by non profit agencies. Most of the time they're religious ran or government funded addiction treatment programs that are free. And those programs can be residential, where you actually live, at the treatment center, or even outpatient. And this sound. So you might be thinking, well, gosh, if you can get your treatment for free, why in the world would you pay for it? Or why would you go somewhere else? And the answer to that is it's not the best option for everyone. Many times these free addiction treatment centers, it's not that they're not good, it's not that they don't work, but there's a, there's always pros and cons. Of course the pros of free addiction treatment would be, it's free, that's a huge pro. But the cons are many times these places are ran by religious organizations, which is great. And they help people get into recovery and they help them connect to their higher power. And all of that's wonderful. And, and that works for many, many people. But usually these places are pretty strict with the rules. They usually have some pretty long waiting list. And if you're dealing with a person, especially if it's a young person who just isn't sure about this whole religion thing, it's not always the best fit. Many times these programs take people who really, really, really have no other options. Sometimes they help provide treatment for people who are homeless who have really hit that rock bottom. And their willingness is way up there. If you're dealing with a person whose willingness might not be 100%, which is oftentimes the case when people first go into addiction treatment, then these free programs are not always the best because they're free. They have these waiting lists. And sometimes if you or your loved ones ready to go to treatment, like today, you, you need to take action on that today because you're going to lose your time span where that's an option if you don't. But these places have waiting lists, so you may have to Call every day and say, hey, is there a bed? Hey, is there a bed? And usually if you've got to wait any length of time between when someone says, I'm willing to go and when someone actually goes, chances are you're going to lose that window. And by the time there's a bed, they're going to have changed their mind. Secondly, they're super strict in the way they feel about it, and rightfully so, is, hey, if you don't want the help, if you're going to be argumentative and difficult, then you know what? You just come back when you're willing, because we got 10 other people on the waiting list, and I can definitely understand that. So you got to think it's the right person in the right situation. That really works well for these free addiction treatment programs. It's not really that the program isn't good. It's just that it takes a specific person and situation to be really successful there. The second kind of addiction treatment that I want to talk about in this video is public addiction treatment programs. So in almost every city, or I guess every city of any size, usually has an addiction treatment program ran by the state or the local drug and alcohol abuse commission. Now, these are good programs. They have to have licensed, qualified staff. They have to use methods which are clinically proven. So in general, these are great programs. And usually they'll accept insurance, and sometimes they'll do like a sliding scale and work with people. So they're not free, but they're not completely outrageous either. They're sort of in the middle. So those would be the pros of going into a program like this. The cons of a public addiction treatment program is that a lot of times, if someone gets mandated a treatment, this is where they'll go. Like, for they got a DUI or a possession charge or some other kind of criminal charge. And not that that makes those people bad, because plenty, plenty of the clients that I see have charges like that. But what it does mean is when someone comes in, when the majority of clients come into treatment under force, then the culture isn't always the best, because most addiction treatment is done in group environments and in recovery communities. If the majority of the people that are in those communities are highly resistant, are just trying to sort of check a box or just trying to get out of trouble, then the culture of that group might not be the healthiest. So you've got to be careful with that, Especially if you're dealing with a young person who needs addiction treatment. You've got to Be careful because you could be throwing them into the lion's den. The last kind of addiction treatment I want to talk about is private addiction treatment. So private can mean like a smaller one addiction treatment center, maybe privately owned. And it could also mean a large private corporation that owns lots and lots of addiction treatment centers. So what it means is it's not government owned, it's not government paid for or sponsored. It is not religious sponsored, but it's sponsored by either a person, individual person, a small group of people, or a large corporation, but that's not tied to the government in any kind of way. Oftentimes if you go into one of these large, one of these addiction treatment centers that are owned by the larger corporation, many times they own a bunch of them in the United States. They'll own them usually all over the country. Most of the time those you can get into using your insurance, private insurance. If you have private insurance, which is kind of nice because that makes it less expensive. But because so many of these places treat people with. Treat people using their insurance plans, then they have to abide by those insurance rules and regulations about who gets treated under what conditions and for how long. Now I've got a whole video where I explain insurance and rehab and how that works and do they pay or not pay and how does that, you know, how do they pay, all that kind of stuff. But essentially what I want you to know for this, for this video is just that it's probably. Even though insurance might pay for that, they're probably not going to pay for the extent of what someone needs. They may not pay for it for as long as someone needs, or they may pay for certain services, but not other services. So you get pretty good care and you can get your insurance to pay for it, but oftentimes you're not going to get all of what you need under an insurance plan. And so then there are these. Then there are other sort of privately owned smaller businesses, and then there are these other smaller privately owned addiction treatment centers. Some of them don't accept insurance. And so they're considered what they call out of pocket, which basically means you pay for them. And a lot of those programs are really great. It means they're, you know, like any small business, they're smaller. They can cater to what their clients need. They can give them all the structure and support that they need. But always make sure you ask the right questions, find out what you're getting. There are pros and cons to any which way that you go about this, but I gotta Say, like most things in life, you get what you pay for. Not meaning that there's anything wrong with any of the types of treatment. But treatment and staffing and structure and drug testing and 247 staff cost money. And that money's got to come from somewhere. Is it coming from the government? Is it coming from private donations? Is it coming from your insurance company? Or are you paying it out of pocket? There's really no such thing, I guess, as free addiction treatment. It's about who's funding the treatment. And whoever's funding the treatment gets to make the treatment decisions. That's the key thing here. Do you want the government making the treatment decisions? Do you want a charity making the treatment decisions? Do you want your insurance company or do you want to make those decisions? That's the difference. They're public, private or free. Addiction treatment options for more information to understand all the different levels of care and how to know when you need what, make sure and download our free addiction treatment options guide. You can click the link I've got it in the description below. You can find that and download it right now and it'll help you to understand all the various options and what applies to who and how do you access them. And I've even got in there how much most of that cost and whether or not insurance will pay for it. That way you're armed with all the right information. You don't lose tons of money or precious time. You can get help for yourself or for the loved one. When that moment's right, you're sitting on ready and you've got it all figured out and you're ready to go. For tons more information on all things addiction and recovery and lots of free expert advice. Make sure and subscribe and hit the bell so you don't miss a thing.
