What is an Alumni Program at Addiction Treatment?

Rehab Alumni Offerings: Support for Your Recovery

Recovery isn’t simply a single all-encompassing event or a specific chapter in your life. Long-term recovery is an ongoing process that unfolds over your lifetime, and that journey will take its share of twists and turns. Knowing this, it only makes sense to know the answer to, ‘What is an Alumni Program in Addiction Treatment?’

While there is no doubt that addiction treatment is absolutely essential in helping you address and overcome your addiction, the recovery process does not stop once treatment is done. When you leave the safety and security of drug treatment and start the transition back into your daily life and routine, the real work of staying clean and sober begins.

In order to stay motivated in your recovery, it is highly recommended that you take part in some form of supportive aftercare program. Keep reading to learn all about the benefits of attending treatment at a facility with a strong alumni program, and how Find Addiction Rehabs can help you locate one today!

What is an Alumni Program?

In the world of drug treatment and recovery, alumni programs are becoming an increasingly popular aftercare treatment option. With an addiction alumni program such as the ones offered by providers referred to at Find Addiction Rehabs, those who have recently completed drug treatment can connect with those who have also completed substance abuse treatment and have considerable clean and sober time under their belt.

Alumni programs help strengthen recovery by keeping you connected with the recovery community at the treatment facility you attended as well as those already in recovery outside the treatment center.

By participating in an alumni program after you find treatment through Find Addiction Rehabs, you will be able to implement the life and coping skills that you have learned in treatment, and you can refine those essential relapse prevention techniques that will help minimize the chances of relapse in recovery. With the help of those who have considerable clean time under their belt, you can continue to strengthen your own recovery.

Ultimately, you can connect meaningfully with others to share and learn from your collective experiences as well as stay in touch with those people you formed friendships with while in drug treatment.

How an Alumni Program Helps Your Recovery

When you complete intensive drug treatment and take part in an alumni program, there are several ways in which this program helps you stay connected to those who are still in drug treatment while reaching out to the broader recovery community. First and foremost, those who are a part of our alumni program hold recovery events nationwide which gives the opportunity for graduates in any part of the country to meet each other and share their stories of recovery.

Secondly, an alumni program will also help you find the local support groups and recovery resources that are located within your community so you can be proactive in seeking services on your own.

Additionally, an alumni program will allow you to provide support and encouragement to former patients who may be struggling with their own recovery. Alumni addiction programs help reinforce the importance of staying in touch with treatment staff during your recovery journey. This allows you to have the continued encouragement and support you need as you progress in your recovery.

Additionally, you are able to take part in volunteer opportunities either at the treatment center itself or in your community. By “paying it forward”, you are enriching the lives of others while strengthening your own recovery.

How an Addiction Treatment Alumni Program Works

When you take part in the alumni program after finding treatment through Find Addiction Rehabs, you will receive services and support that are comprehensive, compassionate, and second to none. When you join our alumni program, you will greatly benefit from the new services we are continually creating as well as the continuous services that we offer to all recent graduates of our drug treatment programs.

Additionally,  you will be able to access our extensive nationwide network of former graduates and other systems of meaningful support who can empower you to continue working on your program of recovery and provide assistance and encouragement if you are experiencing vulnerability in your recovery.

Perhaps the biggest goal that any alumni program wants to achieve is to help you nurture and maintain positive relationships with former clients through a wide variety of social functions and activities. Many treatment centers we refer to offer a wide array of educational programs such as workshops, guided group sessions, and booster treatment sessions.

These programs will help those who feel they need extra support and encouragement as they move forward in their recovery. Our experienced team strongly believes that our addiction alumni program is part of an effective long-term plan that will help you maintain long-term sobriety.

3 Ways an Alumni Program Can Help Support Recovery Efforts

Every addiction treatment center is different, therefore, many alumni programs can look different, depending on where you went. However, alumni programs usually remain the same throughout, some offer things others don’t, but they have the same goal:

The other main goal of Alumni Programs is one that centers around the idea that those clients who are actively working on a program of recovery can be of service and can provide a comfortable transition for those clients who are still in treatment and newly graduated. If we want to chop it down to its basic forms, there are three main reasons why joining an alumni program is so beneficial for early sobriety.

1. Strength in Numbers

In times of struggle and chaos, when it feels like prayer isn’t working and everything is falling apart, one thing that will always work is the other people in the rooms, our sober support. However, a lot of people struggle with the initial, finding the fellowship phase, as it can be pretty uncomfortable to even think about making friends at a meeting for the first few weeks.

However, creating that network of sober support is a guaranteed way to ensure successful sobriety, especially when that network is filled with people who are working a solid program, and who have found a new way to live.

You hear old-timers share at meetings all the time about “picking up the phone” in times of struggle, and how it helped them get outside themselves every single time. This is because sobriety and recovery, while individually based, are programs of community and involvement. The whole point of the 12 steps is to get you sober and clean so that you can help someone else get sober and clean. If that isn’t an example of being a part of a community, then I don’t know what is!

2. Accountability

Statistics show that the relapse rate for newly recovering addicts and alcoholics is 40-60%

To be honest, that number is way too high. The most common reasons for relapse are isolation and boredom. These two ingredients can bake up a recipe for disaster for newly recovering addicts and alcoholics. This is why alumni can be so helpful. Not only do most addiction treatment alumni programs encourage a community environment for graduated clients, but they do so in ways that are fun and exciting.

Besides the whole fun in sobriety aspect, there is a certain sense of accountability for people who are part of alumni programs. This is because they get to continue to be involved in the program in which they got sober, and they get to act in almost a mentor sort of role for people who have not yet graduated, or who have just recently graduated.

This creates a sense of gratitude and dedication to the treatment center that they attended, as well as to the program of recovery for which they are working.

3. Service

According to the steps and traditions of the 12-step programs, the ultimate goal for anyone who wants to stay clean and sober and live a new way of life is to begin to be more conscious of the needs of others. This is called service work and is the number one, guaranteed way to stay sober when combined with a working of the steps.

After a while, the intended goal is for each alumni member to continue on with alumni, and help the next newcomer that graduates from the program. These people can help the newcomers find a good meeting, or even point them in the direction of some quality sober people, and maybe even a good sponsor!

This not only helps the newcomer to feel welcomed and invited into the world of sobriety, but it also helps the alumni member to feel as though they are doing some service work in their own lives. This is especially helpful if they have not yet completed their steps but still, want to be helpful for newcomers.

Call Now For More Information On Top Alumni Programs!

The moment that you leave drug treatment is when your recovery journey truly begins. While drug treatment gave you the life and coping skills needed to navigate your day-to-day life, it always helps to have a helping hand from those who are walking a similar path.

With the alumni addiction program offered through many providers found with Find Addiction Rehabs, you can draw immense support and encouragement from our wide and extensive network of former graduates. These are the sorts of sober supports that can help you stay motivated and inspired and will empower you to continue growing in your recovery.

Are you or a loved one looking for a treatment that will help you become the person you know you can be? Call Find Addiction Rehabs today and take your sobriety to a new level!