Going to a new place alone can feel scary, and a stay in rehab often means that you need to leave your friends and family behind temporarily while you focus on healing. In the days leading up to your stay, it is normal to have lots of questions about what will happen. You may be wondering about whether or not you can have visitors. You might also be wondering about how visitation is addressed in your rehab. After all, you want to be able to talk to the people who are the closest to you. One of your concerns might be the question of do drug rehabs drug test visitors. This is a valid question if you want someone to visit you who is known to use drugs or if you have someone in your life who is simply nervous about being asked to undergo a test. In most cases, rehabs don’t drug test visitors. Yet, it is also worth investigating your question further to understand why you are worried along with finding out a few more things about what happens during a normal visitation session.
The first thing that you need to think about is who you are interested in having come to visit you in rehab. Most rehab centers require you to provide a list of approved visitors. This helps them to protect your confidentiality and keep you safe from accidentally being forced to see someone that you don’t want to visit with in at the center. During this portion of the admissions process, you will be asked to avoid listing anyone that you know is currently using drugs. This helps to reduce the possibility that someone could show up with drugs that tempt you to give into your cravings. One of the main reasons why drug treatment works is because the rehab facility is a drug-free zone where you should not be placed into tempting situations. Each person in the facility does their part by being careful who they bring into the building.
How Do Drug Rehabs Handle Visitation?
Trust is an important part of recovery, and it begins with giving you the option of having visitors. Most drug treatment programs welcome friends and family members who can play a supportive role in the recovery process. Your loved ones may also be invited to come to the facility to join you for counseling sessions that help you work through the relationship issues that your addiction caused. When you enroll in a treatment program, the staff gives you information about how they handle visitation. Every facility has different rules, but they typically follow similar guidelines. These include having specific hours when people can visit you. When you consider that you are in a group living environment, it just makes sense that you can’t have people drop in to see you at midnight. Besides that, you need your rest to help you get the most out of your therapeutic sessions. You may also be restricted to only have family members or people that you live with visit rather than distant friends and coworkers. Keep in mind that most programs are fairly flexible, so be sure to speak up if you have a need for a visitor that might fall outside of the normal guidelines.
When people come to visit you in the facility, they may be asked to follow a few simple safety rules. These may include the following:
• Leave cell phones in the car
• Lock up purses and bags
• Avoid using full names
• Never bring drugs or alcohol into the facility
• Offer positive support
Drug testing is usually not performed, but some facilities screen visitors on an as needed basis by using methods similar to what you might see at an airport such as metal detectors. This is always done with consent and merely used to reduce the risk of drugs or weapons being brought into the safe zone. Your visitation may also take place in a supervised area such as a communal room, depending upon the policies at your rehab. However, you will be able to talk freely to your visitor and share things that you are working on with them.
Your decision for a rehab should include thinking about everything that you need to feel comfortable during your stay. If having visitors is important to you, then you need to find out how your preferred rehab handles letting your friends and family come to support your recovery. We understand how important it is to begin your treatment with every detail in place. We can help you find a treatment program that accepts supportive visitors. Give us a call today at 833-820-2922!