Once you’ve made the decision to get treatment, choosing an effective program that meets your specific needs becomes the top priority. Unfortunately, it can be extremely difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of many programs. In addition, just because a center has an excellent reputation, does not mean it can provide the care you or your loved one needs to heal. With the large number of substance abuse rehabilitation options available to your family, how can you know if the addiction rehabilitation program you’re considering is right for you?
What Is CARF Accreditation?
The Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities is the premier health care standards organization in the home health and inpatient rehabilitation field. Most rehabs and home health businesses do not earn CARF accreditation, because it is not required to operate. Facilities that achieve CARF approval instead must pass an in-depth assessment and review.
This evaluation process assures clients and patients of accredited facilities receive high-quality care of value that aligns with internationally recognized program standards. It is rigorous, and programs that attempt to achieve CARF accreditation must withstand ongoing scrutiny. Accredited organizations must also continuously improve care in order to sustain CARF accreditation.
CARF-accredited facilities must demonstrate a commitment to quality both in treatment and business practices. They must also agree to accept client or patient feedback as part of their ongoing promise to serve the community with superior performance. When a rehabilitation center earns CARF accreditation, you can rest assured it provides clients with distinguished services and effective treatments while managing its business affairs prudently.
How CARF Accreditation Works
CARF is the result of more than four decades of standards developed by a broad team that includes physicians and service providers, family members, insurers, policy makers and consumers. These standards, which have evolved over 40 years to reflect advances in care, are made public for further review. Every facility that applies for CARF accreditation meets with a team of accreditors who are industry peers, and the facility must already have met the basic standards for compliance for at least six months.
The accreditation process begins when the facility performs a rigorous self-evaluation process that compares current practices to CARF standards. The team of accreditors meets with a broad range of stakeholders, including staff members, clients and family members. The accrediting team also reviews documentation, observes current practices, answers questions and advises on ways the facility can improve services and business operations. After the evaluation, the accreditors identify areas of strength and areas needing improvement in writing. If the evaluation goes well, the facility will have earned CARF accreditation.
After earning accreditation, the facility must demonstrate a commitment to ongoing treatment and operational excellence by submitting a Quality Improvement Plan and Quality Report. This assures the facility responds appropriately to the areas needing improvement in the original assessment.
How CARF Affects You
It can be extremely difficult to identify the effectiveness of a substance abuse rehabilitation program through marketing materials alone. Many rehab centers are reluctant or simply unable to share “success” data which can make it difficult to feel as if you can gauge the effectiveness of a program.
There are other factors as well. Some programs accept insurance, and others do not. Although there is no reason to believe that costlier programs are more effective at healing addiction or be able to provide more personalized care. That matters because the National Institute on Drug Abuse states that personalized care is more likely to result in a successful treatment outcome.
The result is that it is next to impossible to compare rehab centers to one another based on success criteria or cost. That means accreditation bodies, such as CARF, are the only way you can fairly evaluate and compare the rehabilitation programs you’re considering. At 12 Keys Rehab, we are proud to have earned CARF accreditation (for the maximum accreditation period of 3 years), and we promise to provide outstanding substance abuse treatment to members of the community for years to come.
12 Keys Rehab
12 Keys Rehab is a CARF-accredited, premier substance abuse rehabilitation center located in south Florida. Our program provides holistic, personalized care to a small community of recovering individuals in our waterfront center. We maintain a small client-to-staff ratio, which assures our ability to provide a more family-oriented treatment environment.
Our clients receive treatment for detox and dual diagnosis (if necessary), as well as family therapy, behavioral therapy, addiction counseling and 12 Step programming. Once rehab treatment ends, we develop a post-care rehab plan that helps our clients adjust to the world outside rehab.
For more information on CARF and why our addiction center may be the right choice for you, call 12 Keys Rehab now.