The Alternative Addiction Services treatment model uses proven, empirically validated treatment methods to deal with alcohol/substance abuse. Our staff has the knowledge, skills and credentials needed to provide the full range of evidence-based services, including medication and psychosocial therapy. Addiction is a brain disease and requires treatments that address the neuropsychological aspects of addiction. Effective treatment for such disorders requires a multimodal holistic approach. 

Our treatment begins with a thorough and complex assessment, which focuses on the client's addiction, the identification of any co-existing mental health disorders, skill deficits for example poor stress management skills, health issues such as poor sleep and relationship difficulties. The findings of this comprehensive assessment allow us to customize an individualized treatment plan, which addresses each client's specific treatment needs and their preferences. We then recommend a level of care which may be only a one-time visit with an addiction specialist or may be more intensive, requiring several sessions a week. Patients may receive their treatment via individual sessions or a combination of individual and group sessions.

Our multidisciplinary treatment team which includes psychologists, psychiatrists, counselors, chemical dependency counselors, marriage and family therapists and a wellness consultant, all under the same roof, allows us to provide a wide range of treatment services so that we can treat the whole client and their significant others. Our team approach results in rapid stabilization because team members collaborate with each other in the implementation and monitoring of the client's progress in meeting their treatment goals. This approach also allows for quick intervention and changes of treatment when team members during their team meetings conclude that the treatment is not having the desired effect. Treatments using a combination of both medication and therapy are usually recommended. 

The majority of people with alcohol/substance abuse problems do not need to go to the typical rehab center for 30 days. There is also no evidence to suggest that the typical rehab treatment is any more effective than a community-based treatment, which costs a fraction of the typical rehab treatment. Alternative Addiction Services are primarily outpatient services, unless the client has chronic severe addiction issues that cannot be detoxed in an intensive outpatient setting for medical reasons. We also know that there is no short-term fix (30 days) for chronic alcohol/substance abuse problems. Rather, such substance abuse disorders may require care for months or even years. Intervention should therefore be based on the treatment needs of the client and may be brief, Intensive or long term. 

Alternative Addiction Services is therefore not a standardized rehabilitation program with a cookie-cutter treatment approach where everyone receives the same treatment. There are no fixed lengths of treatment, costs, types of treatment or fixed lengths of stays, that require a major commitment of time and money, no matter what kind of problem their clients may have.