Why Extended Care is Essential for Some Adolescents

When parents make the courageous decision to send their child to rehab, they often think it will last 28 or 30 days. This timeframe isn't determined by treatment needs but by insurance companies and standard rehabilitation models based on reimbursement schedules.

Parents are often unaware that residential extended care may be needed to help their adolescent through the recovery process. Developing an addiction is easier than recovering from it, and as we all know, recovery takes far longer than 28 days. I believe that if I had known my loved one would need a longer residential care stay before he entered treatment, I would have been more reluctant for him to go.

In our own families and homes, we work to address our child’s addiction before and after residential treatment by providing a myriad of developmentally appropriate supports. This includes attention to school and communication with school officials, opportunities for social interaction and time for recreational activities, planning for life beyond high school including career and college options, opportunities for our families to enjoy time together, recovery experts who understand how addiction develops in young people and the specific qualities of their recovery, therapeutic professionals who specialize in adolescents and addiction, and methods to ensure accountability. We do this while ensuring that our child does not have access to drugs and alcohol. We do this while trying to maintain our relationships and our career and parent our other children who are experiencing their own journey.

This was mentally and physically exhausting for our family and took a toll on all aspects of our lives including our relationships with other family members, the inability to attend properly to our work responsibilities, and neglect for our own personal care. We did this while also striving to provide support, comfort, and effective parenting to our daughter, who also was experiencing her own emotions.

In our family, this was not a successful nor sustainable model and it meant multiple relapses and an escalation in our loved one’s drug use and risky behaviors. While we recognized it was not working, we did not have a better solution. Multiple times our loved one went to treatment, and the discharge recommendations were either home or an adult-designed facility that housed adolescents.

And what did that mean for our loved one and his use? It meant that his drug use escalated in its intensity and the drugs he used were far more dangerous. It meant that he became more desperate and put himself in greater danger. His mental health worsened, leading to psychiatric hospitalizations. He felt like a failure and didn’t see himself maintaining long-term sobriety. Our family’s trust eroded, leading to school and legal consequences.

What did that mean for our family? Our relationship with him suffered as we were trying to assume roles far greater than typical parents. Constant disagreements and a constant state of fear ran through our house. It affected all our relationships. The financial impact was significant, including all the supports at home and the multiple residential rehabs. The stress was untenable, and there was little support available to us or even time and energy to avail ourselves of what was available. We did our best to parent and support our daughter who also needed our support, care, and attention.

This is why specialized adolescent extended care is necessary. This is why we have spent the last year creating a program that we could not build in our home. The needs of our adolescents can be so much broader than we can provide. At home, we cannot provide a living environment where teens are among their peers who are experiencing similar challenges and successes. We cannot provide a team of staff dedicated to working with them around the clock who are in recovery and able to share their experience, strength, and hope with them.

We were extremely fortunate to have the resources and knowledge to attempt to build a system of support. However, our loved one’s addiction was a far bigger challenge than we could address on our own. We were unsuccessful in finding a program that met his needs. We are so proud of his path to sobriety and the growth he has made, and we hope that others can have an easier and softer way. That is why we created Woodhaven Recovery—to fill the gap we found in available resources and to ensure that no other family has to face these challenges alone.

Specialized adolescent extended care is not just an option; it’s a necessity for many. It offers the structured, specialized support young people need for successful recovery, which home environments, despite our best efforts, cannot fully provide. It bridges the gap between short-term rehab and sustainable sobriety, giving adolescents the best chance at a healthy, drug-free future.