Psychoeducational therapy has become a very effective form of psychotherapy to treat mental health disorders. While it has gone by several names in the past, it combines elements of education, group therapy, and cognitive behavioral therapy so that clients and their families understand mental health disorders and work together to improve treatment.

Laguna View Detox is an inpatient rehab in Orange County. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help through comprehensive addiction treatment options that keep your needs in mind.

How Psychoeducational Therapy Works

Psychoeducational therapy for addiction has proven more effective than other traditional therapy forms because of the educational element. It gets its name because education is heavily linked to all aspects of treatment.

Psychoeducational therapy provides clients with accurate information about their conditions, such as depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and addiction. It also puts clients in a position to make informed decisions about their care. This goes beyond the decisions applicable to a treatment plan with an inpatient program and extends to making active decisions about aftercare and medication management long after therapy is over.

Understanding Addiction or Mental Health Disorders

Many people seeking treatment for addiction or co-occurring mental health disorders know little about how their conditions work. People who don’t understand how therapy works or what symptoms are associated with a mental health disorder are more likely to relapse. Plenty of people are afraid of getting help because they don’t know what to expect, and the unknown is more terrifying than anything else. 

It is common for clients to hesitate when it comes to detox treatment, especially because they are worried about managing symptoms and what they might expect during the process. Clients might hesitate to take medication, especially during the rest of their treatment, because they don’t know what positive or negative side effects they might face.

With psychoeducational therapy for addiction, everyone is given insight into:

• How a condition like addiction or depression works
• What to expect during detox based on personal history of addiction
• What positive or negative effects might come from medication
• What to expect in therapy sessions

Adherence to Therapy

This education not only improves symptom management but has been proven effective in encouraging client adherence to their treatment. When clients understand why their therapist made a specific recommendation and why that recommendation is likely to help them manage symptoms, they are more likely to follow through with it.

Clients work heavily in an open communication style with their therapists so they feel comfortable asking questions, learning, and alleviating their fears about treatment.

Psychoeducational Therapy Goals

Goals will, to some degree, be personalized. When you reach out to our team at Laguna View Detox, your therapist will work with you to find personalized goals in recovery. However, overarching goals include:

• Learning about your mental health disorder
• Learning how to prevent a relapse
• Learning about crisis management and trigger identification

Psychoeducational Therapy for Addiction

While originally designed to treat mental health conditions, psychoeducational therapy has now extended its reach into treatment for addiction. With psychoeducational therapy for addiction, clients can learn coping skills that help them better manage symptoms and prevent relapse. 

These coping skills are more effective with this type of therapy because they are grounded in the knowledge of how addiction works, what personal triggers exist, and why those coping skills are so important.

Getting Psychoeducational Therapy for Addiction with Laguna View Detox

At Laguna View Detox, we understand the importance of an ongoing psychoeducational therapeutic relationship. Not only is education essential for understanding addiction or any co-occurring mental health disorders, but clients need the opportunity to receive ongoing answers and support.

Clients who participate in psychoeducational therapy have the opportunity to continually ask questions as their situation changes or as new triggers or symptoms emerge. With our treatment center, clients can trust that the therapist with whom they work will provide them with accurate information from reputable sources. 

With Laguna View Detox, we work with each client to offer psychoeducational therapy for addiction alongside:

• CBT
• DBT
• Family therapy
• Motivational interviewing
• Aftercare programs

Family therapy is an essential part of the programs we provide. Psychoeducational therapy can be successfully combined with family therapy to improve motivation, adherence to a program, and help thwart relapse. 

Our ultra-luxury facility overlooks the Pacific Ocean. With ocean views and semi-private rooms, every client has a chance to reflect on what they have learned in their therapy sessions with private walking paths to the beach and group therapy activities. 

Contact us at (205) 859-2525 to see if psychoeducational therapy is a good fit.

If you are struggling with substance abuse, it’s essential to take any and all safety measures to reduce your risk, especially your risk of overdose. Today, there is a high risk of Fentanyl being combined with other drugs, and if you are unaware that there’s Fentanyl in your drugs, it can lead to an overdose. However, learning where to buy fentanyl test kits and how to use them can help you mitigate this risk.

LVD is a luxury rehab in Laguna that offers comprehensive addiction treatment services in California.

Why Use Fentanyl Test Kits

If you are struggling with addiction, it’s essential that you practice whatever safety measures you can. Fentanyl is an incredibly powerful opioid, and if you are using drugs that contain Fentanyl without your knowledge, it can increase your risk of overdose.

 Fentanyl can be found in:

• Heroin
• Cocaine
• Crack
• Methamphetamine
• Ketamine
• Non-prescription pills 

You cannot detect it with smell, taste, touch, or sight, which means you won’t be able to see that there’s Fentanyl mixed in your drugs, nor will you be able to smell it or taste it. The only way you can really know if there’s Fentanyl is to use fentanyl test kits so that you can reduce your risk of an overdose.

How Do Fentanyl Test Kits Work?

Modern fentanyl test kits involve test strips that you use to tell if there is any fentanyl in your mixture and, if so, how much. There are three ways you can use the test strips, based on preference:

Option One

The first option is to take all of your drugs and dissolve them in water. This is the most accurate way to use fentanyl test kits because Fentanyl is not necessarily present in equal amounts throughout all of your drugs.

Think of it like tossing baking ingredients together in a bowl but not really mixing it well. If you test just a small section of the bowl, you might see different results than another.

If you use this method to test, you can drink the drugs after, snort with nasal spray devices, or let the water evaporate.

Option Two

The second option is to crush all of the drugs on a clean, hard surface, place them in a bag, and shake them up. Then, empty the bag and add water to the bag and the drug residue within the bag. Then, you’ll test the same way you do with the first option.

Option Three

The third option is to place ten milligrams in a dry container. This is equal to enough drugs to cover the hair on Lincoln’s face on a penny. Then, you can follow the exact instructions as option two.

Note: For all three options, your subsequent steps involve mixing water and then placing the test kits face down in the water with the wavy side completely submerged for fifteen seconds. Then you take it out, put it on a dry surface, lay it flat, and wait until it provides results two minutes later.

The results you receive from fentanyl test strips work very similarly to pregnancy tests in that you will see one line as a positive indicator that Fentanyl exists or two lines as a negative indicator.

If you use these test strips alongside other risk-reduction strategies, you can decrease your risk of overdose. 

Where to Buy Fentanyl Test Kits

So, where do you go to buy fentanyl test kits? The CDC and SAMHSA created a Federal grant program so that harm reduction centers and nonprofit drug treatment facilities could purchase these test strips using grant money and provide them to those in need.

These test strips cost about one dollar each. However, there are plenty of places where you can find them for free, such as local health departments, community organizations, or needle exchange programs.

Note: Fentanyl test kits are not legal everywhere. Some states consider them drug paraphernalia.

Other Ways to Get Help

Laguna View is a luxury facility overlooking the ocean. Our facility offers the highest level of evidence-based treatment, including Orange County drug detox services, residential care, CBT, DBT, family therapy, and aftercare.

If you are looking for comprehensive treatment for your addiction, we can help. We can also provide information on where to find fentanyl test kits and how to avoid overdose. As a program that cares, we work hard to ensure every client gets customized treatment to meet their needs.

Call our team today to verify your benefits and get started.