What to Expect

Seabrook House is a center for the treatment of alcoholism and chemical dependency. Our goal is to help you achieve meaningful abstinence and educate your family members and significant others on the family disease, in order to support your recovery process. We begin to address negative impairments of your disease. Additionally, your family members/significant others will be integrated into your treatment, whenever possible in order to support your sobriety.

Seabrook House offers inpatient, outpatient, extended care and intervention services to adults only.

Philosophy

Alcoholism and chemical dependency is a diagnosable and treatable disease. The professional staff view this illness as a primary disease that is progressive in nature, which can be interrupted, and recovery begins. In addiction, the individual manifests a dependent relationship with alcohol and other mind-altering chemicals.

The treatment of addiction is dependent upon your daily abstinence, which is contingent on the maintenance of your physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. We believe that your commitment to a daily plan of recovery that utilizes the 12-Step principles and philosophies of Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous enables the likelihood of continued abstinence. However, without a daily plan of recovery, relapse warning signs and triggers will be activated and your physical abstinence is likely to be sabotaged. Your likelihood of success increases as you surrender and accept that you have a treatable disease and are responsible for the maintenance of your daily sobriety.

We also believe that chemical dependency causes complex, destructive personality changes in the family. Families suffer psychologically, socially, and at times physically. Therefore, family integration into treatment is recommended and offered for family members and/or your significant others.

Diagnosis

All individuals, regardless of the program they are being admitted to, receive a patient assessment upon admission, utilizing DSM-IV criteria, in order to make a diagnosis. This is a bio-psychosocial assessment used to determine an initial diagnosis, severity of illness, and an appropriate level of care placement, as developed by the American Society of Addiction Medicine. At this time, your admissions counselor will review the clinical impressions/findings of your assessment, discussing the diagnosis, level of care placement, and recommended direction of therapy.

Important Details

At this time, the counselor will provide you and/or your family with an admissions packet and review its contents so that you may make an informed decision regarding admission to the recommended level of care. This packet will include the following:

1. Patient’s Rights- This document supports and protects your rights as a human being including fundamental human, civil, constitutional and statutory rights. We want you and your family to be involved in your care and fully informed of your rights while you are a patient at Seabrook House. This document provides information regarding individuals who will be responsible for your care while you are a patient.
2. Complaint/Grievance – This is a description of how we attempt to resolve conflicts and grievances if and when they occur.
3. Message About Your Health Insurance – We are more than eager to answer any questions you may have regarding your health insurance, reimbursement, managed care process and financial responsibilities that may incur. A Financial Counselor is available at our main facility five (5) days a week to discuss financial issues and self-pay options.

Seabrook House will also provide you with information regarding our expectations for your involvement and participation in our treatment programs:

1. Patient Standards provide an outline for behavior and expectations for your participation. They are based on practical needs and help you build self-respect and foster self-discipline. They enable you to become a part of our treatment and recovery program. You will be asked to read the standards, and are encouraged to ask questions to the admitting staff prior to your signing the verification signifying that you have read and understand these standards. By signing them, you agree to abide by the standards during your treatment.
2. Program Schedules describe the days and times of specific therapeutic activities that you agree to attend and participate in as a vital part of your clinical treatment protocol.
3. Searchesof your belongings and your person will be conducted upon admission to Seabrook House and upon discretion of the staff to ensure a drug free environment for you and our other patients.

Patients admitted to all programs will be seen by our medical staff and receive a:

1. Nursing Intake – conducted to document physical findings and any medical condition that may require immediate attention. The Clinical Institute Withdrawal Assessment is conducted, allowing nursing staff to measure your withdrawal.
2. Urine Drug Screen(s), standardized laboratory testsblood and urinalysis, may be conducted to further assess your medical condition, ability to participate in treatment, and provide recommendations pertaining to your health needs. A urine pregnancy test will be conducted on appropriate patients. The State of New Jersey also requires that every patient be given a Mantoux to test for tuberculosis. This test is not performed if you have previously tested positive or were tested within the last six (6) months. If this is the case, written documentation must be supplied to us at time of admission. In addition you will not be tested if you are pregnant. An EKG may be performed if you are over fifty (50) years of age or have cardiac history.
3. A physician directed history and physical examinationwill be performed within 24 hours of your admission, unless you were a patient at Seabrook House less than 30 days prior to this admission. This comprehensive assessment of your bio-psychosocial needs enables the physician and the clinical/medical team to recommend individualized treatment plans and medical protocols.
4. Specific medical/detoxification protocols will be reviewed with you by a member of our medical staff.
   a. No pregnant female patients will be detoxed from opiates due to trauma to the unborn child. These patients are maintained on Methadone until the time of delivery and will then be detoxed.
   b. Patients on a low dose of methadone maintenance may be detoxed at Seabrook House, but this must first be reviewed with our Medical Director prior to any admission.

Patients assist the nursing and clinical staff in the development of their individualized treatment plans which are based on diagnosis and recommended clinical direction of therapy. Staff will insure your understanding, input, and agreement with the plan of action by obtaining your signature on the plan.

For Families: What To Expect

The Family Department at Seabrook House is here for you – the family.  As your patient is cared for here at Seabrook House our Family Department is here to care for you.  As you are reading this, chances are your loved one was just admitted into our facility.  You may be feeling frightened, angry and confused.  To help you to better understand the process of treatment, we ask that you read the folder provided you upon admission. This packet has important information for you and may answer many questions. The packet also has a Family Questionnaire that needs to be completed and returned in the self-addressed envelope. If you did not receive a folder, please contact the Family Department at extension 2023.

If your loved one enters detox,  we encourage the first few days to be a blackout phase. This means no contact with the outside world.  This allows the new patient time to adjust and to begin to focus on their treatment. The goal is to have no contact with family members or other significant relationships. It also allows family members and significant others time to ‘catch their breath’. Please be aware, however, that a patient, if he/she insists, has the right to make outgoing phone calls. We ask that you set boundaries with your loved one and do not allow them to call you too frequently. We encourage you to contact our Family Matrix program at 856-455-7575, ext 1158 for assistance in setting boundaries.

During this phase, the patient’s treatment consists of detoxification (as medically indicated), orientation and Foundation Group, which is designed to prepare the patient for the therapeutically-intensive component of their stay.

This component commences with the patient being assigned to a clinical team comprised of a Primary Therapist, a Case Manager and a Family Therapist. The Primary Therapist will provide progress reports to and discuss aftercare plan with appropriate family members following HIPPA regulations on a weekly basis.

We understand that this is a difficult time for families, but ask family members to limit calls to clinical team to once per week as frequent calls may distract from time spent with the patient.

We appreciate the trust you have placed in us to care for your loved one and we look forward to assisting you in reclaiming your family from the ravages of this disease.  The hope for families is in recovery and everyone in the family deserves recovery!

The essentials of recovery include attitudes and behaviors that foster honesty, open mindedness, and willingness. Should you decide to participate in our program, you may experience some physical discomfort (during detoxification), emotional vulnerability, degrees of anxiety related to trust, risk taking, fear of change and growth. However our clinical/medical team members and your peers will support these stages of early recovery to assist you in learning to rely on a sober support system.