Why Aftercare Matters: The Role of Continuing Care in Preventing Relapse After Addiction Treatment

It’s hugely important for people with addictions who have received treatment to be provided with aftercare. Thorough and efficient care helps to keep people securely in sobriety. It also equips them to manage triggers, relapse, and in setting up a sustainable healthier lifestyle.

Here we explore how rehabs and addiction treatments support those in recovery through continuing care and how people use treatment to remain abstinent.

How continuing care helps to prevent relapse

Continuing care is a term used to describe the ongoing care put in place for people with addictions who have reached sobriety after a stay at rehab. It’s essential for the person to be fully supported and to feel secure in their ongoing recovery journey.

When ongoing care plans are established and people are actively engaged in them, the chance of relapse is reduced and long-term abstinence is more achievable. It’s essential for anyone to successfully maintain sobriety.

During addiction treatment, professionals and the person involved will work together to develop an aftercare plan which kick-starts once they exit treatment. Usually a counsellor or support worker sits down with the person to discuss the plan.

They’ll help the person to envisage the life they want beyond treatment, including the goals they have and what they’d like to achieve. All areas of life are taken into account (family, work, hobbies, housing etc.).

For many this includes taking part in new activities, such as hiking, wood work, gardening, or painting (anything of interest). What’s great about developing in interest areas is that it brings the joy of a new skill as well as introducing a new community. For those new to sobriety spending time with people whose activities aren’t focused on substance is essential.

The aftercare plan will also outline various new, healthy coping mechanisms that the person has acquired during treatment, a list of helpful people and organisations to be in contact with as necessary, and any ongoing contact arrangements planned with those who have already offered treatment.

Outlining the ongoing care is incredibly important to help prevent relapse. It also supports the addicted person to develop a meaningful life where they can find pleasure in healthy activities and connections.

How rehab clinics support people beyond their stay

While at rehab, people gain a huge range of skills. These are linked to the psychology of motivation and what drives behaviour. For instance, cognitive behavioural therapy is used as a basis to support people to separate their thoughts from their feelings and therefore from their behaviours.

When these are separated and a person’s able to unpick what triggers a thought and can address the thought or alter how it plays out on their feelings, then they’re better equipped to manage their behaviours. At rehab, this is integral to changing behaviour and repeated practice supports ongoing new, healthy responses and behaviours.

Many newly acquired skills like this are established at rehab, practiced during the course of a stay (hence one of the reasons why longer stays are more effective in preventing relapse), and employed long-term to self-manage when a person returns home.

The rehab staff will also signpost residents via their aftercare plan to local support groups and helpful organisations that help people with addictions as well as social media groups that are set up to include fellow rehab residents. WhatsApp groups, for example, are often used as a space for alumni residents to stay in contact with people they met at rehab.

Some rehabs offer family group work during a stay and where this has been particularly helpful and there might be a need for ongoing input, rehab staff might encourage ongoing family support from local counsellors.

Depending on individual circumstances there might be some check-ins between alumni residents and rehab staff, however, this tends to pass on to more local professionals beyond rehab.

How does the length of a rehab stay impact aftercare?

Residents can stay at a clinic for as short as a detox might be (usually between seven to ten days) or up to three to six months for the ongoing therapeutic work and establishing of new behaviours and coping mechanisms.

The longer a person stays at rehab, the more likely their recovery is to be successful and for risk of relapse to be significantly reduced. While all people require an in-depth aftercare plan and continuing care, it’s perhaps more significant that a person who has had a shorter stay has a thorough and very “active” plan.

An active plan will include regular group engagement which might include 12 Step meetings, or connecting with peer mentors, and attending healthy activities with sober communities. It might also include weekly therapy and weekly check-ins with an addiction professional linked to the rehab clinic or local outpatient services.

One study mentioned that “Peer-delivered interventions… were associated with decreased rates of relapse and re-admission, increased engagement, and increased social support for change.”(1) This is why the commitment to engaging with ongoing peer support and sharing experiences, challenges, and successes is essential.

Those who have stayed at rehab longer will be encouraged to stay connected to the recovery community as well. At a certain point (i.e. six months), the sober person is likely to be encouraged to become a peer mentor. This brings value to many people by giving back to the community and often helps them to remain focused on sobriety themselves.

It’s important for people to have a positive support network around them to help them stay focused.

How comorbid conditions affect the need for rehab aftercare

It’s common for people with addictions to have other conditions, too. Many have addiction alongside a mental health issue, neurodiversity, and eating disorders. In these types of cases, it’s especially important for aftercare to be well-planned. As well as the addiction, there should be support associated with other condition.

Living with one of these conditions alone is challenging and can be linked to triggers, cravings, etc. Therefore, the person needs to be guided to understand themselves more deeply and to be given the tools to effectively self-manage and to connect to helpful others.

For instance, if a person struggles with ongoing anxiety, they should be supported to access therapy through the NHS, or privately, so that the new coping tools gained at rehab are further inculcated after returning to regular life.

How people support themselves around relapse

Actively participating in managing the “Self” equips a person to reduce their risk of relapse. It has to be highlighted that to stay sober takes a huge amount of focus, willpower, and daily engagement practising all the new skills and behaviours that have been learnt at rehab. This is partly why a support network is so important. It isn’t easy. Every day presents its own challenges; it just gets a little easier each day that passes, especially as a person begins to see their own resilience and new ways of coping.

In recovery, a person has to commit to using new skills to manage triggers and cravings, to continue growing in self-awareness and engaging with peer groups, and potentially engaging with counsellors or therapists.