Although addiction may begin with voluntary use, regular exposure to an addictive substance or behavior may become unmanageable. An individual with an addiction cannot simply stop their addictive behavior through desire. Due to the differences in addiction and addictive behavior, assessing the right treatment level of care is significant for treatment. As such, there are different levels of addiction treatment, and each level of care focuses on a part of the healing and recovery process.

The levels of addiction treatment are:

Outpatient Addiction Service
Intensive outpatient care
Partial hospitalization
Inpatient stabilization and detoxification
Residential
After care, including halfway houses and three-quarter houses
Ideally a client would be able to benefit from all of these levels of care, as they are all part of the healing and recovery process (Capuzzi & Stauffer, 2016). However, the reality of resources, life issues, and availability may prevent every client with addiction problems from receiving all of these services. Assessing the appropriate level of care for your client is significant to a successful recovery.

For this Discussion, choose one of the scenarios provided and examine the levels of addiction treatment.

Scenario 1
Anthony is a sixteen year-old African American male who smokes marijuana no more than three times weekly and mostly on the weekends. His parents were unaware of his drug use until a recent weekend when he was pulled over for a broken taillight and was cited for possession of a controlled substance with a few grams of marijuana. Anthony has never had any encounters with the law, and his mother and father are very upset and have grounded him from spending time with his friends. They bring him to you for treatment and are concerned about his potential for addiction as they learn more about his history of marijuana use. Anthony reports he started smoking once in a while at 14 years old. Anthony denies using any other drugs, but acknowledges that occasionally he has a few beers with his friends, also on the weekends.

Scenario 2
Abigail is a thirty-five year-old Latina woman who is a divorced single mother of two children: a nine year-old son and a seven year-old daughter. She lives with her widowed mother who watches the children while she works evenings as a waitress and bartender at a local tavern. Abigail is popular with the regulars who frequent the bar. She gets tipped with ecstasy, cocaine, and prescription drugs. Abigail has recently started staying out late and occasionally has not come home to be with her children. She uses cocaine during her work shift, and drinks during the week after work. When confronted about staying out all night, Abigail becomes argumentative with her mother and storms out of the house. Her son has started acting out at school and her daughter isolates herself in her room and has begun wetting the bed at night. Abigail’s mother contacts you to consult about how to help her daughter.

By Day 3
Post a brief description of the scenario that you selected and explain which level of treatment is most appropriate for the client and why. Include the criteria for that level of treatment. Finally, based on your review of the levels of treatment, explain which level you are most interested in working in and why. Support your response using the resources and the current literature.