Drug and alcohol administrators and operators of houses might therefore need different strategies to address the concerns of different stakeholders. A study published in the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment found sober living home residents experienced improvements in arrest rates, alcohol and drug use rates, and employment rates. The authors found evidence that 12-step program attendance and social support systems were key components of recovery for residents.

Anger is a normal and natural emotion, but how you deal with it will make a difference in maintaining your recovery. Once you do return to work, it’s important to create a budget and take steps to safeguard yourself as work stress can be a relapse trigger. It’s important to develop a structured daily and weekly schedule and stick to it. If PAWS is severe or if you’re experiencing prolonged symptoms, a medical professional can help you work through them and remain in recovery without relapse. The symptoms involved in PAWS can be a barrier to recovery if you’re not careful. In addition to being able to recognize them, it’s important to know when to seek help.

Recovery Residences After Treatment

The number of residents depends on the size of the home or licensed beds in a facility. In most sober-living environments, bedrooms are shared, but some do provide individual rooms. Typically, there are rules about shared living spaces and individual room maintenance and chores, visitor hours, meal times, curfews and Twelve Step meeting requirements. Recovery residences, more commonly known as sober living homes, are dedicated to helping people re-enter society after receiving
treatment for alcohol or drug addiction.

• Some sober-living facilities are only offered for as long as you are in the treatment program.
• Improvements were noted in alcohol and drug use, arrests, psychiatric symptoms and employment.
• Six-month abstinence was a dichotomous yes/no regarding any use of alcohol of drugs over the past 6 months.
• If any area of your life is out of control, it will not help you maintain lasting sobriety.

For some individuals, the limited structure offered by freestanding SLHs could invite association with substance using friends and family and thus precipitate relapse. This could be particularly problematic in poor communities where residents have easy access to substances and people who use them. When an SLH is affiliated with an outpatient treatment program, insurance may pay for a person’s stay at a halfway house. There are some free halfway houses funded by the government or nonprofit organizations, but these may be harder to get into due to demand.

How Long Can I Stay at a Sober Living Home?

It was noteworthy that a wide variety of individuals in both programs had positive outcomes. There were no significant differences within either program on outcomes among demographic subgroups or different referral sources. In addition, it is important to note that residents were able to maintain improvements even after they left the SLHs. By 18 months nearly all had left, yet improvements were for the most part maintained.

Also like other sober-living environments, halfway houses generally have systems in place to keep residents sober, and drugs tests are usually administered to monitor for any substance use. They also often come with additional mental health, medical, recovery or educational services that help people get accustomed to their new lives. The term “sober living house” typically refers to facilities for non-offenders who voluntarily seek help. Most houses require individuals to take part in some kind of addiction treatment program. Some SLHs may offer 12-step program, support groups, or clinical counseling on the premises. Freestanding SLH’s offer a limited amount of structure and no formal treatment services.

Halfway Houses

In general, sober living homes do improve abstinence rates for their residents. One 2010 study looked at residents emerging from two facilities called ORS and CSLT. One study found that mutual support groups can be as effective as 12-step programs and may help improve the odds of success for people who are committed to maintaining a lifetime of total abstinence.

• What’s more, halfway houses have a financial incentive to maintain full occupancy due to the conditions of contracts.
• Former residents and treatment alumni may visit regularly to provide additional guidance and support.
• Even basic statistics, such as the number of halfway houses in the country or the number of people living in them, are difficult to impossible to find.
• If the individual does not find work, fails a drug test, or breaks other rules, they may be sent back to prison.
• The RRC requires inmates to pay a fee for housing costs, and this fee can be up to 25% of their gross income.
• There were no significant differences within either program on outcomes among demographic subgroups or different referral sources.

This is particularly concerning because our analysis of criminal justice offenders in SLHs showed alcohol and drug outcomes that were similar to residents who entered the houses voluntarily. Outpatient programs in low income urban areas might find the Options Recovery Services model of SLHs helpful. Relative to the other housing programs, this model was inexpensive and what is a halfway house the houses were conveniently located near the outpatient facility. Typically, residents entered these SLHs after establishing some period of sobriety while they resided in a nearby shelter and attended the outpatient program. A significant strength of the Options houses was that residents were able to maintain low alcohol and drug severity at 12-month follow up.

Residents in sober-living homes commit to abstaining from substance use while participating in outpatient programming or after completing inpatient drug rehab. Let’s say you or a loved one has almost completed an alcohol or other drug addiction treatment program. Or maybe you’re going to start an outpatient program, but living at home isn’t a sober, supportive environment for you. Quality sober living facilities typically have a low resident to staff ratio. Having an adequate staff count will help maintain a safe, comfortable, and orderly sober living environment.

Contrary to the belief that halfway houses are supportive service providers, the majority of halfway houses are an extension of the carceral experience, complete with surveillance, onerous restrictions, and intense scrutiny. It shouldn’t take exhaustive investigative reporting to unearth the real number of COVID-19 cases in a halfway house. But historically, very little data about halfway houses has been available to the public, even though they are a major feature of the carceral system.

For many people with a substance use disorder, it’s simply a matter of never having learned the appropriate way to manage anger. Talk to your therapist, other healthcare provider, or sponsor about how to deal with your anger in ways that won’t cause you to harm yourself or others or turn to alcohol or drugs. The services and resources a halfway house provides depend on the type of operator, the purpose of the residence and the
types of residents who live there.