If you have read any of the other pages on this site you know that extended care is one of the featured strengths of Gulf Coast Recovery. Many of our clients do end up staying longer than they originally expected. Who can blame them? When you feel like you are making progress and staying sober, why rush to change a good thing? At Gulf Coast Recovery our clients are encouraged to stay on beyond the initial treatment period. We support taking on a local job and active participation in the recovery community that surrounds the treatment center.

Gulf Coast Recovery supports extended care in a number of other ways as well. Weekly barbeques, community meetings and monthly field trips to Egmont Key are all part of the extended care package. Our facilities attempt to recreate a home like atmosphere with comfortable furniture and laundry facilities. The reason for this kind of attention to detail is the same reason we keep our facility small and intimate. We want to approximate real life conditions so that extended care can successfully become independent care at home happy and sober once again. If you or a loved one is ready for alcohol and/or drug treatment, whether or not extended care or short-term care is required, we hope that you will give us a call today to begin the recovery process.

Drug and alcohol treatment should never entirely end with the culmination of a residential rehab stay, and a full and involved participation in long term aftercare therapies best ensures that the lessons of rehab remain relevant and applied to the temptations of the community. At its most intensive, aftercare may involve a period of residency within a sober living housing environment.

Sober living housing, sometimes called halfway housing, offers a transition phase of residency after the end of rehab drug treatment, but before recovering addicts return completely to the stresses of independent and sober living. The intensity of therapy as offered within sober living environments vary, but regardless of the strength of therapy offered, residents in a sober living environment stay more involved in aftercare therapies, and have a much better chance of long term success and sobriety.

A sober living housing environment offers low cost and temptation free residency to recovering drug and alcohol addicts, and in return residents are expected to abide by a strict set of conduct guidelines; and a violation of house rules often results in an eviction from the sober living environment. Most sober living residences require that residents maintain some form of employment, abide by certain curfew rules, maintain appropriate behavior within the house, and never use alcohol or drugs or appear intoxicated within the house.

Because many addicts returning to sobriety after years of drug or alcohol abuse need intensive assistance to transition into and to learn to enjoy sober living, the fellowship and friendship of others in a similar situation helps recovering addicts learn that sober living can be rewarding, and that fun and leisure time don't necessarily require intoxication.

Statistics show that addicts that use available sober living housing after the end of rehab are more likely to stay involved with aftercare therapy for longer, and have a lower percentage probability of relapse. Sober living housing takes some of the stress away from a return to the community after a period in residential rehab, and offers a degree of sober sanctuary to recovering addicts newly recovering back in the community; and with full access to temptations to abuse.