Improving Access to Residential Rehabilitation
Residential rehabilitation remains an important part of England's treatment and recovery system. For people facing multiple and complex challenges, including homelessness, poor mental and physical health, trauma, family separation and long histories of substance use, residential treatment can provide the intensive support needed to begin and sustain recovery.
Yet despite increased investment in drug and alcohol treatment and growing recognition of the role residential rehabilitation can play, navigating the residential treatment landscape remains challenging for both professionals and people seeking treatment.
Professionals regularly tell us that understanding which services accept state-funded referrals, what support they provide and how to access them can be time-consuming and complex. Information is often spread across multiple sources, referral processes can vary between providers, and identifying the most appropriate service for someone is not always straightforward.
For people in need of treatment, these challenges can have real consequences. Delays in accessing support can mean missed opportunities to engage people at a point when they are ready for change.
At Open Houses, we believe access to residential treatment should not depend on local knowledge, existing relationships or knowing where to look. People should be able to access the support that best meets their needs, and professionals should have the information they need to make informed decisions and referrals.
That is why we are launching the Open Houses State-Funded Rehab Directory.
At launch the directory includes Choices and Phoenix CQC registered services that accept state funding in England. We'll shortly be inviting all CQC registered stated funded rehabs to join the directory. Open Houses aims to represent all CQC-registered state-funded rehabs, creating a comprehensive national resource over time. The directory is free to use and free for providers to join.
The directory brings together information on CQC-registered residential rehabilitation services across England that accept state-funded referrals, creating a single resource for commissioners, treatment providers, housing and homelessness services, criminal justice agencies, healthcare professionals, people seeking support and others involved in supporting people into treatment.
By bringing this information together in one place, we hope to improve understanding of residential rehab, increase visibility of available provision and help reduce some of the practical barriers that can delay or complicate access to treatment.
Why This Matters
The evidence for treatment is clear.
Drug and alcohol treatment improves health outcomes, reduces crime and reoffending, strengthens families, supports people into employment and reduces pressure on public services. Residential rehabilitation has an important role to play within this wider system, particularly for people with higher levels of need or where community-based interventions alone have not been enough.
However, treatment can only be effective if people are able to access it.
For people experiencing homelessness and other forms of multiple disadvantage, access to treatment can be particularly difficult. Navigating multiple services, housing instability, poor health, trauma and social exclusion can all create barriers at a time when support is needed most.
Improving access to information will not solve these challenges on its own, but it is an important step towards creating clearer access routes into treatment and recovery.
A Resource for the Sector
Our ambition is simple: to make residential rehabilitation easier to understand, easier to navigate and easier to access.
We encourage commissioners, treatment providers, housing services, justice agencies and referral partners to explore the directory, share it with colleagues and use it to help strengthen access to residential treatment for those who could benefit from it.
Rehab works. But for it to change lives, people have to be able to find it.
