Acute Care
When intensive outpatient services are not adequate to ensure safety
and/or enable people to regain independent functioning, access to acute
care settings is needed. Conventionally offered through inpatient psychiatric
and
detox units, alternatives have emerged
in recent years that may be more conducive to recovery for certain people
at certain times or under certain circumstances. These include bringing
paid staff into a person's own home (e.g., "
specialing") or offering respite care in home-like settings
staffed 24 hours a day. Staff in these programs are often peers (people
in recovery), but do not necessarily need to be. For the foreseeable
future, ready access to facility-based acute care options also will
continue to be required by persons whose needs cannot be adequately
addressed in less intensive or less medically-oriented settings.
