How to Choose a Private Rehab Facility in Canada That’s Right for You

How to Choose a Private Rehab Facility in Canada That’s Right for You

• Mandy Sandhu
• 12 Oct 2017

Locating a reputable and highly qualified private rehab facility in Toronto and the surrounding areas can often feel a lot like trying to find a needle in a proverbial haystack. Due to a lack of government-regulated addictions counselling training programs in the province of Ontario, the market has become oversaturated with treatment centres that all claim to be top-notch facilities—and on the surface, they are.

However, once you dig a little deeper, it becomes evident that many of these private facilities are just glorified hotels and the staff is too inexperienced to provide the proper care and support your loved one needs. Many of them are unlicensed and therefore fail to adhere to the same high standards as government-approved or mandated centres. As Canada continues to battle a worsening opiate addiction crisis, the utter lack of accredited private treatment centres in Ontario means that many addicts and their families could end up falling through the cracks without receiving professional help.

What Is Rehabilitation?

In this sense, rehabilitation is the process of helping someone who’s become dependent on drugs, alcohol, or any other illicit and unhealthy vice to heal themselves and get their lives back on track. This can take on many forms including receiving various types of emotional, mental, and physical support from trusted professionals. Depending on the specific needs and situation of everyone involved, different types of professionals such as psychologists, psychotherapists, physical therapists, addictions counsellors, etc. usually offer their services.

Who Is Trained to Deal with Addictions?

Addictions Counsellors

Being a certified addictions counsellor in Ontario should entail receiving rigorous and exhaustive training in the field of rehabilitation. Many addictions counsellors even have a preliminary background in social work, health sciences, or community work. These individuals are committed to working within their local communities to assist families and addicts in identifying the warning signs of possibly harmful compulsive behaviour. One of their main responsibilities is to put together a personalized and feasible solution to the problem that coincides with the beliefs, expectations, and needs of both the affected person and their family. In addition to that, addictions counsellors also often act as a personal support system and mediator between the person suffering from the addiction and their loved ones. They offer an incomparable objective view during a very harrowing and often disorienting time for any family to endure.

Psychotherapists

In many circumstances, receiving extensive treatment for any form of addiction, including drug and alcohol dependency, should include the services of a psychotherapist. Aside from the physical cravings that chemical substances can induce, there are also psychological triggers that can cause a person to relapse. Stress, anxiety, depression, the physical environment, and being in the presence of certain people who are still using these substances or exhibiting destructive and addictive behaviours can all act as potential triggers. Psychotherapists are specially trained in comprehending the nuances of a person’s cognitive behaviours and focus on the personal underlying root causes that may have contributed to a person’s cycle of addiction. Outside of helping patients overcome their addictions and learning new mechanisms to help them cope with potential triggers, psychotherapists are also able to offer professional insight into the cognitive implications of the addiction itself and what the underlying instigators could be.

The Current Situation in Canada

As mentioned, Canada is currently in the midst of one of the worst drug crises it’s faced in decades and it seems like the government is refusing to take any action against this fight. Various opioids or opiates such as heroin, oxycodone, morphine, fentanyl, codeine, and hydrocodone are the most sought-after drugs in the country right now because of their strong, albeit temporary, pain relieving properties. The problem with this particular type of dependency is that each fix is temporary and the longer people use it, the larger the dose they’ll need each time for it to work.

Overuse of these drugs can slowly but surely deteriorate the body from the inside-out and as people increasingly rely on them for pain relief, it becomes impossible to function normally without them. According to The Government of Canada, approximately 2,816 opioid-related overdose deaths occurred in Canada in 2016. That number is disproportionately spread out throughout the provinces and territories with Alberta, British Columbia, and Ontario taking the highest rankings for opioid-related deaths nationwide.

Right now, the situation for addiction counselling in Canada, particularly Toronto, is dire because there’s a lack of provincial funding and regulations to assure that each addiction counsellor undergoes the proper professional training to help people in need. Countless horror stories have been in the news about unlicensed addiction centres mistreating their patients or tricking family members out of thousands of dollars. That’s why it’s important to address the bigger issue: there aren’t nearly enough government-regulated private rehabilitation centres in the province of Ontario to adequately and effectively deal with this problem.

How to Choose the Best Private Rehab Facility in Canada

Here are a few features you should be looking for when investigating private rehab facilities in Toronto:

• • Accredited Treatment Centre in Ontario

This can include credentials and training received from organizations such as Accreditation Canada and Commission on the Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF).

• • Experienced Staff:

This should include education and training from an accredited college or university in the field of addictions as well as in-field experience working with people suffering from addictions and supervised clinical training. All addictions counsellors should be certified by Canadian Addiction Counsellors Certification Federation (CACCF), and any nurses, psychotherapists, medical doctors, and addiction specialists should also be certified and registered in their specific field.

• • Rehab Services

Try to obtain as much information as possible about every facility you investigate and compare and contrast the extent of the services they offer (i.e. inpatient vs. outpatient treatment).

How Freedom From Addiction Can Help

Freedom From Addiction is one of the only private treatment centres in Ontario that’s fully accredited and licensed by Accreditation Canada. Our facility employs the highest standards and practices when it comes to providing personalized addiction care and rehabilitation in Ontario. We offer intensive counselling, onsite medical detoxification services, as well as lifetime aftercare for patients and their family members. To learn more about the compassionate and comprehensive addiction treatment we provide, please contact us today.