Continuing Care: A Parent’s Guide to Your Teen’s Recovery from Substance Abuse
- Online Tool
- Scientifically Informed
This online, interactive guide addresses families’ questions about how to best support their teen’s recovery following substance abuse treatment or being in an environment that requires abstinence. Once a child returns home from such a program, many parents may feel uncertain and ill-prepared in terms of what to expect from their child, and how to support effective aftercare. The website offers insights on how parents can set realistic expectations for their child’s recovery, including how to help them adapt to their new environment in sobriety, how to avoid the people, places and things that can trigger relapse, and what to do if relapse occurs.
Most families will benefit from ongoing professional support once their child returns from treatment. It is important to remember that addiction affects the whole family, and often parents and siblings also need support dealing with a loved one’s addiction – even after the recovery process has begun. Click here for a national directory of support groups for family members affected by addiction.
How to Use
After watching the introduction video, browse through the four sections included in the guide: Continuing Care, Ensuring Follow-Through, Reinforcing the Message, and Monitoring in a Supportive Way. Each topic includes frequently asked questions and suggested plans of action. By navigating the various sections, parents can learn ways to reinforce a message of drug abstinence and healthy living and discover how to monitor and support a child or young adult on his/her path towards recovery.
Who Should Use
Parents who are supporting a child that has completed addiction treatment, or has initiated recovery in another environment (i.e. incarceration, reform school, etc.), will find the Continuing Care Guide helpful. It provides resources for parents who have questions about how to best support a teen’s recovery. It can help the entire family learn how to deal appropriately with the complex and challenging situations that both parents and children experience during the days, months and years following treatment.
The Science Behind This Resource
This compendium is based on extensive research showing that continuing care services are a critical component of successful recovery for adolescents. Since most adolescents return home following treatment, parents can play a major role in supporting continuing care, and adjusting environmental factors in the home to be more supportive of long-term recovery.
There are multiple publications and citations that reference the importance of appropriate continuing care for your adolescent or young adult’s post-treatment, including the following:
