You can go to almost any state in the United States, Florida, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, California or Nevada and find drug rehabs treating drug addiction, alcoholism and dual diagnosis. Most of these drug rehabs have qualified staff, are proprely licensed and may even provide good drug treatment. The question is what happens when these addiction treatment programs have to do more than provide addiction treatment. Are they capable of providing effective treatment for the “whole person”.

Addiction Treatment for the LGBT

Addiction treatment for a gay man or woman should be no different than for anyone else some people say. While we do not disagree, a therapist will have to be familiar with how to address issues such as homophobia, internalized homophobia, coming out and others. This requires special training and education so as not to reproduce shame and alienation on the part of the patient. Secondly, the drug rehabs that want to effectively treat the gay and lesbian, should provide training and education to everyone working in the rehab. This is to insure that any staff having issues with the gay community be provided the opportunity to resolve these feelings allowing for a postive addiction treatment experience on the part of the patient.

The Addiction Treatment Facility and Housing for the LGBT

This is an area where patients who have issue homophobia really shine. All of their issues rise to the top. Gay men and women are no different than anyone else when it comes to housing. From a clinical perspective, it is an excellent opportunity for patients to learn about each other. To become less judgemental and more accepting, which, is what is taught in general. There are situations in the addiction treatment program where patients just do not get along and living arrangements become counterproductive to recovery. In this situation, housing changes can be made in the addiction treatment facility with reccomendation of the patient’s primary therapist. Every move in the addiction treatment center needs to be clinically driven and not just for the convience of the patient.