The number of addicts who join outpatient programs is more than the number of addicts who get enrolled for inpatient programs. The reason behind this is quite simple. The outpatient programs allow the addict to stay in his or her own house and attend the center only for few days on a weekly basis. In inpatient treatment programs, the patient will be needed to leave his or her home and stay in an isolated place for a long period of time.



Many people find outpatient programs more convenient and comfortable. In the outpatient programs, the patients are not required to leave their social life and hence they can continue with their professional or education careers without problems. Hence, the outpatient programs are more favored than the inpatient programs.

Whenever anyone thinks about taking treatment for their addiction, the first option they think is of an outpatient treatment program. But it is important to keep in mind whether you will be able to stay away from the substance of addiction all by yourself with the comforts that you house provides. The outpatient programs are good for you only if your addiction is to a mild or moderate extent.

But if your addiction is severe, there is no other better option for you than an inpatient treatment program, where you will be under medical supervision even as you get recovered. For all those people whose addiction is severe, the inpatient treatment program becomes a better bet as here they will be given proper medical care and also they will be kept motivated for the treatment under the guidance and counseling of the treatment providers.

There are three different formats of outpatient treatment program for alcoholism treatment. These different formats cater to different extents of the person's addiction. Of course, they do not cater to strongly addicted persons for whom a medically supervised inpatient format of treatment would be definitely the best bet. Anyway, these are the main forms of outpatient treatment. Not all treatment centers will have all three of them, and even if they do have them, it is important for you to check out how they are implemented. Each treatment center will have a different method and principle for their outpatient treatment programs.

1.Day Treatment Program: This program is good for those who cannot give their full time for the addiction treatment. This program has flexible timings and hence is becoming quite popular among people. In this program, the patients will be asked to visit the center on an everyday basis, but the timings of the sessions can be decided as per the convenience of the patient (in most centers). This treatment program also offers all the treatments included in outpatient treatment program but its mode of conducting the programs is sterner than the simple outpatient treatment program. Some treatment centers also have a family counseling feature in their day treatment programs where the families are coached on how they can cope with the situation of addiction treatment in their home and what they can do expedite the recovery process.

2.Outpatient Treatment Program: In this program the patient will be called to the center to attend about three to four sessions in a week. All these sessions will be of a few hours each. The overall duration of this program is about nine to ten hours a week. The main part of this program is intervention, where the addict and their family will be made aware about addiction and its hazards. The addict will be made aware about their addiction. Here the patients will also be given individual counseling along with group counseling. This treatment is best for those whose addiction is still in its nascent stages. If you have severe addiction, then this program will not suitable for you.

3.Intensive Outpatient Treatment Program: This program is one level higher than the outpatient treatment program. The main format of this program is same as that of outpatient treatment program. Only difference is that here the program will be carried out more rigorously. This treatment is good if your addiction is moderate to severe. One more difference between intensive and outpatient treatment program is that here the duration of the sessions will be more and also the number of sessions per week will be higher. Thus the overall timing of this treatment program will be higher compared to the outpatient treatment program. This makes this program more intensive and thus the patient can be sure of getting more benefits from this program.