Alcohol Rehab – UK or Abroad?

Making The Tough Decision

If you have been doing your research, you will probably have seen that there are several alcohol treatment centres to choose from both in the UK and abroad. If you are undecided about which option may be best for you or your loved one, we have put together some of the factors to consider when making this decision.

• Alcohol rehabilitation in the UK is regulated by the Care Quality Commission (cqc.org.uk) which means that all rehab centres have to adhere to nationally approved standards as evidenced by regular unannounced inspections. In other countries, there is a far less uniform approach and in most cases there is no inspection at all meaning that services are both unregulated and can vary greatly in quality.

• Family therapy or family involvement can be a key element to a successful rehab programme. This can potentially be achieved in an overseas rehab clinic but is far more difficult to structure.

• What happens in treatment is obviously important but in many cases, what happens after the residential rehab programme is even more important. We have treated many clients over the years who had tried a rehab programme abroad but found it very difficult to adapt to life on their return from a treatment centre abroad.

• The price of treatment programmes can vary from country to country. Most treatment centres in Europe are in a similar price range. Due to exchange rates, some consider flying to South Africa or Thailand to try and find cheaper programmes but there is very little follow up as to how successful these programmes are due to less regulation.

• One factor which must always be considered is safety. No treatment centre has 100% success rates and on rare occasions, clients will discharge themselves from treatment. Although this is not an ideal scenario in any country, most families would rather their loved one be in the UK if this was to happen.

• Any treatment abroad involves a length journey usually by plane. Due to the availability of alcohol on aeroplanes, strict flying regulations and the potential health risk of seizures, one must be very careful before committing to flying if suffering from an alcohol problem.

For these reasons, and many others, we would recommend that attending an alcohol rehab programme in the UK is the best and safest option. There are a variety of centres you can choose from, and in our opinion, whatever form of alcohol rehab programme you are looking for, you will find in the UK