Treatment 101 / Explore
Start the conversation
What to ask, who can help and how to raise a concern. For your own first call or one you’re making for someone you care about.
Explore 14 guides
Prepare for a call or conversation.
Before calling a program, you may want to know what the call involves, who can answer health questions and what happens if there is a wait. You may be asking for yourself or someone you love.
These guides explain what to ask, who you are speaking to, how to check a license, how to raise a concern and how a call for someone else may differ from a call about your own care.
Questions you might have
Guide · 5 min read
What can I expect when I first contact a treatment program?
You have found a number, but making the call may feel like agreeing to more than you are ready for.
Guide · 4 min read
What should I ask a treatment center before deciding?
You are being asked to make a consequential choice, perhaps while tired or worried enough that every reassuring answer sounds tempting.
Guide · 5 min read
How should treatment account for my other health needs and existing medicines?
You may worry that entering substance-use treatment will mean another health problem or an existing medicine gets overlooked.
Guide · 4 min read
What should I do if treatment cannot start right away?
Clarify whether you are waiting for an assessment, a clinical service, payment approval or a place in a particular program.
Guide · 4 min read
What should I do if I want to leave treatment before the recommended time?
You want to leave, and you may be counting the hours until you can get out.
Guide · 4 min read
What can I do when I contact treatment services for someone else?
Someone you care about is struggling, and making a call may feel like the only thing you can do today.
Guide · 5 min read
I have been to treatment before. What is different about going back?
You may be dreading the call because it feels like admitting that last time did not work, or worrying that a program will see you as a lost cause.
Guide · 5 min read
What does it mean that a program is licensed, certified or accredited, and how can I check?
A program's website may say it is licensed, state-certified or accredited, and it is fair to wonder what those words guarantee.
Guide · 5 min read
Who am I actually speaking to when I call: admissions staff, a clinician, a call service or an automated system?
You dialed the number on a program's website and someone answered, but you may not know whether they work for that program, are qualified to answer medical questions or are a recording.
Guide · 5 min read
How do I raise a complaint about a program?
Something happened in a program that worried you, or that you or someone you love was harmed by, and you may not know whether it is serious enough to report or who would listen.
Guide · 5 min read
Can I make an adult family member go to treatment?
You may be watching someone you love get worse and be desperate for a way to make them accept help.
Guide · 5 min read
Once they are in treatment, what will the program tell me?
You helped someone get into treatment, or you are paying for it, and now you call the program and hear that staff cannot confirm anything.
Guide · 4 min read
What part will the family play in treatment?
You may be hoping to be involved, dreading being blamed or simply unsure whether the program wants you there at all.
Guide · 5 min read
Should the people around them keep naloxone, and why does the risk change after treatment?
Someone you love is in treatment for opioid use, or has just come home, and you may be torn between relief and a fear you do not want to say out loud.