Outpatient Treatment Programs for Adolescents and Young Adults

By Craig Rogers

An intensive outpatient program is a type of treatment service and support program used primarily to treat teenagers and young adults struggling with alcohol addiction, drug addiction, or prescription drug addiction. Intensive outpatient programs do not require the intensive residential or partial day services typically offered by the larger, more comprehensive treatment facilities. A typical intensive outpatient program offers group and individual services of 10-12 hours a week. Outpatient programs provide more freedom of movement for the teens and young adults. This allows them to maintain their regular commitment to family, work, and educational responsibilities. Appropriate treatment at a chosen facility is then required once their daily affairs have been attended to. 

Outpatient Treatment Support Groups

These teenagers and young adults return to their own environments after outpatient drug or alcohol treatment, and must voluntarily refrain from drug or alcohol use. This requires a greater amount of diligence. However, the benefit of this is that outpatient programs provide a support network for these teenage and young adult addicts in the form of official support groups, individual counseling, and family counseling so that patients are never alone in their recovery. Outpatient programs focus strongly on family support and involvement, and an immediately positive element of outpatient treatment is that the teen and young adult addicts can automatically apply the lessons learned from outpatient treatment programs to their daily experiences.