Guides

Where Your Admissions Team’s Hours Go, and Three to Take Back
Where Your Admissions Team’s Hours Go, and Three to Take Back
Treatment programs run on staff time, and it is the resource most programs have least of. Research on substance use treatment programs puts annual counselor turnover between 18.5% and 25%,... Read more...
The Hidden Budget Line: Supplies for Clients Who Arrive With Nothing
The Hidden Budget Line: Supplies for Clients Who Arrive With Nothing
Some clients arrive with too much. Others arrive with nothing at all: no toothbrush, no shower shoes, no clean socks. For most programs, what happens next isn't in any budget.... Read more...
What One Bag of the Wrong Things Costs Your Intake Team
What One Bag of the Wrong Things Costs Your Intake Team
Every admissions director knows the scene. A client arrives in the evening with a bag packed in a hurry by someone who loves them. Then a staff member opens it,... Read more...
Clipboard with a facility packing list showing allowed and banned items
Five Reasons to Send Us Your Facility's Packing List
Every admissions team has watched it happen. A family arrives with a bag packed from a list they found online, and half of it can't come in. Mouthwash, an aerosol,... Read more...
The day before admission: what to have ready
The day before admission: what to have ready
The things that hold up an admission usually aren't in the bag. They're the cards in a wallet, the pill bottles in a cabinet, and the phone numbers nobody has... Read more...
The first week is quieter than you expect
The first week is quieter than you expect
You hand the bag over at ten in the morning. By the afternoon you realise you don't know when you'll hear from them. Nobody warns you about this part. The... Read more...
Why rehab might not let them bring their own pillow
Why rehab might not let them bring their own pillow
A pillow from home is the obvious thing to send. In Pennsylvania it's also one of the items most likely to be sent back. Here's what eleven facilities actually allow. Read more...
The first week home after rehab
The first week home after rehab
Everyone prepares for the day they go in. Almost nobody prepares for the day they come home, and the first week back is when a family's preparation matters most. Read more...
Why Rehab Takes Your Mouthwash: The Reasons Behind the Banned-Items List
Why Rehab Takes Your Mouthwash: The Reasons Behind the Banned-Items List
Every packing list for rehab reads the same way. Two columns. Bring this, don't bring that. No mouthwash, no aerosols, no hoodies with drawstrings, no spiral notebooks. Nobody explains why.... Read more...