Our Recovery Program
The Heartland House residential treatment program focuses on the specific needs of the individual. Each resident learns about the disease of addiction and explores new ways of solving problems without using drugs or alcohol. The focus is on changing his patterns of thinking and acting.
As a resident becomes more familiar with the program, his involvement in his own recovery increases. Working with his assigned counselor, he develops an individual recovery plan with specific goals that serve a route and milestones on his journey to a clean and sober life. He actively participates in therapy and activities that help him achieve his goals.
The Heartland House program is continually evolving to incorporate new findings in the field of addiction, address the changing needs of the men we serve and remain in compliance with the federal and state requirements of the recovery field.
Our residents are a diverse group. They include older men who are struggling with relapses as well as younger men who started drinking, using and living dangerously early in their lives. Some of our residents have dual-diagnoses, challenged by both addiction and mental illness. Our veteran population is increasing as well, and we work closely with the Veterans Administration so that our veterans receive quality outpatient treatment services.
Program Components
Our multi-dimensional treatment program is designed to address each man’s unique needs. We seek to continually improve our treatment program, using evidence-based therapy models and providing trauma-informed, culturally competent care. Our program components are listed below, by category.
Social Model (12-step) Program
The established peer-support model that uses the 12 steps to successfully abstain from alcohol and drugs, and achieve long-term recovery. (Reference for more information)
Alcohol and drug education
Instruction designed to influence the client’s attitudes, understanding, and behaviors associated with drug and alcohol use. (Reference)
Individual and group counseling
Individualized counseling aimed at helping the client develop coping strategies and tools to abstain from drug and alcohol use and maintain abstinence; and group counseling that offers social reinforcement of a drug-free lifestyle through peer discussions. (Reference)
Relationship and family counseling
Counseling designed to foster a substance-free home environment, identify family dynamics – such as enabling and co-dependent behavior – that are conducive to addiction, and address relationship issues that can be triggers for relapse. (Reference)
Relapse Prevention Therapy© (Gorski)
One of the most highly-recognized relapse prevention programs with a strong record of success in treating a variety of addictions across multiple populations. (Gorski’s Website)
Anger Management (SAMSHA)
The training of participants to recognize their emotional responses to people, places, actions, and other triggers and learn new, skillful behaviors and responses. (Reference)
Social and recreational activities
Interactive opportunities that help the client to build new social networks and create a new community of clean and sober friends, a vital element to one’s initial recovery and ongoing sobriety and abstinence. These activities are especially critical when the client’s current social networks include friends and family who drink and use. (Reference)
Sober Living/Continuing Care Housing
Heartland House provides sober living/continuing care apartments for a total of eight men. Located across the street from Heartland House, our Sober Living/Continuing Care Housing provides more stability for men without sufficient family or social supports during the transition period after graduation from Heartland House. These men live more independently than the residential treatment clients and stay in Sober Living for up to 24 months.
Counselor-and-client interaction to design a specific program to address the client’s unique needs and build on his strengths, using:
Motivational interviewing
An approach that uses compassion and understanding to help individuals become willing to “do the work” of recovery. (Reference)
Interactive Journaling
Use of interactive journals developed by The Change Companies® that are completed by clients with professional facilitation using motivational interviewing and cognitive-behavioral techniques. This element of our program encourages clients to examine all aspects of their lives and use a variety of resources, such as change plans, to enrich their quality of life as they proceed toward living on their own.
ASI and SMART treatment planning
Treatment planning that is informed by the severity of the client’s addiction (expressed as his Addiction Severity Index, or ASI) and that produces a set of Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-limited (SMART) goals that comprise a treatment plan agreement between the counselor and client. (Reference)
There is no cookie-cutter approach to treatment and recovery. Individual life experience, past trauma, physical health conditions, substance abuse history, and mental health all interact with and add complexity to each person’s addiction. Some treatments are only effective with specific addictions – e.g., an approach for cocaine addiction may not get the same results when used to address opioid addiction. Any or all of these additional therapeutic interventions and services are provided onsite to residents, depending on their unique recovery needs and goals:
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
A relapse prevention strategy that helps clients identify problem behaviors and develop effective coping strategies. (Reference)
Motivational Enhancement Treatment (MET)
An approach to clients who haven’t committed to stopping their use of alcohol or drugs, helping them to more fully engage in treatment and improve their results. (Reference)
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
A practice that teaches mindfulness and other skills that help clients address depression, anxiety and other emotional conditions that challenge recovery efforts. (Reference)
Case Management
A personal counselor who helps each man manage referrals and navigate systems to receive any outside physical and behavioral health treatment and connect with community resources. (Reference)
Pharmacological Treatment
Doctor-prescribed medications designed to help manage withdrawal so that an individual can better focus on their recovery program. (References: for alcohol, for opioids)
HIV/Aids, TB, and hepatitis
Education and connection to treatment for residents who have contracted these illnesses.
Financial literacy
Instruction in ways to rebuild financial health, stabilize one’s life, and make needed amends.
Smoking cessation
Treatment to improve overall health and eliminate smoking as a potential trigger for drinking and using illicit drugs. (Reference)
Gambling addiction
Assistance in addressing uncontrolled gambling that can lead to financial, family, emotional and employment challenges, creating the kind of pressure that may trigger a relapse.
Journey to Wholeness: Return to BE
Journey to Wholeness: Return to BE was created by Victoria Odde, who In 2015, studied and trained under Deepak Chopra at The Chopra Center in La Costa, California, and gained accreditation as a Certified Educator of Perfect Health: Ayurvedic Lifestyle program developed by co-founders Drs. Deepak Chopra and David Simon. It is fashioned after the global best seller book, Perfect Health by Deepak Chopra, M.D.
Rides for Recovery
The Rides for Recovery project will provide veterans residing at Heartland House with direct transportation via on-demand ride services through a third party vendor (Lyft, Uber) to address matters key to their recovery: attending medical appointments, seeking employment, reconnecting with family, and addressing outstanding legal issues.
Actively Engaged, Non-Time-bound Treatment
Throughout the years we have found that the previously accepted standard 28-day treatment program is not effective for all those afflicted. We now engage in a multi-dimensional treatment program that tailors an individual program for each man depending on his unique needs – which may require less or more than 28 days of treatment. Read more about this in this blog.
Future Program Developments
Heartland House has recently added Journey to Wholeness: Return to Be, a mindfulness program component to its program to teach residents lifelong techniques to address stress and trauma. Research shows this is a key long-term tool to preventing relapse. Please see the link to the Journey to Wholeness page above.
The approach of Heartland House is to create a successful course of treatment which combines therapies, services, and methods to produce favorable outcomes. Each piece of our multidimensional model helps men address their unique “addiction triggers” such as medical and psychological factors and helps them strengthen “supporting factors” such as employment and family ties. Each program component was selected to give every man the best chance to become clean and sober and become resilient against relapse.