Top 7 Alabama Cities for Recovery
Alabama ranks no. 1 in the entire United States for prescription drug use, with almost twice as many people receiving prescriptions for narcotics as the rest of the country. As a result, it’s not surprising that it ranks very highly for prescription drug abuse as well.
If you or a loved one are in need of addiction treatment and drug or alcohol rehabilitation in Alabama, you have a wide variety of facilities and treatment programs available to help you. Take a look at what each of these seven cities in Alabama offers in regards to addiction treatment.
1. Alabaster
Alabaster, Alabama is home to a single addiction treatment center, run by Shelby County. This center offers a full-range of services, helping those in need of both substance abuse treatment and detox. Methadone detox and maintenance are both offered here, as well as buprenorphine drug treatment featured as part of the outpatient care facilities.
The Shelby County treatment center opens its doors to a wide range of groups requiring special services, including dual diagnosis patients who have co-occurring mental health disorders.
The LGBT community, people with AIDS or HIV, and pregnant and postpartum women can all received specialized treatment here, as can seniors and older adults. Criminal justice clients referred by the court system also receive treatment here, and Spanish language and ASL translation services are available. The addiction center takes private health insurance as well as self-payment.
2. Hoover
This sizeable city south of Hoover reflects the same kinds of substance abuse issues that are found throughout Alabama, with young people using illegal substances in significant numbers and graduating to harder drugs as they get older.
Treatment centers in Hoover attempt to help the whole person, offering treatment options for those with dual diagnoses of mental health problems, whether these mental disorders have been triggered by the addictions or are pre-existing conditions that are exacerbated by the substance abuse.
3. Birmingham
Alcohol abuse starts young in Birmingham, with 24 percent of residents having driven under the influence by the age of 20. Young people are likely to abuse cannabis and prescription drugs more than other illegal substances. Aware of the issues, local governments have invested early intervention programs designed to direct young people away from substance abuse. These programs team with local law enforcement, health care facilities, educational institutions, and different communities to reach the city’s young people.
Birmingham has also invested in a wide range of detox and rehab facilities. The Jefferson County Drug Court was established in 1996 to handle cases of property and violent personal crime related to drug abuse. This court replaces prison sentences with mandatory treatment in an effort to help them to regain their lives, and its track record is one of success.
With more than three dozen addiction treatment facilities available in Birmingham, those seeking treatment have many options to fit their unique needs. Residential short-term treatment is available for those with HIV and AIDS, with outpatient or long-term residential treatment offered at different facilities. Some facilities designed to treat women also provide beds for their children, and separate treatment centers focus their care on adolescents and teens. Many treatment centers offer services in Spanish or ASL, and several are equipped to take dual diagnosis patients with co-occurring mental health disorders.
Several addiction treatment centers in Birmingham offer sliding payment scales that base fees on income and other factors, and other centers have payment assistance available to those paying for their own treatment without insurance. Most centers accept private health insurance, and several also accept Medicaid, military insurance or Tricare, and other state-financed health insurance plans.
4. Mobile
The young people of Mobile have significant problems with drug and alcohol abuse, with 58 percent of the city’s 12th-graders using alcohol regularly and 50 percent using marijuana. This problem is a reflection of substance abuse issues in the larger population, with Mobile ranking in the top 10 counties in Alabama in terms of arrests for drug or alcohol use.
In response to these issues, the city has established its Partnership for a Drug-Free Mobile program, which reaches out to intervene in various ways.
In particular, Mobile provides resources to parents to help them understand how to talk in age-appropriate ways to kids at any age about drug and alcohol abuse. The resources also help parents understand the vital importance of staying involved in their children’s lives, as well as the role that peer pressure plays and how to mitigate against it.
As part of the Partnership for a Drug-Free Mobile, the city has instituted a media campaign to raise awareness of local treatment facilities, especially because many people in the past felt they had to leave town to seek treatment. The program’s media outreach also provides a helpline to answer questions about substance abuse and to direct people toward help.
Mobile now has more than a dozen addiction treatment centers, drug and alcohol treatment programs, and rehabilitation clinics located throughout the city. Some outpatient programs offer methadone detox, including detox aimed at patients who have dual-diagnoses with co-occurring mental health issues. Detox facilities provide support from medical personnel to help people make it through withdrawal and progress on to rehab and recovery. Services for the deaf and hard of hearing are available, as are treatment options for adolescents and teens, seniors, and clients of all ages who have been referred from the criminal justice system for treatment.
While some treatment centers only accept self-payment in cash, others accept private health insurance, state-financed payments, military insurance, and Medicaid, and some offer sliding fee scales or payment assistance for those unable to pay.
5. Huntsville
Huntsville has been working hard to find ways to keep the city’s young people from turning to drugs. By the age of 17, about 13 percent of Huntsville’s teens have abused cannabis, with 4 percent abusing prescription drugs taken for non-medical reasons. Smaller but still disturbing numbers abuse cocaine, hallucinogenic drugs and inhalants. Because those using addictive substances are more likely to progress to hard drug use, the city of Huntsville considers intervention, especially with young people, to be an urgent matter.
Studies by the city of Huntsville revealed that most of the city’s people who had a substance abuse problem were employed full-time, revealing that the city’s substance abuse problem stretches across socioeconomic categories.
In response to the disconcerting numbers, Huntsville established education and community outreach programs to connect people needing treatment to detox and rehabilitation facilities within the area and to tailor treatment to the unique needs of each individual, with a strong focus on providing treatment to people with co-occurring mental health disorders. They’ve also tried to establish alternatives for young people to keep them away from dangerous substances.
In addition to addiction treatment centers aimed specifically at younger people, various facilities in Huntsville also offer treatment designed for seniors, people with HIV and AIDS, and the LGBT community, as well as services for the deaf and hard of hearing. Some treatment centers are inpatient facilities located within hospitals, while others are residential treatment centers that focus on providing mental health treatment as well as substance abuse treatment, detox, and rehab. Several treatment centers offer financial assistance for those unable to pay for their own treatment, and many accept private health insurance, Medicaid, and military insurance.
6. Montgomery
The Alabama Department of Mental Health handles substance abuse problems in Montgomery through its Division of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, which provides comprehensive prevention and treatment options not only for drug abuse and addiction but also for alcoholism. The Division of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services certifies and monitors addiction treatment centers for compliance with state standards.
The comprehensive approach of many of the addiction treatment centers in Montgomery includes an emphasis on behavioral therapy, taking treatment far beyond just initial detox in an effort to help patients develop the ability to stop seeking addictive substances in the future. Most Montgomery addiction treatment centers continue to monitor their patients to help them avoid relapse during the recovery phase of their treatment.
Several Montgomery addiction treatment centers are affiliated with major medical centers in the region, and these often have financial assistance available for those in need, while also accepting private health insurance, state-financed health insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, and cash payments. Some of the treatment centers that accept Medicaid do not accept private insurance.
Many of the treatment centers in Montgomery are intensive outpatient centers, with some also offering partial hospitalization or residential treatment. Several of the 16 treatment centers in town focus specifically on children and adolescents and many are equipped to treat patients with co-occurring diagnoses of mental health disorders. Other programs emphasize treatment to seniors and older adults, while several larger centers provide treatment options as well to individuals with HIV or AIDS, pregnant and postpartum women, and the deaf or hard of hearing.
A handful of the local treatment centers focus specifically on detox, providing methadone detox and maintenance treatment, as well as using buprenorphine in outpatient care.
7. Prattville
Like the city of Alabaster, the city of Prattville has one significant addiction treatment center to service the city’s residents. This center is actually a mental health treatment center run by the Autauga County satellite office of the Montgomery area Mental Health Authority, and it provides addiction treatment services in conjunction with its mental health services. It operates on a sliding fee scale that bases fees on the patient’s income as well as other factors, and payment assistance may also be available.
