What Is Aftercare?
According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the term aftercare can carry different meanings in substance use disorder (SUD) treatment and recovery. SAMHSA notes that aftercare can refer to traditional outpatient (OP) treatment following a residential or intensive outpatient (IOP) program. The term aftercare can also be used to discuss a client’s participation and work in different support group programs such as 12-Step program after formal treatment is completed. However, we perceive aftercare as a continuum of care in which clients receive clinical support throughout their SUD and recovery journey.
Building a recovery plan is not a “one-size-fits-all” process. As you move through your individual recovery journey, aftercare will shift and change to match your needs in different stages of care. Through every setback, challenge, and success, the continuum of care is designed to support you in your progress toward an independent life. Aftercare aims to help and guide you as you work toward relying less and less on clinical support.
Why Is a Continuum of Care Important?
A continuum of care is not only one step on your recovery journey but a fundamental pathway to finding and building lifelong success in recovery. According to a journal article in Substance Abuse: Research and Treatment, SUD care models have traditionally been focused on stabilization and discharge. Traditional SUD treatment models support short-term recovery, but the models do little to account for co-occurring mental health conditions or chronic relapse. Clients struggling with SUD need support services that focus on building skills and goals for lifelong recovery. With an aftercare model that prioritizes a continuum of care, we can provide clients with individual support and guidance to successfully move through the necessary stages of care for long-term recovery.
Aftercare at Grace Recovery TX and Emerge Recovery TX
Our work at both Grace Recovery TX and Emerge Recovery TX is dedicated to the importance of aftercare as a support network for long-term recovery. We have seen firsthand how investing in the process of caring for the whole person in body, mind, and spirit can lead to more successful long-term outcomes for the women we work with every day.
The proven continuum of care follows these basic steps:
- Detox for five to ten days
- Work through an inpatient residential treatment program for 30 to 90 days
- Go through a partial hospitalization program (PHP) for 30 days
- Participate in an intensive outpatient program (IOP) for 60 days
- Receive outpatient program (OP) services for up to six months
Through our aftercare services, you will see a gradual dissipation of clinical support as you integrate back into your family and a new independent life. Even as you graduate from receiving support services at Grace Recovery and our sister company, Emerge Recovery, we will teach you how to live autonomously.
Full Continuum of Care for Moms:
- Normally stays with us for three months
- Will split her time between Grace housing and her home
- Processes her homelife experiences with us
- Slowly, over time, transitions to spending more days at home
- Up to three months of post-graduation coaching after she transitions out of Grace Recovery
To learn more about our approach to aftercare, visit our Aftercare page.
Guidance in Recovery
Recovery is a gradual process, and as SAMHSA notes, there are four major dimensions to supporting life in long-term recovery.
4 Dimensions of Recovery:
- Health
- Home
- Purpose
- Community
The four dimensions for lifelong recovery support our belief in caring for the whole person. As you engage with your support team, you build the emotional intelligence necessary to care for your body, mind, and spirit. With emotional intelligence, you can find more meaning and joy in yourself and the community of love and support you create with other women, your family, and your friends.
Every aspect of our work at Grace Recovery TX and Emerge Recovery TX is designed to guide you toward long-term recovery.
At Grace Recovery TX, you will work with your:
- Case manager
- Recovery coach
- Academic and career advisors
- Clinician
- House managers
- Fellow house members
The goals you set and the skills you build at Grace Recovery TX will create and support emotional intelligence. Every day in small and big ways, you are taking steps toward building a life you are thrilled about. We will walk next to you and guide you, but you will make the choices to create a life of purpose for yourself.
To learn more about our approach to recovery, visit our Recovery Coach page.
Community in Long-Term Recovery
An important aspect of long-term recovery is community. At Grace Recovery TX, you form long-term bonds with your fellow women in recovery. Building long-term bonds allows you to form new ways of thinking about yourself and other women. As you learn to love yourself and build self-esteem and resilience, you start to build bridges instead of walls.
Community of Women:
- You learn to be a friend to your fellow women.
- You become a woman of your word.
- An objective is to let go of old ideas that position other women as enemies and competition.
- Women build strong foundational relationships in recovery.
- Alumni continue to support each other long after their time at Grace and Emerge.
Our aftercare services are made for women, by women, to empower each other to lead principled and fulfilling lives. Long-term recovery means finding purpose in yourself and community with your peers. In lifelong recovery, you create a life not based on the assumptions and expectations of others, but a life you are excited to live for yourself.
Our approach to aftercare can support you through every stage of treatment as you work toward lifelong recovery. At Grace Recovery TX in Austin, Texas, women support one another and help you build a life you are excited about in long-term recovery. Call us at (737) 237-9663 to learn more.