Individuals recovering from mental health conditions and substance use disorder (SUD) may experience severe or persistent symptoms, including anxiety, cravings, and intrusive thoughts. Relapse prevention is an essential part of managing symptoms and side effects of SUD. Ensuring accountability for clients and providing relapse prevention generally does not involve repressing or avoiding the triggers of relapse. Instead, treatment focuses on providing clients with the tools to manage them successfully.

According to the Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine, "Clinical experience has shown that occasional thoughts of [relapse] need to be normalized in therapy." Healthcare workers are vital in ensuring people remain accountable for their behaviors while providing compassionate care. Therapy and other services help clients better understand themselves. Staff at Driftwood Recovery normalize conversations about mental health to facilitate healing and increase accountability.

How Does Encouraging Accountability for Clients Improve Outpatient Treatment?

The goal of treatment is to provide clients with the resources and skills to reintegrate into the community and improve their quality of life. Intensive outpatient programs (IOPs) focus on helping clients gain self-confidence, self-awareness, and coping skills for managing their condition in everyday situations. People in IOPs spend time between treatment sessions at work, home, school, or other locations where they may encounter triggers or stressors. Holding clients accountable for their actions during treatment prompts them to make healthier choices at home.

3 Ways the Care Team Supports Client Accountability

Staff members at Driftwood Recovery support clients and hold them accountable for their recovery by providing motivation, inspiration, education, and guidance. People struggling with substance abuse and mental health disorders seek treatment because they have been unsuccessful in achieving their health goals on their own. Staff ensure clients have the support and resources to maintain sobriety and positive mental health during and after treatment. Below are three ways the care team at Driftwood Recovery supports client accountability and long-term recovery.

#1. Setting and Monitoring Achievable Recovery Goals: Specific objectives keep the care team and clients on the same page and moving forward in the treatment process. Healthcare professionals use their relationships with clients to help them create practical and achievable goals. Clients are held accountable for working toward those goals with the assistance of their care team and support system.

#2. Relapse Prevention Education and Strategies: Psychoeducation helps clients make connections between their thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors. Clinicians educate clients to ensure they understand the importance of making healthier lifestyle choices and being accountable for their actions.

#3. Providing Clients With the Tools to Achieve or Maintain Steady Employment: Staff members often help people develop essential skills to achieve or maintain steady employment. According to Addiction, "In addition to financial rewards, employment can provide many incentives for sustained recovery, including purpose and meaning, social support, structure and accountability, and a sense of accomplishment and pride." Clients often benefit from the structure and accountability of workplace responsibilities and expectations of sobriety.

Accountability for Clients Reduces the Risk of Relapse

Relapse is not an inevitable part of recovery. However, many clients participating in IOP treatment at Driftwood Recovery have a history of relapse and valid concerns about how to avoid backsliding into maladaptive behaviors. Staff are responsible for helping clients learn new ways to manage their condition and reduce the risk of relapse. Relapse prevention strategies, skill development, and social support help clients maintain sobriety and build a healthy foundation for the future. According to Alcohol Research and Health, treatment "interventions include identifying specific high-risk situations for each client and enhancing the client's skills for coping with those situations, increasing the client's self-efficacy, eliminating myths regarding alcohol's effects, managing lapses, and restructuring the client's perceptions of the relapse process."

Every person responds differently to interventions. Healthcare professionals must work with clients and their families to determine how to address accountability and prepare clients for long-term recovery. Clients often change how they think and act when they know their choices impact the people closest to them.

Driftwood Recovery Facilitates Accountability for Clients

The dedicated experts at Driftwood Recovery have created a nurturing and welcoming environment by ensuring staff have the resources and training to provide personalized care. Tailored treatment services make it easier for the care team to hold clients accountable and encourage them to make healthier choices.

Staff members maintain accountability by doing the following:

• Making personal connections and developing a deeper understanding of the client's needs
• Ensuring clients understand how their actions may impact recovery
• Providing emotional and practical support
• Encouraging families to play an active role in their loved ones recovery
• Providing relatable and relevant information and education

Support groups and peer engagement are essential factors in maintaining accountability. Clinicians encourage clients to engage with peers and join support groups. Studies have shown that "[s]upport groups provide guidance through peer feedback, and group members generally require accountability from each other." The more consistently staff hold clients accountable for their sobriety, the easier it will be for clients to avoid relying on maladaptive behaviors after they complete treatment and transition to aftercare.

Individuals recovering from substance abuse and mental health disorders may experience severe or persistent triggers, including cravings or intrusive thoughts. Professional treatment offers clients essential support and reduces the risk of relapse by holding people accountable for their choices. Evidence-based and complementary treatments provide people with support and the resources to cope with everyday stressors. Healthcare workers are responsible for ensuring clients receive the level of care and personalized services they need to heal and recover from substance abuse. Driftwood Recovery uses tailored treatment planning and comprehensive assessments to help clients have positive outcomes. To learn more about how teamwork within healthcare facilities supports client recovery and sobriety, call us today at (512) 759-8330.