Outpatient treatment should recognize and treat co-occurring disorders by psychological counseling, drug and alcohol counseling as well as educational and group counseling. It begins with an assessment of the alcohol and drug abuse/dependency as well as an assessment of the patient’s mental status. From this a plan is formulated which is time limited to and measurable to treat the dependency/abuse as well as the co-occurring mental illness.
One of the problems with out patient treatments is compliance since most of their time is not monitored or controlled in any way ,the need to stop using an addictive substance is not as clear to the addicted frontal brain and use is much more likely. But in some cases it is the only real option.Ernie In South Orange County Calif.