Businesses want to make a profit, but are skittish about relying on one customer for all of their revenue. Nonprofit groups should be nervous as well, based on the experience of Craig Lambdin. Lambdin took over MFI Recovery Center, a drug treatment center in California, in 1985.

“They (MFI) existed solely on one government contract,” Lambdin said. “That contract only covered 80 percent of the costs. Pancake breakfasts and car washes didn’t quite make up for the rest.”

The MFI Recovery Center opened in 1972 and had five employees and an annual budget of only $185,000 dollars. It now has 75 employees and a $5 million dollar budget with 12 to 15 government contracts each year. This explosion evolved into a class on how to manage a nonprofit organization like a business.

Lambdin believes that working in a nonprofit setting is no different from running a successful business.

“The stress is the same. At the end of the day, we have to have a bottom line that allows us to pursue the mission the next day,” Lambdin said. Lambdin was a clinical director at another drug treatment center in Riverside, California, when MFI asked him to come in and help turn their financial tide.

“A lot of nonprofits spend their lives on the ropes,” Lambdin said.

The MFI Recovery Center receives funding from both the public and private sectors. About 60 percent of their funding comes from public agency grants and contracts. About 40 percent of the drug treatment center’s funding comes from private citizens and payments from health insurance companies.

Like any other business in the United States, MFI Recovery Center has to consider suitable pricing for their services.

“How can we get funding and price things so basically anyone can get some form of suitable treatment? It doesn’t always work,” Lambdin said.

The economy has made it difficult for businesses and nonprofit organizations are no different. Raising money has been difficult during the recession. The budget for the drug treatment center has been hit by approximately 5 percent. About a year ago, Lambdin had to lay off 20 percent of his employees.

“We literally postponed our annual fundraiser last year because we thought we would actually lose money. It’s been a rough couple of years. It still doesn’t look good for the next year.”

As of March 2008, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration data found 1,725 drug treatment centers in California. Of that number, 1,098 were private nonprofit agencies and 411 were businesses.

MFI Recovery Center has six counseling centers in the counties of Riverside and San Bernardino. They also manage four recovery homes and three residential drug treatment centers. MFI has expanded their services to women and children in addition to men. One of their programs offers counseling targeting toward preventing addiction for preschoolers living in homes where drugs are a problem.

The drug treatment center has tapped into a need for mothers to receive services while being secure in the knowledge that their children are safe.

“We now have more women in treatment than men,” Lambdin said.

In 2008, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, a federal agency, found that there were 621 drug treatment centers in California offering treatment to women. Adult men in California could find programs at 555 drug treatment centers in California.

Related Blogs

• Related Blogs on California
• Mothers For California's Prop. 19 | NORML Blog, Marijuana Law Reform

Alcoholism Treatment Centers in Iowa operate with a specific principle and implement certain treatment programs as per the requirements of the alcoholic patients visiting there. There has been a growth in substance abuse arrests here over the past few years. Statistics for the year 2005 revealed that an estimated 218,000 individuals suffered from alcohol dependency but about 209,000 did not opt for treatment.

The role of these Alcoholism Treatment Centers in Iowa would be clear to you once discussed in details. Although the chief aim of these treatment centers is to recover the addicts from the trap of alcoholism, physical recovery is not the sole target. These treatment centers adopt a holistic approach in order to attain the goal of lifetime sobriety for the addicts living in and around Iowa.

When the addicts visit the treatment centers, a thorough examination is carried out and the addicts are prescribed the specific treatment program meant for their recovery on the basis of the intensity and history of their alcoholism. The treatment programs commences with detoxification. Detoxification refers to a strict process whereby the harmful toxins of alcohol deposited within the addicts’ bodies are flushed out and the bodies are cleansed. Detoxification can be done through inpatient as well as outpatient treatments. Inpatient treatment is meant for those patients whose intensity of alcoholism is extremely high. Such addicts have to stay over in the treatment centers for a strict detoxification. During detoxification, they are forced to stay away from alcohol and remain sober. Alcoholics, when made to refrain from alcohol for a long period, are bound t react vehemently. As a result, withdrawal symptoms occur, which are often quite severe. Such symptoms can be in the form of nausea, rigorous sweating, depression, headache and vomiting. Withdrawal symptoms can even bring fatal consequences. The alcoholic treatment centers are equipped with efficient medical department which addresses these critical issues and combats the crisis. Inpatient detoxification includes 24*7 monitoring and supervision by the physicians and therapists.

Outpatient treatment is meant for the addicts whose level of addiction is not as severe as the inpatient addicts. As the name suggests, it is not compulsory for the addicts to stay with the treatment centers for outpatient treatment. The addicts visit the therapists thrice a week or daily, if it so requires. Detox is carried out by the individual himself at home and he visits the center only for counseling and guidance.

Detoxification is followed by counseling. Alcoholism Treatment Centers in Iowa offer exclusive services and facilities in terms of counseling. The addicts are given special attention; compassionate environment is built to give them comfort and the addicts share a good rapport with the counselors. Whether individually, or in group or even along with their family members, the addicts participate actively in counseling and invite advices from the counselors which pave the way for a sober living in future. Alcoholism Treatment Centers in Iowa perform a noble role and bring out holistic transformation in the addicts, right from their habits to their attitudes and even mindsets.

An alcoholic is not only hurting himself; he can cause great pain for his family, friends, and even the community. Alcoholics also put not only their own lives, but others lives at risk while struggling through addiction by making poor choices. People tend to drive while intoxicated and even begin to commit crimes to afford their addiction. Communities around the country are suffering due to this condition.

Who Can Go to Alcohol Treatment Centers?

Alcohol treatment centers are available for anyone who is willing to put forth the commitment to rid him of this dangerous addiction once and for all. From the moment you check into an alcohol treatment center, you start your new path to recovery. You can start a treatment plan on your own or be forced by the law to do so but either way, it is a new beginning and your life can change dramatically.

Early abstinence is the next step in recovery and that will begin just after the initial detox has taken place and been completed successfully. This step is one of the hardest because you are still battling with the physical addiction and psychological temptations on a daily basis.

In the stage of early abstinence, you will be taught the right tools to use to help you overcome your addiction. You will learn new coping skills and it will all be done under the supervision of a trained and licensed counselor. In this stage not only will you learn the warning signs of a relapse, you will learn how to avoid them and pull through them without taking another drink. You will learn how to live life sober and alcohol free by using all of the tools you have learned in other parts of your life.

Now you will begin to repair old relationships and learn how to build new ones with people who will support your efforts and help you to maintain your new clean lifestyle. Drugs and alcohol no longer will have the control over you that they once had. You will be able to make clear decisions and learn how to manage your stress while being taught anger management tools and learning how to take responsibility for your actions.

The next step will eventually lead you to advanced recovery and here is where you will learn how to maintain your drug- and alcohol-free lifestyle. You will once again be able to enjoy your life as you once did before the addiction took over your life. You will be a better parent and friend and soon become a respected member of your community. Alcohol treatment centers can help you to change your life if you choose to take the first step. Maybe one day you too will be able to help those who are passing down the road you already conquered.

Alcohol-Treatment

Related Blogs

• Related Blogs on About

Treatment for drug addiction has become very specialized over the years.

Back in the days of the early Lighthouse grants, from Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society, when free standng treatment centers were beginning, and there was not quite the large number of recreational substances available, for example, ecstasy had not been synthesized yet, folks just all got put together in a center and went through the same one size fits all treatment process.

There was education and 12 Step work and detox.

Go to meetings and listen to others discuss their experiences of the 12 Steps or 12 Traditions, and talk about yours.

Develop a relationship with a sponsor, and read the Big Book of your program, and prepare to complete the action steps.

Perhaps go on a 12 step call or two, to carry the message to the still suffering alcoholic/drug addict.

Get some phone numbers and call folks in the program for support, those were and are very significant aspects of any treatment for drug addiction.

Not too many years later, the codependence concepts and processes emerged, led by folks like Sharon Wegscheider-Kruse, Claudia Black, Terry Gorski, and Robert Subby among others.

Then there were hospital based programs, and of course the insurance companies demanded things like intensive outpatient treatment, which was cheaper, and drug courts began to emerge, and research began to describe the population more accurately, and out of that research, which continues on, more specific treatments for drug addiction emerged.

There were experiential treatments, like psychodrama, and holotropic breathwork, and medical models emerged.

Then along came the EEG biofeedback model developed at a V.A. Hospital in Texas.

Efforts to work with addicts suffering from dual addictions began, and drug courts started and continue.

Gender based programs are springing up now, because research is showing that folks get a better start in men or women only programs.

For example, research on the DUI population has revealed that there is a segment of that population which will drive under the influence no matter what the legal or personal consequence is.

But treatment for drug addiction no matter what the chemical, still always involves cognitive, physical, emotional, and spiritual interventions of some kind.

In fact, there are computer based programs for cognitive behavior therapy now in the addiction field, which are very interesting, just as there are computer based brain fitness programs.

All of those approaches are still utilizing some capacities of the human brain that have been revealed only in the last few years.

One of those capacities is neurogenesis. Any brain will grow new brain cells on a daily basis if it is not unduly filled with stress hormones or toxic substances. Stress hormones and ethyl alcohol, for example, will kill neuronal stem cells before we get a chance to cement them into existing neuronal networks, but the brain works really hard to create them anyway.

The other capacity of the human brain is neuroplasticity, or the ability of the brain to rewire itself, depending on what we are paying attention to.

I think any treatment program for addiction should emphasize that neuroplasticity or increased helpful brain connections based on what we are paying attention to will aid tremendously in the recovery process.

Those neuroplastic connections can happen in a matter of moments, according to Simon Evans,Ph.D. and Paul Burghardt,Ph.D., co-authors of Brainfit for Life. which is an excellent primer on what is necessary for brain health and fitness.

(Wonder if they ever read William James, or Carl Jung, whose work was very important to the early days of AA?)

While they do not speak specifically to treatment for drug addiction, any kind of healing process or disease process involves the brain.

So we can talk a bit about the pillars of brain health, which are physical exercise, (or activity), nutrition, sleep, stress management, and novel or challenging learning experiences.

If my brain is healthy, then I will be able to make wiser choices in regards to recovery from drug addiction.

The most important pillar of brain fitness is physical exercise, which may conjure up images of having to lift many large heavy objects many times, and getting all sweaty.

While that kind of physical exercise will certain help the blood flow to the brain, physical activity, or doing more of what you are already doing, like walking, will increase blood flow to the brain in the earlier stages of treatment for drug addiction.

It is increased blood flow which enhances neurogenesis and neuroplasticity, and that can be accomplished doing some calesthenics in the basement using a model of 30 second intervals of an exercise, like jumping jacks, then running, or walking in place, then skipping rope, ect. for 10 minutes.

I guarantee you will be winded. That model is called High Intensity Interval Training, or HIIT, and the exercise gurus have refined it expertly.

Actually, one of the side effects of regular exercise besides increased neuroplasticity and neurogenesis, is the production of endorphins, again in the brain, which leave us feeling relaxed and content.

It is a relaxed and content which is better than any resulting from a recreational chemical.

Those endorphins follow exercise.

Of course, no treatment for drug addiction program is going to neglect nutrition.

Your recovery requires giving your body what it needs in terms of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, fiber, phytochemicals, glyconutrients, and omega 3 fatty acids for those recovering neurons in your head.

Your neurons need omega 3 for replacement parts if you will, as neurons are about 60% omega 3 fatty acid.

The best source of omega 3 is ocean going fish, which involves the risk of mercury poisoning, so you may need to consider a supplement. Make sure the supplement is processed to clean out the mercury also.

Besides nutrition and physical exercise, novel learning experiences are required for the brain to maximize neuroplasticity and neurogenesis.

That novel learning experience is usually described as learning a new language or learning a new musical instrument, both of which may be impractical for someon who is in treatment for drug addiction.

However, there are some computer based brain fitness programs well suited to enhance treatment.

The research on on one program, involving the dual n back task, says that the more you practice the more you improve and the tool used to measure the improvement is an IQ test.

The practice involves a time commitment of 1/2 hour a day for 19 days, and even the most jittery detox client can begin in order to get the brain ciruits firing in sequence again.

The point being, if you are living a brain fit life, your treatment for drug addiction can be enhanced and energized by attending to the pillars of brain fitness.

Related Blogs

• Related Blogs on Addiction

Intravenous amino acid rehab treatment for alcohol, drug and substance abuse. Amino acid IV drip and Myers’ cocktails. Alternative body and brain treatment and recovery rehabilitation center. mindandbodyworks.org