Short-term programs are generally 21 or 28 days long. Treatment may be in a hospital or an independent facility, and the doors may be locked or unlocked. Detoxification services are provided separately, as needed. Unfortunately, treatment duration in these programs depends more on insurance coverage than to actual need. Life in a therapeutic community is tightly structured.
Most substance abusers describe their own openness to treatment as hitting bottom.
Or when a parent loses custody of a child. Even perhaps when the substance abuser is sick and tired of sleeping on rooftops, in open fields or in abandoned cars. It is when the consequences of use outweigh the benefits that the addict will commit to seeking help.