What really goes on inside rehab [View all]

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http://www.salon.com/2013/02/12/what_really_goes_on_inside_internet_rehab_partner/

The author of "Inside Rehab" reflects on the addiction-treatment industry and how it can be improved

By Chrisanne Grise

Anne M. Fletcher’s new book, Inside Rehab—out this week—is a no-holds-barred report on addiction treatment in America today. Fletcher, who struggled in the past with her own drinking problem, got involved in the rehab field a decade ago after writing Sober for Good, a book about long-term recovery. While only a brief section of Sober for Good focused on treatment, Fletcher was “astounded” by the shortcomings she discovered.

About five years later, a massive amount of media coverage focused on hot-mess celebrities like Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan, as they bounced in and out of pricey rehabs, stirring up misconceptions about addiction treatment. “I said, someone needs to write a book about what really goes on in rehab,” Fletcher tells me. Turns out that someone was her.

Inside Rehab dives deep into the four years Fletcher spent visiting treatment programs all across the country, interviewing hundreds of treatment clients and staff. The book offers a unique perspective, both for rehab veterans and for those who have no idea what the experience is like. So Fletcher is highly qualified to talk about the biggest problems in the addiction-treatment industry, what to look for in a rehab, and what the ideal system should look like.
Chrisanne Grise: What’s working well in the rehab system right now?

Anne M. Fletcher: I think that there have been changes in the field for the better. Even when I wrote Sober For Good, a lot of approaches to addiction treatment were not compassionate and they were confrontational, and there was this old notion that you tear down the addicts and you build them back up. And that approach to treatment was found to be among the least effective in research studies. If nothing else, that has changed greatly [since then]; I saw no overt confrontation in any place that I visited. But I did hear some accounts from people in places that I didn’t visit that vestiges [of that approach] remain.

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