Personal Experience In A Drug And Alcohol Rehab

By Author: Henry Ford
Total Articles: 189
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I was an alcoholic for two years and I had given up all hope for being sober ever again. That is when I made up my mind to drink myself to death. I blamed everyone for my drinking problem and I even contemplated suicide. I believed that nothing would save me from this problem apart from death. That is when my parents decided to take me to a drug and alcohol rehab center in the city. The experience that I attained on my first visit to a rehab center is one that I will never forget. I regret up to this day why I had to go there. The nurses at the center treated us like little children and this was very annoying. The help that they said they were giving us was not help at all but it was some dump and pointless advice. Their first impression when they welcomed me was nice, friendly and warm. And at first I saw hope and recovery. But after staying there for three days, I knew that all this was some kind of good public relations.

Within the first two days, things were really looking good. The nurses showed me around the center, introduced me to other people with the same problem as mine and also to some doctors and members ...
... of staff. They also gave me guidance and talked to me about what to expect and what should be expected of me. This made me feel quite at home. But little did I know what was in store for me within the next few days. Because of my history of being violent and contemplating suicide, I was placed in a lock up ward which was not different from a police cell. This really terrified me because i am usually claustrophobic and very much afraid of being alone in a confined place. Everything that I had was taken away from me including my clothes, shoes and belt. Just like in a police cell. I was not allowed to see any one or do anything apart from just being locked up. I was even being escorted while going to the bathroom!, when my parents, friends and relatives came to visit me, they were thoroughly searched and this was very embarrassing to me and to them. What I was wondering is whether the nurses thought that my visitors would bring me something that would make me become violent and harm other patients, the nurses or myself. I had gone there for alcohol addiction treatment and I was taken like a madman. I figured that even mental hospitals do not treat their patients and visitors like so! After a few days I felt relieved when I was transferred to an open ward. That is when my treatment started. I was introduced to my alcohol councilor who I did not like at all. But there was one nurse who was nice to me and she helped to deal with the issues that I was required to deal with. I was guarded by a nurse for a few more days but she was later relieved when the counselor thought that I had become stable and less violent. I felt so good and relieved when I was given permission to go home with my parents and spend a few hours with them. This was done to assess how I would cope at home. After two weeks, I requested to be discharged and I was gladly given the permission. That was the best time of my life. I felt so well and healthy when I went back home. I feel so happy now, am physically fit, and my mental state is healthy and stable.

This experience at the rehab center is one that will forever live me for the rest of my life. I have stopped my old habits of drinking and it is not because of the treatment that I received at the center, but because of the fear of going back there. I have changed my behavior in an effort to prevent the unpleasant experience of a rehab center.

What distinguishes Quality care service to me is the performance of the medical practitioners, appropriate delivery of the health care to the patient, accessibility of the health care to the patients, satisfaction by the patient of the health care that he or she is given, continuity in the deliverance of the health care, maximum performance of the staff involved in the delivery of the health care service and reduced risks in the delivery and after the delivery of the health care services. The medical personnel should perform professionally to ensure that the patients are well catered for and that they are not treated as prisoners. Also they should be able to diagnose and treat the patient for what he or she is suffering from. There should also be good interpersonal relationship between the patient and the nurses and doctors.

This experience did not meet my expectations at all. The unfriendliness of the counselor and the nurses, my treatment as a mad man or prisoner and being locked up in a solitary ward did not meet my expectations of quality health care. The nurses and the doctors should have treated me as an alcoholic patient and not as a madman. In this regard they should not have locked me up in a ward but should have kept me in an open ward. Also my visitors should not have been searched as it happened but should have been around to see me without being searched because I was not a criminal. My alcoholic counselor should have been friendly to me and should have shown concern, desire and care in treating me. The nurses should have treated me as a grown up person rather than take me like a small kid. They should have also trusted me as a responsible person who would take care of himself and hence I should not have been guarded for 24 hours like a prisoner. Privacy to all patients is important.

Therefore the medical practitioner including the doctors and nurses should have offered me some privacy especially while going to the bathroom. Also they should not have taken all my clothes away as they did. The rehab center should have been a place where the treatment and counseling that I received helped and reformed me rather than being reformed by the nasty experience.

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