Drugged Buzzed Driving Surpasses Drunk Driving

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Drug-impaired driving is more complex than alcohol-impaired driving for many reasons:

  • Hundreds of different drugs can impair drivers.
  • Some drugs that can impair driving are illegal to use, some are legal to use under certain conditions, and some are freely available over-the-counter.
  • For many drugs the relations between a drug’s presence in the body, its effect on driving, and its effects on crash risk are complex, not understood well, and vary from driver to driver.
  • It’s more difficult for law enforcement to detect drug impairment at the roadside than alcohol impairment.
  • It’s more difficult to prosecute and convict a driver for DUID than for alcohol-impaired driving (DUI).

Drug-impaired driving is an increasingly critical issue for states and state highway safety offices. In 2015, the most recent year for which data are available, NHTSA’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) reported that drugs were present in 43% of the fatally-injured drivers with a known test result, more frequently than alcohol was present (FARS, 2016). NHTSA’s 2013–2014 roadside survey found drugs in 22% of all drivers both on weekend nights and on weekday days (Berning et al., 2015). In particular, marijuana use is increasing. … Congress identified drug-impaired driving as a priority in the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act of 2015 (https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/fastact/).

In 2015, at least one instance of 80 of these drugs was reported by states for fatally- injured drivers, together with other drugs not in the FARS list (FARS, 2016). The DRUID (Driving under the Influence of Drugs, Alcohol and Medicines) project, the extensive 19-nation European study of drugs and driving, lists 22 drugs and alcohol as the most common in European drivers (Schulze, 2012). A single drug can have different names and can take different chemical forms. For example, marijuana is the substance that’s smoked or swallowed while its principal psychoactive component is tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), or more precisely its main isomer Δ9-THC. FARS has separate codes for marijuana, THC, Δ9-THC, and Unknown Cannabinoid.

HOW FREQUENTLY ARE DRUGS PRESENT IN DRIVERS?

The best data come from fatal crashes because drivers in fatal crashes, especially fatally-injured drivers, are tested for drugs more frequently than drivers in non-fatal crashes. In 2015 nationwide, in the FARS annual report file, 57.0% of the fatally-injured drivers were tested for drugs. Of those tested, no drugs were detected in 55.4%, a drug in the FARS list was found in 34.3%, some other drug in 7.4%, and test results were unknown for 2.9%. Over one-third – 36.5% – of the identified drugs were marijuana in some form, followed by amphetamine at 9.3% (FARS, 2016).

Alcohol was present at somewhat lower levels. In the 2015 annual report file, 70.9% of the fatally-injured drivers were tested for alcohol. No alcohol was detected in 60.9% of those tested, alcohol at a positive BAC in 37.3%, and test results were unknown for 1.8%.

Fatally-injured drivers in Canada had similar drug and alcohol levels. In 2010, 34.2% were positive for drugs and 39.1% for alcohol, with marijuana present in 36.9% of the drug-positive drivers (Beirness, 2014b). In 2012, 39.2% were positive for drugs (Robertson et al., 2017).

Only 19.0% of surviving drivers were tested for drugs in 2015. They had somewhat lower drug levels: no drugs in 59.9% of those tested, a drug in the FARS list in 26.5%, some other drug in 4.8%, and unknown test results for 8.9%. For surviving drivers, 46.5% of the identified drugs were marijuana. Alcohol was tested in 28.4% of the surviving drivers in 2015. No alcohol was detected in 72.2%, alcohol at a positive BAC in 23.6%, and test results were unknown for 4.2%.

http://www.ghsa.org/resources/drugged-driving-2017

http://www.ghsa.org/sites/default/files/2017-04/GHSA_DruggedDriving2017_FINAL.pdf

Twin Town Treatment Centers is immediately accessible to all Los Angeles and Orange County residents, is accredited by The Joint Commission, and is certified by the California DHCS. All network HMO/PPO/EPO insurance plans and Medi-Cal contract with Twin Town Treatment Centers to provide drug and alcohol rehabilitation. Our phone is answered by real people. We can see people on the same day you call. (866) 594-8844

Alcoholism and Drug Addiction Treatment and Rehab at Home

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People who have become alcoholic or addicted to drugs are familiar with using temporary solutions to fix their mounting and long-lasting problems. External remedies are sought to solve internal matters. “Take a pill”, “move”, “change partners”, “quit a job”, “celebrate”, “try more exercise” “listen to someone’s inspiration”- they work for a while until you catch up to where you left off.

Families with troubled youth often want to send them out for repair. A new changed person is expected after a couple of months in a residential treatment or rehab center.

People accustomed to taking a drink, a pill, a line, a bump, a hit, a snort, a shot to make things better attempt to fix the troubles with easy solutions. Problems which keep knocking on the door are changed by changing door. “Move to another city” … that will solve the trouble for a while until you find yourself there, again.

Recovering alcoholics and addicts label moving to avoid problems, “taking a geographic”. It is avoidance of responsibility and magical thinking. The problem remains through space.

Wherever you go, you eventually find yourself… you take your problems wherever you go. Treatment and rehab should not be another “geographic” escape from the problems and the consequences of a life that has become unmanageable. Facing the wreckage, triggers, and problem behavior at home is required if a solution is to be found.

Addiction, including alcoholism is characterized by many signs and symptoms. A distinguishing symptom is when the addict or alcoholic continues their use in the face of its negative consequences. (“Crazy” is when you take the same action but expect different results.)

Recovery starts with avoiding the first drink or drug… abstaining from addictive substances one day at a time. That beginning may be inside a safe and supportive rehab or treatment center, or the beginning could be at home with the direction, instruction and support of an intensive outpatient program. The practices of recovery must be established at home in the long term… postponing may feel comfortable but may be unnecessary.

Intensive outpatient treatment provides an “at home” process of learning, understanding, becoming increasingly aware, practicing new skills, and monitoring personal ideas, feelings and behaviors. In intensive outpatient treatment, people discover at home, with loved ones and at work, with coworker a new way of acting. An openness to learn and understand new ideas, and to practice new behaviors and skills is developed naturally, where it is needed the most. An outpatient support group and professional helps find new ways of facing triggers, people, places and things which were once part of the addictive lifestyle.

New friends and acquaintances who understand and support sobriety are gained, and can be maintained over the long-term in outpatient treatment. Leaving outpatient treatment or rehab doesn’t mean losing all the supportive relationships and practices that may be fragmented when leaving a residential program.

Intensive outpatient treatment can be as or more effective than residential treatment as demonstrated by research. It is also much more affordable and accessible, especially if insurance coverage is to cover the costs of treatment.

Twin Town Treatment Centers is immediately accessible to all Los Angeles and Orange County residents, is accredited by The Joint Commission, and is certified by the California DHCS. All network HMO/PPO/EPO insurance plans and Medi-Cal contract with Twin Town Treatment Centers to provide drug and alcohol rehabilitation. Our phone is answered by real people. We can see people on the same day you call. (866) 594-8844

What Does It Take to Get Clean and Sober?

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A: Getting sober entails changing ideas, choices and behaviors. The first step toward recovery is a recognition that change is better than continuing the condition and direction you find yourself. To recognize that change is desired, you need to be open to new ideas.

Often, we defend ourselves in the face of actual or imagined challenges. If you defend your current condition and excuse away the difficulties you are encountering, you fight to remain the same. If instead you listen to other ideas and consider how they could apply to you, change may be possible.

Consider other feedback as an “invitation” to try something new rather than a demand toward which you will rebel.

Q: Does getting sober require accepting help from others?

A: If you can stop the behavior which is harming you and your loved ones and make long-lasting changes, seeking help may be secondary. If you have difficulty maintaining a new direction which produces better results for yourself and others, help is necessary.

People addicted to alcohol and drugs can sometimes cease drinking and using without help. Many times, other problematic feelings and behaviors arise because of their unassisted abstinence. Recovery can be enjoyable and rewarding if help is accepted. New supportive relationships can replace the void left by the drugs and alcohol. Cravings can be overcome by better coping and communication skills. That dreadful loneliness is replaced by connecting with others.

Q: How do I quit for good and never relapse on drugs or alcohol?

A: When making such a significant change as sobering up and engaging in a program of recovery, it is vital to take it slowly and not to overwhelm yourself. Eventually you will discover that the only thing you changed was everything. This amount of change doesn’t happen quickly and it never stops.

One Day at a Time
Take Only the Next Indicated Step
Life is Not a Race
Take it Easy
One Step at a Time

Q: Does recovery require moving into a treatment center and paying a lot of money for treatment?

A: No. When medical or behavioral risks of withdrawal or relapse require external monitoring and control, a brief inpatient stay may be recommended. Getting sober and engaging in recovery may require professional guidance and support but treatment doesn’t need to be expensive and often doesn’t require an inpatient or residential setting to provide it.

The changes made in recovery need to be made in your day to day life. If you don’t practice recovery at home with your loved ones and friends, it won’t last. Outpatient treatment can provide that guided practice while you live at home and participate in your personal activities and relationships.

Q: What are other essential ingredients toward achieving lasting recovery?

A: H.O.W.

Honesty
Openness
Willingness

Twin Town Treatment Centers is immediately accessible to all Los Angeles and Orange County residents, is accredited by The Joint Commission, and is certified by the California DHCS. All network HMO/PPO/EPO insurance plans and Medi-Cal contract with Twin Town Treatment Centers to provide drug and alcohol rehabilitation. Our phone is answered by real people. We can see people on the same day you call. (866) 594-8844

Want to Get Clean and Sober?

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A: Rather than chasing the first high, twenty years later, becoming clean and sober provides something else to do. Change is next to impossible during the time that your time is occupied with “getting-by” and making it through until the next drink or hit or toke. When your priorities start with getting that feeling back or getting rid of the feelings that you have, little room is left for other activities.

Becoming bored, miserable, discouraged or afraid with the lifestyle of the alcohol and addict, many people decide that it’s time to clean up and sober up.

Q: How long does it take to clean up and sober up?

A: The change from alcoholic/ addict to clean and sober comes “one day at a time”. Don’t rush it. Enjoy the process like the experience of early spring to summer- each day presents new growth and new changes of weather. The rain nourishes the flowers and color enters a once gray world.

Q: What is the difference between abstinence and recovery?

A: Abstinence is NOT doing something. Recovery is doing MANY things.

Practice this exercise: Don’t think of white winged horses. What did you think about? Now, instead of thinking of white winged horsed, think about what is really in front of you right now. This is the difference between abstinence and recovery.

Q: Recovery is often described as a superior status for people with drug and alcohol problems. How is it different and what does it mean?

A: People with drug and alcohol problems often get stuck in a rut that they only make deeper. That rut is full of frustration, loneliness but is creating with ease: behaviors that are known and seem safe and require no thought are recited over and over. Addiction and alcoholism is easy and requires no thought.

Recovery requires waking up to reality, as unpleasant as it may be. Recovery requires new ideas, new behaviors and the honesty, humility and willingness to learn them. Recovery is not easy.

Q: What is so special about recovery anyway?

A: Remember the coldest winter you’ve encountered. The cold gray weather keeps you indoors and you can’t do anything except keep warm. One day you notice a warm spell. The next day the snow starts to melt. Eventually green sprigs of grass appear followed by buds on the trees. Eventually the world is a colorful garden full of flowers, birds and warmth!

Recovery connects and reconnects you with people who care for you and you care for them. Recovery allows you to awaken fresh with hope for a new day, each day. Recovery gives you new adventures which you enjoy.

Recovery restores your love of life and appreciation for things outside of yourself.

Recovery allows you to want what you have.

Q: How do people gain recovery?

A: Recovery can start today. There are many routes to recovery which include talking with your therapist or doctor, calling a mutual support organization such as AA, NA central office or SMART Recovery, or calling a trusted rehab program. Avoid internet searches and instead rely upon people who have gotten recovery or professionals who have directed people successfully to recovery.

Twin Town Treatment Centers is immediately accessible to all Los Angeles and Orange County residents, is accredited by The Joint Commission, and is certified by the California DHCS. All network HMO/PPO/EPO insurance plans and Medi-Cal contract with Twin Town Treatment Centers to provide drug and alcohol rehabilitation. Our phone is answered by real people. We can see people on the same day you call. (866) 594-8844

Why Care About Less Fortunate Drunks and Addicts and their chances at recovery?

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If there’s not a buck to be made, an investment to pursue, or a luxury to indulge, why should we worry about helping less fortunate drunks and addicts anyway? Treating well-insured or wealthy addicts and alcoholics is a great business. Mark-up charges for residential treatment, create rationale why it is justified and the businessman has done his good deed for himself and his investors. Convince the family and the insurance company that the cost and level of care is necessary, you have half the battle won.

What about those poor alcoholics and addicts who only have HMO, EPO, Medicaid/ MediCal or no coverage at all? Haven’t they earned their misery in the first place? Why should we throw good money after bad trying to help them?

“Legislation being marked up Wednesday would phase out Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion, which covers 1.2 million Americans with serious mental illness and substance abuse problems, as well as scrap baseline coverage requirements. The change means certain beneficiaries would no longer get coverage for mental health and substance abuse treatments guaranteed under the Affordable Care Act.”

These sentiments emerge in the face of the largest and most deadly drug epidemic in national history. The “arrest and lock them up” war-on-drugs has proven not only ineffective, but massively more expensive than treatment. The block-grant system created a system where people died or are dying in cue, waiting for some form of help.

One hallmark of addiction is “denial”- the tendency to avoid the realization that a problem and a solution exists. Another trait is prioritizing inanimate objects (drugs/ alcohol) and feelings over taking care of loved ones and community. Yet another trademark of addiction is practicing the same behavior expecting different results.

A record number of people are now getting some form of addiction treatment so isn’t obvious that we should end such benefits? Isn’t it more important that we place dollars back in the pockets of the wealthy so that we can return to a system which served few and will increasingly serve fewer?

As a society, we are here. This is the age of personality, property and prestige. The object, the relief and the pleasure is prized over human life.

By the grace of a higher power, there exist mutual help organizations and congregations dedicated to helping those in need for no other return than continued sobriety and serenity. Unfortunately, not everyone has the capacity or willingness to access recovery through such voluntary means. Many alcoholics and addicts need professional engagement, prompting, guidance and case-management to connect with a new sober life.

Call a local non-profit, religiously-affiliated hospital and find out how they can provide detoxification and/or treatment for a Medicaid/ MediCal or indigent patient. Search the internet for a treatment program which can start treating a Medicaid/ MediCal or indigent patient tomorrow.

Next time someone pats your back or their own back for the amazing work being done to get people sober, first consider primary motives.

Everyone has family, friend or acquaintance who has personal losses due to drug and alcohol addiction. Everyone sees who are the most difficult to treat every day. What will be our next priority?

Twin Town Treatment Centers is immediately accessible to all Los Angeles and Orange County residents, is accredited by The Joint Commission, and is certified by the California DHCS. All network HMO/PPO/EPO insurance plans and Medi-Cal contract with Twin Town Treatment Centers to provide drug and alcohol rehabilitation. Our phone is answered by real people. We can see people on the same day you call. (866) 594-8844

Why Do People Want to Get Clean and Sober?

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A: Much has been said about the downside of drug and alcohol use when they no longer provide pleasure or relieve discomfort. People go to varying lengths of despair and degradation before it occurs to them that it’s time to clean up. The pain, boredom and shame encountered from an addiction needs to be accompanied by hope that becoming clean and sober will improve life. With this direction toward something better, addicts and alcoholics have nowhere to turn.

Q: Giving up your primary method of accessing pleasure, avoiding discomfort and pain, and coping with life’s difficulties must be terrifying. What helps people overcome that fear?

A: When someone who has been through addiction and alcoholism, who is now in recovery shares their personal story, it provides a real-life example for someone caught in the downward spiral of addiction. Addiction treatment programs often employ people who have been there who now have experience, strength and hope to give to those in need.

Q: Does drug treatment promise sobriety and recovery?

A: No. Recovery requires willingness and some level of commitment. Changing levels of “readiness” and motivation are typical of people with drug and alcohol problems. It is easier to avoid and deny than to make real change, especially when you have practiced the same solution year after year, even when it no longer works.

Quitting is easy. Staying quit requires a program of recovery.

Q: What can drug treatment provide toward gaining recovery?

A: Mutual support groups offer an essential route to recovery, which includes social support, recovery practices, and a sense of purpose and direction. Participants must be willing and motivated to attend since no one is going to call if you don’t show up.

Recovery from addiction and alcoholism is a life-long process that is taken one day at a time.

Q: Why can’t alcoholics and addicts choose to use less and simply moderate their drinking and drug use?

A: When the brain has been changed by the overuse of drugs and alcohol, there comes a point where the capacity for choice is lost. A single drink or drug creates such craving for the next, moderating use is impossible. Neuropsychologists and brain researchers have discovered the physiology explaining how compulsion to use overrides decision-making and personal control.

Q: Other than stopping the negative consequences of addiction and alcoholism, what benefits do recovery bring?

A: A new life begins with the initiation of sobriety. Though difficult, recovery brings back the capacity to choose, the capacity to change and the capacity to take actions which will result in longer term rewards.

Postponing gratification is difficult during addiction.

Recovery brings back a sense of color and variation, where addiction becomes somewhat black and white.

Recovery restores priorities for connecting with people, participating in enjoyable activities, and for gaining self-esteem by practicing estimable acts.

Twin Town Treatment Centers is immediately accessible to all Los Angeles and Orange County residents, is accredited by The Joint Commission, and is certified by the California DHCS. All network HMO/PPO/EPO insurance plans and Medi-Cal contract with Twin Town Treatment Centers to provide drug and alcohol rehabilitation. Our phone is answered by real people. We can see people on the same day you call. (866) 594-8844

If They Have Drug and Alcohol Problems, Why Don’t They Just Quit?

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A: When drugs and/or alcohol have become the solution, the way to have fun, to feel good, to relieve stress and to relieve discomfort, there are many ways that people find to avoid facing the problems created by use.

Q: What ways do people find to avoid addressing drug and alcohol problems?

A: Some of the statements people misusing drugs and alcohol make to themselves are:

  • My problem comes from someone else or is a bad circumstance;
  • It’s not that bad;
  • When I get through this, I’ll think about it;
  • Just another couple of years and then I’ll deal with it;
  • I’m stressed and work hard, I deserve a little fun;
  • They just don’t understand;
  • I’m different.

Q: Do people have to “hit bottom” before they are willing to get help with their alcohol and drug use?

A: Everyone has their own “bottom” and most continue to dig for a while. When faced with losing important things in their lives, people can often place their alcohol and drug use as their priority. When a problem drinker or drug user sees that there is hope on the other side of their trouble, facing their battle and “stop digging” becomes possible.

Q: How do I help someone face their problem and see that recovery is possible?

A: Finding someone for the problem alcohol or drug user to speak with who has been there, who relates to the feelings and ideas surrounding their issues, and who has made it to the other side of the hole, often helps. Professionals who work with addiction can also empathize and provide direction. Treatment programs are available to introduce the reticent alcohol or drug abuser to possible remedies are available if they are willing to talk.

Q: Once someone starts the road of recovery, why do they sometimes go back to their old ways?

A: Even though they eventually can create disaster, drugs and alcohol are potent relievers of pain, anxiety and boredom. If someone new to recovery loses sight of the eventual benefits of recovery, they can go back to their old ways. Old drinking or using buddies, triggers and infrequent use of recovery supports, like meetings can lead back to drinking and using. It’s a well-practiced habit.

Q: Can you “bring up” someone’s bottom and help them stop before they lose everything?

A: Treatment is designed to provide a “bridge” over the depths people can fall, during the addiction process. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to bring people to the awareness of their need for or the benefits of recovery. It is also very difficult to gauge helpfulness against enabling or neglect. Being helpful while not participating in the problem is the best balance to reach.

Q: Does treatment or recovery require a lot of time away from personal responsibilities and/or cost a lot of money:

A: No. Many routes can lead to recovery, many of which can be taken which require no time away from important obligations and cost no money at all.

Twin Town Treatment Centers is immediately accessible to all Los Angeles and Orange County residents, is accredited by The Joint Commission, and is certified by the California DHCS. All network HMO/PPO/EPO insurance plans and Medi-Cal contract with Twin Town Treatment Centers to provide drug and alcohol rehabilitation. Our phone is answered by real people. We can see people on the same day you call. (866) 594-8844

How to Get Help: Drug and Alcohol Problems

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female helping hand from darkness, selective focus

Q: Is there a right way and a wrong way to seek help for an alcohol or drug problem?

 

A: It is best to avoid mistakes and problems down the road when deciding upon a course of action to find substance abuse treatment. Treatment should be there to resolve problems causing and caused by alcohol and drug misuse, not to care for the treatment provider’s needs.

 

Q: What should I avoid when seeking help for substance abuse?

 

A: Unfortunately, there exist many unnecessarily expensive and burdensome programs and services which are designed to create a profit for the provider. Some services confuse luxury accommodations, prestigious locations and charismatic personalities with quality, effective treatment. There are also unproven and ineffective services being sold as solutions for drug and alcohol problems. Finally, some solutions cause further problems once the initial substance use of choice has been arrested.

 

Q: Who can I trust to give me advise on finding a program which provides effective, affordable and trustworthy treatment for alcohol and drug abuse?

 

A: Healthcare professionals and counselors you have learned to trust are some of the best resource people who can recommend treatment providers. People you may know who themselves or who have a loved one find their way through drug and alcohol abuse and addiction are some of the best resources. Since they have been there, they can help guide your search and support you through the process during and after treatment.

 

Q: How do I know if the treatment program provides services which are effective:

 

A: Ask the treatment provider if they are “accredited”? Accreditation agencies such as The Joint Commission conduct audits and reviews to determine that treatment services meet the standards of quality care. Ask the provider what evidence indicates that they are providing effective services. Go online to https://findtreatment.samhsa.gov/ to find a government licensed or certified program near you.

 

Q: Can I find a good treatment provider doing an internet search.

 

A: Since the internet does not provide and objective review of quality and effectiveness, be careful using the internet. Providers who make large profits from their charges can afford advertisement and publicize their treatment services, even when their services may be very distant, inaccessible, demanding or expensive. If you do use the internet, always ask where the treatment program is located, whether it is accredited and contracted with your insurance company, and how much time away from home it requires.

 

Q: How do people pay for treatment and how do I know if the charges are fair and legitimate?

 

A: Most people use their health insurance coverage to pay for much of their treatment. Your insurance policy can act as you guide to selecting an ethical and economical treatment provider since insurance plans are highly regulated and oversee the financial affairs of treatment.

 

Q: How can I find out is my insurance plan will pay a substance abuse treatment provider and at what rate?

 

A: Many treatment providers who are not contracted with your insurance will state that they “take” your insurance plan. What they may leave out is that they are not contracted and will therefore receive a much lower percentage of the charges, leaving much of the charge to your self-payment. Ask your insurance plan or the provider if the treatment program is “in-network” or “contracted” with your insurance company.

 

Twin Town Treatment Centers is immediately accessible to all Los Angeles and Orange County residents, is accredited by The Joint Commission, and is certified by the California DHCS. All network HMO/PPO/EPO insurance plans and Medi-Cal contract with Twin Town Treatment Centers to provide drug and alcohol rehabilitation. Our phone is answered by real people. We can see people on the same day you call. (866) 594-8844

What to Do: Drug and Alcohol Problems

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what-to-do-blog-featuredModerate to severe drug and alcohol abuse is a treatable, chronic condition much like type 2 diabetes. Even though we decide to take our first drink or drug, something inside us eventually prevents us from moderating our intake. Much like sugar and carbohydrates for the diabetic, alcohol and drugs eventually develop into a chronic medical disease.

We take a drink or drug. The drink or drug takes a drink or drug. The drink or drug takes us. We lose control despite our greatest intensions or efforts.

When pleasure and the relief from stress and pain have been solved for years by using alcohol or drugs, not only do our habits change, so do our brains. A decision to quit may be a beginning but what really maintains sobriety is practicing new or lost skills, such as drug free recreation and relaxation, sharing social support with others, walking through a tough situation with new hope and a new friend, and taking positive steps to change what you have become.

We can’t think our way into right action. We can act our way into right thinking.

Treatment is an introduction and engagement in a life-long process. Recovery is the outcome goal. A limited time in a drug-free residential program or weekly therapy doesn’t maintain the support needed for daily recovery practice at home over time. Mutual support groups and daily outpatient programs provide an accessible way to get that support to practice necessary recovery skills so that long-term sobriety is possible.

Recovery only occurs when the gains from treatment are consistently practiced at home. Outpatient treatment programs such as Twin Town aim to teach, coach and monitor recovery skill practices at home, over time so that long-term sobriety can occur.

Twin Town Treatment Centers is immediately accessible to all Los Angeles and Orange County residents, is accredited by The Joint Commission, and is certified by the California DHCS. All network HMO/PPO/EPO insurance plans and Medi-Cal contract with Twin Town Treatment Centers to provide drug and alcohol rehabilitation. Our phone is answered by real people. We can see people on the same day you call. (866) 594-8844

Poor or No Insurance – Access to Affordable Alcohol and Drug Problem Treatment/Rehab

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poor-no-insurance-blogMost people can’t afford the well published treatment and rehabilitation programs for drug and alcohol problems without the help of health insurance. Soon that problem may face more of us. Following are some solutions to a reemerging problem:

To get help for drug and alcohol problems, is insurance necessary?

No. Some people get sober by attending community based support groups such as Alcoholics or Narcotics Anonymous. Counties also offer publicly funded programs, though there are often wait lists to access help for people with low or no incomes. Non-profit and charity programs may also be available in your area for those who qualify due to the lack of financial resources. Call or find on the internet contacts for the Los Angeles County Substance Abuse and Control Department or the Orange County Department of Behavioral Health.

Are there affordable treatment options for people who need to pay for alcohol and/or drug treatment/ rehab out of their own pocket?

Yes. Usually treatment programs which contract with insurance companies, particularly HMO’s have reduced rates for people needing to pay for treatment out of pocket. Rehab programs do NOT have to be expensive to be effective. (A view of the ocean or a horseback ride are not essential features of recovery.)

Programs located close to North Hollywood, West Hollywood, Torrance, Los Alamitos, Orange and Mission Viejo provide no-interest payment planning for self-pay rates as low as $4200.00 for five (5) months of treatment. www.twintowntreatmentcenters.com

Do HMO’s and MediCal cover alcohol and drug rehab?

Yes. Currently under “parity” and the “Affordable Care Act” HMO’s and MediCal are required to provide treatment for alcohol and drug problems. Treatment programs which are contracted with HMO’s and MediCal can verify your level of coverage and let you know if and how much you have a co-payment obligation.

Most HMO’s have a behavioral health department which performs authorization and do not require a referral from your primary care physician.

How do I find an effective and accessible drug and/or alcohol treatment program/ rehab which I can afford?

Avoid internet searches without verifying the integrity of the program. Many “free treatment” postings lead to less than honorable practices. The best way to find a provider is to call the County, your insurance company or a trusted professional for a reliable and trustworthy treatment program/ rehab.

Twin Town Treatment Centers is immediately accessible to all Los Angeles and Orange County residents, is accredited by The Joint Commission, and is certified by the California DHCS. All network HMO/PPO/EPO insurance plans and Medi-Cal contract with Twin Town Treatment Centers to provide drug and alcohol rehabilitation. Our phone is answered by real people. We can see people on the same day you call. (866) 594-8844