Recovery Management

The twenty-eight days spent in-patient treatment is nothing more than a blink when you consider that many patients have been drinking or using with a single-minded focus for years.  No one can address the problem adequately in such a short period and that is one of the disturbing reasons why many patients relapse. That is one of the reasons why in my practice I continue to work with the patient regularly for at least one year after treatment with a program of recovery management tailored to the history and needs of the patient and the challenges they may encounter.

CASE NOTES "The Hunt Club"
(When They Won't Quit, page 109)

After intervening and admitting one alcoholic husband into a treatment center, his wife told me in all seriousness, "Our weekly cocktail parties at the Hunt Club are a vital part of our lives and marriage.  So, make sure all of this intervention business doesn't screw that up."  Initially, I humored her by saying that I would alert the treatment team to give him just enough sobriety to allow him to continue to get drunk at the Hunt Club but nowhere else.  Obviously, that was a case where both spouses were in urgent need of treatment and counseling.