REHAB
Stan Hart
New York: Harper & Row, 1988
513 pp., $10.95
Rehab is a welcome road map through the vast and still growing number of drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers in the United States. Stan Hart spent two years traveling to hundreds of centers across the country. A recovering alcoholic himself, his evaluations reflect the point of view of someone who has been there. "Treatment saved my life," says Hart, "and I wanted a learn more about it." The inspiration for his book came while he was working as a volunteer at a detox center in Martha's Vineyard. "I saw that people were referred to treatment in a kind of hit or miss and haphazard manner."
The result of Hart's effort is more than a directory. He leads us into each facility for a firsthand look. The reader is made to feel as if he has visited the treatment center himself; as if he has eaten meals there, attended group therapy sessions, interviewed the clinical staff personally. Hart provides the location of the centers and information about the length of treatment, cost, staff qualifications, and so on. Considering the enormous demand for treatment, Rehab is, surprisingly, the only book of its kind.
Nothing magical
Hart prefers solid treatment schedules that offer plenty of order ("patients' lives are crying for order"). Emphasis on group therapy is also important to him ("people help each other get well"). He often finds staffs comprised primarily of former addicts recovering in twelve step programs like Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Narcotics Anonymous (NA). According to Hart, the majority of these men and women love their jobs, love the human race, and live in accordance with an altruistic value system that emphasizes "service to others, kindness, and faith." Underpaid and dedicated, these people are "saving lives and repairing families."
Clearly, addicts and alcoholics are capable of continuing to drug and drink until it kills them--spiritually, then emotionally, and finally, physically. The treatment process addresses these three areas. The physical body must be detoxed, the emotions revived through discipline and compassion, and the spirit restored through a sense of belonging and purpose.
Nothing magical, or even particularly scientific, goes on behind the doors of a treatment center. The bottom line of all treatment is the provision of an oasis in time in which a chemically dependent person can face the reality of addiction and receive a supportive structure in which to begin the long-term process of recovery. What happens is more of a transformation through inspiration than change by clinical standards. Ultimately, no treatment center, no matter how good, can help people unless they are willing to help themselves.
Treatment centers attempt to instill in individuals values and standards that will offer them a more gratifying life than that offered by drugs. In a very real sense, counselors and staff members at treatment centers are picking up the pieces of a society that has promoted instant gratification, material success at any cost, and the glorification of objects and
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