Drug and alcohol abuse effects more than eight percent of the U.S. population with 20.1 million reporting they had used an illegal drug use in the past month according to the 2008 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Only 3.7 percent of those abusing drugs and alcohol stated they believed treatment was needed and only 1.1 percent actually sought to enter a rehabilitation program. There are many approaches to treatment including faith-based programs. Some of these focus on a specific religious tradition and others focus on the recovery of a person's own spirituality. These programs can benefit from your support.
Step 1
Investigate the treatment centers in your community. Visit their website, check out their rating at the Better Business Bureau and read what alumni of their programs are writing in blogs. To insure you are offering your support to a reputable program, call your State Board of Behavioral Health and ask if their staff psychologists and counselors are licensed. And, if you are affiliated with a religious community, ask you rabbi, iman, pastor or priest for their opinion on which rehabilitation program might be the best match for your skills and interests.
Step 2
Meet with the community liaison or volunteer coordinator at the facility you've chosen to see how you might be able to serve. Because of confidentiality laws, don't expect to tour the facility, but you can learn ways volunteers already serving and ask questions about training and their expectations of volunteers.
Step 3
Consider your own talents, skills and interests and see whether the center you choose can make use of those skills. For example, if you are an accountant or financial planner, you could offer to teach a finance seminar for interested residents. If you and your friends at church love to cook, you could decorate and donate to each departing resident picnic baskets that are filled with a homemade meal. If you are great with kids, offer to come on Sunday afternoons and play with little ones while their parents visit.
Step 4
Make "thinking about you" packages for newly admitted residents or for those about to be discharged. The day of admission is frightening to many people and so is going home after an extended period of drug rehabilitation. Ask the facility manager for the rules you must follow for selecting things to include and find out how many packages are needed. This could be your own way of serving by yourself or you might organize a small team to help. Be sure to add a brief note of encouragement for the recipient and sign it with just your first name.
Step 5
Welcome those engaged in the rehabilitation process to your place of worship. Visit the facility, with permission from the director, to present your community's invitation. By emphasizing ways they can get involved, for example, in the choir, children's ministry, women's and men's clubs, Torah, Bible or Koran study, or other programs, you are inviting them into the life of the community and not just the chance to come and visit.
Emphasize the ways they might serve the community to show respect for all those abilities even addiction can not diminish. Invite those in the journey to recovery to get back into living in other ways as well. Perhaps you can offer to drive someone, on a day pass, to your local community college and walk them through the registration and financial aid process.
If your local YMCA offers income-based memberships, consider sponsoring a single parent and their children and meet them their once a week to help out with the kids. Or you might organize an alumni evening walk. Once a week invite the program's graduates to gather in a central location, take a 10,000 step walk for health, and share the week's triumphs and challenges.
Step 6
Financially support those who want to go through rehabilitation but do not have the means to enter treatment. The 2008 National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that 37.4 percent who wanted treatment could not because of the cost. The average fee for a 30-day residential treatment program for adults is over $7,000 according to the National Substance Abuse Treatment Services Survey, so for about $600 a month, you or your group could sponsor one patient each year. That may not seem like much, but when it saves the life of that person or preserves their ability to live fully, it's an investment with a great return.
