Alumni Programs Help You Maintain Your Sobriety
You took time away from your job, home, family and friends in order to learn the skills and ability to remain clean and sober. A residential treatment center like D’Amore Healthcare is designed to take you out of your old life and open you up to a new way of living. While at D’Amore, patients experience a life-long change in behavior. Equally important are the unique and lasting bonds created with staff and peers. These connections are the beginning of your sober support network – in other words, your recovery family. Once the excitement and feelings of accomplishment of getting sober start to subside, you’ll start to understand the importance of these connections. D’Amore Healthcare provides aftercare planning and alumni support that will make all the difference in maintaining your sobriety.
An Aftercare Community Offers Added Support
D’Amore Healthcare’s alumni program provides an aftercare community in which you can maintain relationships post-discharge. It offers a locus for the friendships that were forged and continue to provide support. We look forward to our discharge days as a time to reunite with blood family and old friends. As it ticks closer, however, we start to notice fear and anxiety rearing their ugly heads. Our patients and their family feel a sense of relief when they learn they can participate in our alumni events, weekly support groups and social media connections. Continuing the connections you established during treatment will enhance the good habits you learned in treatment and better prepare you for a sober life. Like-minded social support is proven to lead to impulse control and increasing self-respect. It becomes much harder to use when you have a strong recovery family of brothers and sisters watching your back.
Preparing for the Return Home After Treatment
Elbert Hubbard says, “The best preparation for good work tomorrow is to do good work today.” Preparing for a successful discharge from treatment is an important step towards a life in sobriety. Engaging in group, psychiatry and activities during treatment allows you to practice using each new tool in your arsenal. As time goes by, engagement leads to readiness for more responsibility with less external reminders or prompting.
Going home can be an anxiety-filled moment. Being prepared for this experience by following a discharge plan is the most important thing you can do after you leave treatment. The discharge plan conveys important resources, timely information about medication and tips for maintaining your goals. Aftercare and feeling supported by an alumni community is an important component of discharge planning.
Some of the ways you can stay connected as alumni include:
- Our blog
- The D’Amore Monday Night Support Group
- social media
- newsletters
- alumni events
If you our someone you know is struggling with drugs or alcohol, please seek help today. And if you have graduated from our program, please keep in touch! Whether it’s in person at our Monday night support group or via social media, we love to hear from you and we’re proud to be a part of your recovery family!