Gandara Mental Health Center – Outpatient Services Division

Dual Diagnosis

In Massachusetts, dual-diagnosis addiction treatment programs provide specialized care for individuals with co-occurring substance use disorders and mental health conditions. Levels of care include detox, residential drug and alcohol rehab, and outpatient programs. Each program and level of care includes a comprehensive assessment, individualized treatment plan, and evidence-based therapies, like cognitive behavioral therapy, or dialectical behavioral therapy. You’ll also attend recovery support groups, receive family counseling, and beneficial skills training to help you promote your mental health and sustain long-term recovery.

Mental Health and Substance Abuse

In Massachusetts, dual-diagnosis rehabs are usually the appropriate solution to treat co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders. These facilities typically employ medical and behavioral experts who use a range of interventions, together with the right healing environment, for you to achieve and sustain long-term recovery. Treatment usually includes evidence-based therapies (like cognitive behavioral therapy), recovery support meetings, 12-step facilitation, psychoeducation, skills training, and group therapy.

• Medicaid
• Private insurance
• Self-pay options
• Financial aid
• Financing available
• Sliding scale payment assistance
• Military insurance
• Medicare
• Free

• Adolescence program
• Adult program
• Children program
• Elderly program
• Program for men
• Program for women
• Young adult program

Outpatient

Outpatient programs are designed for clients who are medically stable and not at an elevated risk of relapse, including those who have already completed inpatient care. Outpatient programs typically advance clients’ established treatment plans, offering continuing addiction counseling and recovery education. Clients who enter outpatient care immediately following detox may also receive medical and mental health assessments and personalized treatment plans. Most outpatient rehabs provide multiple levels of care to align with clients’ unique needs.

Medically Assisted Detox

Medically supervised detox is the process of removing addictive substances from your body and managing the withdrawal symptoms in a medically supervised environment. Typically, this is the first step in the recovery process and lasts an average of 5-7 days, though the length can vary depending on your individual needs. Once your system is cleared of alcohol and drugs, you’ll likely transition to an inpatient treatment program for the next phase of your recovery.

Intensive Outpatient

Intensive outpatient programs (IOP) facilitate clients’ sustained sobriety through high-level care aligned with their evolving needs. Clients engage in multiple treatment sessions per week, typically receiving between nine and 20 hours of outpatient care weekly. The frequency and intensity of treatment gradually decreases as clients stabilize. Many intensive outpatient rehabs offer a variety of services, including addiction counseling, recovery-focused life skills training, and medication assisted treatment (MAT). Evidence-based complementary therapies are also common.

Aftercare Support

Completing a drug or alcohol rehab program shouldn't spell the end of substance abuse treatment. Aftercare involves making a sustainable plan for recovery, including ongoing support. This can include sober living arrangements like halfway houses, career counseling, and setting a patient up with community programs like Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) or Narcotics Anonymous (NA).

Assertive Community Treatment

Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) is a structured way of helping those with major mental illnesses and/or substance abuse by bringing services directly to the patient in home. Instead of hospitalization or an outpatient program, staff members like social workers, psychiatrists, and counselors come directly to the patient’s house for treatment. ACT is used primarily for those with severe and persistent mental illness like schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, some of whom also contend with substance abuse. ACT can be short- or long-term (months to years), and provides the same multidisciplinary, 24/7 staffing of a psychiatric unit, but in the comfort of the patient's own home and/or community.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a therapy modality that focuses on the relationship between one's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. It is used to establish and allow for healthy responses to thoughts and feelings (instead of unhealthy responses, like using drugs or alcohol). CBT has been proven effective for recovering addicts of all kinds, and is used to strengthen a patient's own self-awareness and ability to self-regulate. CBT allows individuals to monitor their own emotional state, become more adept at communicating with others, and manage stress without needing to engage in substance abuse.

Couples Therapy

Whether a marriage or other committed relationship, an intimate partnership is one of the most important aspects of a person's life. Drug and alcohol addiction affects both members of a couple in deep and meaningful ways, as does rehab and recovery. Couples therapy and other couples-focused treatment programs are significant parts of exploring triggers of addiction, as well as learning how to build healthy patterns to support ongoing sobriety.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is a modified form of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), a treatment designed to help people understand and ultimately affect the relationship between their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. DBT is often used for individuals who struggle with self-harm behaviors, such as self-mutilation (cutting) and suicidal thoughts, urges, or attempts. It has been proven clinically effective for those who struggle with out-of-control emotions and mental health illnesses like Borderline Personality Disorder.

Family Therapy

Research clearly demonstrates that recovery is far more successful and sustainable when loved ones like family members participate in rehab and substance abuse treatment. Genetic factors may be at play when it comes to drug and alcohol addiction, as well as mental health issues. Family dynamics often play a critical role in addiction triggers, and if properly educated, family members can be a strong source of support when it comes to rehabilitation.

Fitness Therapy

Fitness therapy blends exercise with psychotherapy for a fun, inspiring, and effective way of treating addiction and other issues. By incorporating movement into counseling sessions, clients become more empowered, motivated, and goal-oriented, all while strengthening their bodies and becoming more flexible. Fitness Therapy is usually used to complement a course of treatment (inpatient or outpatient) to make it even more successful. Increasing the connection between a patient’s mind and body helps both with healing as well as in creating new, healthy habits.

Group Therapy

Group therapy is any therapeutic work that happens in a group (not one-on-one). There are a number of different group therapy modalities, including support groups, experiential therapy, psycho-education, and more. Group therapy involves treatment as well as processing interaction between group members.

Individual Therapy

In individual therapy, a patient meets one-on-one with a trained psychologist or counselor. Therapy is a pivotal part of effective substance abuse treatment, as it often covers root causes of addiction, including challenges faced by the patient in their social, family, and work/school life.

Nicotine Replacement Therapy

Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) is a way of getting nicotine into the bloodstream without smoking. It uses products that supply low doses of nicotine to help people stop smoking. The goal of therapy is to cut down on cravings for nicotine and ease the symptoms of nicotine withdrawal.

Nutrition Therapy

Nutrition therapy, aka medical nutrition therapy (MNT), is a way of treating physical, emotional, and medical conditions through diet. Specific dietary plans are designed by professional nutritionists or registered dietitians, and patients follow them in order to positively affect their physical and mental health.

Trauma Therapy

Trauma therapy addresses traumatic incidents from a client's past that are likely affecting their present-day experience. Trauma is often one of the primary triggers and potential causes of addiction, and can stem from child sexual abuse, domestic violence, having a parent with a mental illness, losing one or both parents at a young age, teenage or adult sexual assault, or any number of other factors. The purpose of trauma therapy is to allow a patient to process trauma and move through and past it, with the help of trained and compassionate mental health professionals.

• Executive setting