A few weeks ago a good friend, Kathy Willis, PhD and clinical director, wrote an article in which she laid out specific issues regarding the brain and addiction. They were terrific points that dovetail perfectly with how neurofeedback can make a huge difference in addiction treatment and in making existing treatment programs in recovery centers much more effective – as much as four times as effective.
To quote Kathy, “Our population in treatment today very frequently have dual disorders; personality disorders, major problems with anxiety, depression, stress and anger, process addictions such as eating or restricting, gambling, shopping, internet and pornography, and most of all post traumatic stress disorder.”
These are all, in large part, disorders of the brain.
She continues, “All human beings have a primal drive towards pleasure and away from pain. With a brain that is anxious, depressed, always in “alert” mode for some un-named danger, the initial effects of a drug, alcohol, marijuana, opiates or cocaine, give the user an initial euphoria not previously experienced. This experience is recorded in the limbic system as a “good thing”. Away from pain, towards pleasure. Memory of past trauma or traumas is quieted, hyper-arousal is, for the moment, quieted, and fear recedes. The most natural thing would be to repeat the experience of drug taking to re-experience the relief of stress symptoms.
“Only a small percentage of people with addiction receive treatment. When they do go to treatment, they receive on average 28 days of treatment and then return to the same environments from which they came. We now know that not much changes in the brain in 28 days, that we need 90 days to be of real help. In the last 5-7 years, there has been an explosion of information regarding addictive disease as a Brain Disease!”
Kathy is right on the money, but there are a couple of points I would like to add. First, in a study conducted at Cri-Help, a recovery center in North Hollywood, CA, the experimental group using neurofeedback stayed in treatment an average of 40% longer than the control group (Scott, et. al. 2005). Second, while there is no question that longer is better in addiction treatment, major studies on addiction treated with neurofeedback have been conducted using 30 sessions of neurofeedback over as many days and demonstrate measurable and amazing changes. The fact is, long-term alcoholism or addiction leads to brain damage. In current recovery scenarios 28 days doesn’t change much in the brain, but when you add neurofeedback to the mix, clients, on average, will stay in treatment longer, and there can be substantial change.
Getting back to Kathy’s piece, she continues, “However, even in the face of new information, most of us are using the model of emotional/behavioral approaches to treatment. I am not saying this is wrong but I am saying that before applying emotional behavioral solutions, we need to TREAT THE BRAIN-FIRST.
(We couldn’t agree more!)
“We have for many years asked people to sit and listen to lectures and sit in process groups while they work on written assignments. There is nothing wrong with this approach but we need to first help the brain and body to heal for this approach to be effective.”
The best way to do that is with neurofeedback! It’s been proven time and time again, in study after study over two decades. In every case, neurofeedback reduced stress, anxiety, depression, and led to better sleep. Plus, follow-up studies one, three, and as many as ten years later revealed a 77% or better success rate – that is 77%, or more, of the subjects were still sober! The studies added neurofeedback to individual and group counseling.
“People with anxiety have developed a changed manner of breathing in a shallow way. They are continuously breathing in a manner that deprives the brain of necessary oxygen. Whatever a facility designs around teaching breathing, it is central to helping to heal the brain. Because this is a dramatic change for the body, resistance to this exercise should be expected. The body will fight what it is not used to. It is possible to achieve an aerobic workout through breath work alone which means that even people with physical challenges can participate.”
We couldn’t agree more. That’s why, with The Clarity Model® of neurofeedback there is a great emphasis on correct breathing and relaxation. In fact, that is the foundation of the program. Training someone to breathe correctly is even easier during a Clarity neurofeedback session, because we are the only neuroscience provider that also incorporates biofeedback. Clients are continually aware of their breathing because they are seeing the direct effect of it in what it is doing to their body and mind. Once we’ve achieved a satisfactory level of relaxation we can then further address impulsivity and relapse triggers.
“It is almost impossible for a person to learn and apply what they have learned with a brain that is anxious about the loss of the chemicals it has learned to rely on, while simultaneously experiencing the pain of withdrawal and post acute withdrawal.”
Once again, neurofeedback training eases the anxiety of withdrawal by reducing cravings and makes the brain far more receptive to the other therapies in recovery. Moreover, Clarity’s program is designed on a case-by-case basis, customized to the individual to insure maximum effectiveness. We are the only neurofeedback provider in addiction treatment that does this.
Additionally, most recovery centers currently have no real way of tracking a client once that client leaves the premises. Yes, there are sober living homes, possibly some form of outpatient treatment. But these can be hard to track and it isn’t unusual for clients to disappear at this point.
We designed The Clarity Model® to include a full year of continuing care. Clients who leave the recovery center can still be tracked and treated. Their success is substantiated, and the success rates are far greater than what is achieved in recovery scenarios without neurofeedback.
That’s why you may have noticed that neurofeedback is being offered in more and more recovery centers. Those recovery centers will not only enjoy much higher rates of success, that they can actually verify, they will also enjoy a competitive edge in an economy that is narrowing the field.
If you don’t currently have a layer of neurofeedback in your program, we strongly suggest you investigate doing so.
References:
Scott, William C., Kaiser, David, Othmer, Siegfried, Sideroff, Steven I., “Effects of an EEG Biofeedback Protocol on a Mixed Substance Abusing Population,” The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 31:455–469, 2005.
Willis, Kathy L., “No Brain No Gain:The Impact of Multi-Generational Trauma on the Addictive Brain,” Recovery View Treatment Resources, www.recoveryview.com, December 10, 2009.
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
ADDICTION TREATMENT GETS INTO RECOVERY MODE.
It’s no secret or surprise that the economy is taking its toll on the addiction treatment business. It can be felt at recovery facilities everywhere. Some are shutting their doors after years of doing great business. Some are just barely hanging in there. Some merely have experienced a slowing in business but are doing fine. As a marketing guy, I wanted to write this article specifically for Treatment Center Network members to hopefully stimulate those creative marketing juices and help those that need it to get a leg up on the competition.
Obviously the number of people seeking recovery has declined dramatically. It’s just a fact that people aren’t about to drop $15,000 or more -- much more in some cases --to get sober in a bad economy. There are simply fewer people seeking recovery to go around.
So, what can be done to get through this tough time? Belt tightening? Okay, that’s a start. By now you’ve probably already tightened until you’re squeezed purple. What about lowering your price? Or adding more value? Or both? The instinct of most businesses is to cut marketing dollars in hard times – which is basically suicide. While you may save a few dollars right away and feel some easing of the pressure on your budget, it virtually guarantees that your revenue is going to decline later on. There is, in most businesses, a ratio of dollars spent to sales – it’s a metric by which businesses evaluate their marketing dollars and how well they’re being spent. This is even more critical in a business like ours. Many businesses have repeat customers, who come back time and time again – they only need to capture people once for a lifetime of revenue. While that may be the case with some clients in recovery, it certainly isn’t the goal. We need to find fresh bodies all the time. So, marketing dollars are even more important as you try and get out to more potential clients. This is when marketing plays a vital role -- every aspect of it.
The two critical issues are this:
One: are the people who are ready for recovery seeing you as an option?
And, two: are they choosing you?
If they’re not even aware you’re there, that’s a problem. If they’re aware you’re there but not choosing you that’s another problem with a different answer.
WE ARE HERE! WE ARE HERE!
Getting the attention of the people who need you is the single most important job there is. But what are the efforts you can do to increase awareness of your facility.
Well, one is networking – which is why you’ve become a member of LinkedIn and can find all kinds of groups, like Treatment Center Network. This is an excellent example of networking within an industry.
Another way to network is with the trade associations you belong to, or should belong to, and with organizations that work directly with consumers regarding addiction. Marketing to physicians is another way, as well as to psychologists with private practices and hospitals where many people with addictions end up through overdose or some form of accident, or attempted suicide, etc.
You could advertise, but you need to plan where and how. There are specialty magazines, or trade magazines, to consider such as Treatment Magazine. Treatment Magazine is distributed to a large number of addiction physicians and psychologists, making it a great potential referring source. When you look at advertising possibilities really look at who will see them, who the subscribers are. (By the way, Treatment Magazine is currently on a hiatus.) But also look to the trade magazines for psychology, hospitals, and others that can lead to a referral.
The internet is a great possibility as well. If you blog and blog often you’ll come up in searches more often. What can you blog about? Anything! Changes you’re making, the state of treatment in the country, philosophy, the economy, the fact that you’ve started a garden, your new chef, and particularly anything that gives a useful tip or information to a consumer or someone who can also help you in return.
You can also pay to advertise on the internet, but that can get expensive, unless you barter for space on your web site, or for services, etc. The internet is like life in some ways, the more active you are on there the more you get noticed. There are experts you can hire to help you with this. A good SEO (search engine optimization) person can help get people to your website who are looking for your help. Also, take a good look at your website. Once people get there is it convincing them to come? There’s an old adage in advertising that goes “telling isn’t selling.” Most websites merely inform rather than sell. They inform, but they don’t inspire further action like a phone call. Telling, in fact, isn’t selling, these are difference languages.
If you have anything you can do that’s newsworthy, do it and get press for it. Hold an event, have a fund raiser for a charity, give a special gift to your community -- and invite the press. You have to do something to get noticed, so get active.
There are a lot of ways to get out there. Really look at who your clients have been, where they have come from, where you might find others. Do you have a specialty that could appeal to a specific group of people? For example, if 90% of the people you’ve treated are steel workers, then that’s a specialty. If they’re Hungarian, that’s another specialty and you might want to address it in terms of language and your menu. Use whatever you can to set yourself apart or appeal to a specific group. It’s easier if you have a specific target to hit rather than trying to go out to the general public at large.
IF NOT US, WHO? IF NOT NOW, WHEN?
Now that you’ve gotten someone’s attention the real selling begins. Here the questions become more about what you’re selling, what the benefits are and how much it costs? In every instance it eventually comes down to a price verses value story.
When I started in advertising 30 years ago the first thing we learned was find your USP – your Unique Selling Proposition. This is the same as a point of difference, or a competitive edge, whatever you want to call it. For some it’s the fact that they have horses, or equine therapy, for others it’s the lowest price point.
The places usually hit hardest in a bad economy are those just under the really expensive places. The really expensive places cater to a crowd that, often times, doesn’t feel an economic slowdown. But the so called upper middle class feels it and the middle class and so on down. In every other instance the price tag tends to get scrutinized a little harder in a bad economy -- especially for some of the more luxurious places. When you have a very successful model like The Betty Ford Center that has had a host of celebs go through its doors yet shuns all the trappings of luxury it gets easier for people to tell themselves that the luxury stuff has nothing to do with getting sober. Of course, there will always be people who want the luxury, but there will be less of them in a bad economy.
Should you lower your price? Maybe. If you do, try and do it in a way that is either not obvious or is really obvious. In other words, you can lower your price by creating “specials” for a limited time. This can also help in terms of “converting sales” – in other words convincing people that now is the time to take advantage of your special offer. Or, you could make it an across the board price change and tie it to something specific, for example the economy, making an announcement like, “Starting today, we are discounting our price by the same percentage the national unemployment is at.” Which is to say, if the unemployment rate is 11%, you’ll be giving an 11% discount. If it goes up or down your discount will follow accordingly. You could further say that you’re also giving an additional percentage of income to food banks across the country. Get a cause going – it’s newsworthy. And people feel good about you.
MAYBE YOU NEED A PARTNER.
One thing you should always look for, but never more than in a bad economy, is relationships that can be mutually beneficial -- even better if there’s an additional benefit for your clients.
I’ll give you the best example I know – Clarity Enterprises, Inc. Some thought we were crazy to launch in this economic climate. But, as a matter of fact, it’s probably the best time ever for us. Because, as a provider of neurofeedback services to recovery centers, we give you, the addiction treatment facility, a great point of difference.
Certainly, in this business, the biggest point of difference you can have is success. It somehow seems to be an intangible item in recovery scenarios, but certainly anyone spending any sum of money to stay in a residential center today is looking for the chances of success. What if you could have a success rate of 80% or better? That would be a huge point of difference. Especially if it were a claim you could validate. There is one way to do that immediately. It’s with neurofeedback. Prolonged substance abuse and addiction result in brain damage. Neurofeedback training restores the brain functioning, reduces cravings, and helps the recovering addict control impulses and deal with the cravings that result in relapse.
Neurofeedback has been tested and proven time and again in all kinds of university conducted research. Three studies of interest are:
Peniston, 1989 – a study done in conjunction with the Veterans Administration in Colorado. All subjects were Viet Nam veterans who had other forms of treatment unsuccessfully prior to the study. They were severe alcoholics who also suffered from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
The outcome was that 80% of the subjects stayed sober and had no further issues with PTSD as of a follow-up study done three years after the treatments.
Dine Navajos – A study done with 19 alcoholic Native Americans in 1994. The treatments were culturally appropriate. Again the three-year follow-up showed that 80% of the subjects stayed sober.
Cri-Help – Cri-Help is a recovery center in North Hollywood, California. The study included 121 subjects (60 in the control group, 61 in the experimental group, or those that received the actual neurofeedback treatments). A three-year follow-up concluded that 77% of the experimental group remained sober (those that received the neurofeedback treatments) versus only 44% of the control group (those that did not receive the neurofeedback treatments).
The Cri-Help study also documented that the neurofeedback treatments significantly improved anxiety, depression, stress, sleep and other disorders, and the experimental group stayed in treatment 50% longer than the control group.
WHAT WE DO MAKES WHAT YOU DO WORK BETTER, FASTER AND LONGER.
As stated, neurofeedback deals with cravings and relapse. It counters impulsivity. But, just as importantly, it makes the brain far more receptive to the treatments and therapies you’re already employing. So, the therapies and treatments you’re now using have far greater affect. Your success goes up. You have more successful clients who make recommendations to others on your behalf. And we can document your success rate because with our program your clients continue the neurofeedback sessions for a full year, even after they’ve left the residential facility. By the way, this also means you have a continuing revenue stream from each client after they’ve left your facility. Which leads to the next point…
FIND OR CREATE OTHER REVENUE STREAMS.
Like the neurofeedback aftercare program I just mentioned. Or, we could also create an outpatient program for your facility. Or a highly specialized “executive” level program for people who are more on the go, or have too many obligations and can’t stay 30 days in a treatment facility. If you have more options available you have more chances of hearing a “yes” when speaking to a potential client.
Again, look for strategic partners that can gain a mutual benefit from working with you.
STAYING AHEAD OF THE GAME.
Because the good times were so good for so long people naturally just let the business develop itself. These days you need to be informed, of what’s happening in the industry, what’s happening in the country, how you can stay ahead of the competition. You should be looking not only at marketing for treatment facilities, but at marketing in general – you could find a great concept that could cross over to your situation. Subscribe to Marketing Week, for example, look at what types of promotions other industries are doing and what kind of press events people are doing. I once worked on a fabric maker’s account – their key accounts were lingerie manufacturers. They really couldn’t afford advertising, they didn’t have the budget. But they did have enough money and resources to make a huge bra that we put on the John Hancock Tower -- which generated millions of dollars of press. So, get creative about getting out there. But, obviously, be appropriate to the business you’re in. We do good in this business. If you can combine it with other ways to do more good, you’ll most often have a winner.
And, by all means, check out neurofeedback. After all, I wrote this to promote what we do at Clarity. It’s part of our marketing strategy. See how that works?
Obviously the number of people seeking recovery has declined dramatically. It’s just a fact that people aren’t about to drop $15,000 or more -- much more in some cases --to get sober in a bad economy. There are simply fewer people seeking recovery to go around.
So, what can be done to get through this tough time? Belt tightening? Okay, that’s a start. By now you’ve probably already tightened until you’re squeezed purple. What about lowering your price? Or adding more value? Or both? The instinct of most businesses is to cut marketing dollars in hard times – which is basically suicide. While you may save a few dollars right away and feel some easing of the pressure on your budget, it virtually guarantees that your revenue is going to decline later on. There is, in most businesses, a ratio of dollars spent to sales – it’s a metric by which businesses evaluate their marketing dollars and how well they’re being spent. This is even more critical in a business like ours. Many businesses have repeat customers, who come back time and time again – they only need to capture people once for a lifetime of revenue. While that may be the case with some clients in recovery, it certainly isn’t the goal. We need to find fresh bodies all the time. So, marketing dollars are even more important as you try and get out to more potential clients. This is when marketing plays a vital role -- every aspect of it.
The two critical issues are this:
One: are the people who are ready for recovery seeing you as an option?
And, two: are they choosing you?
If they’re not even aware you’re there, that’s a problem. If they’re aware you’re there but not choosing you that’s another problem with a different answer.
WE ARE HERE! WE ARE HERE!
Getting the attention of the people who need you is the single most important job there is. But what are the efforts you can do to increase awareness of your facility.
Well, one is networking – which is why you’ve become a member of LinkedIn and can find all kinds of groups, like Treatment Center Network. This is an excellent example of networking within an industry.
Another way to network is with the trade associations you belong to, or should belong to, and with organizations that work directly with consumers regarding addiction. Marketing to physicians is another way, as well as to psychologists with private practices and hospitals where many people with addictions end up through overdose or some form of accident, or attempted suicide, etc.
You could advertise, but you need to plan where and how. There are specialty magazines, or trade magazines, to consider such as Treatment Magazine. Treatment Magazine is distributed to a large number of addiction physicians and psychologists, making it a great potential referring source. When you look at advertising possibilities really look at who will see them, who the subscribers are. (By the way, Treatment Magazine is currently on a hiatus.) But also look to the trade magazines for psychology, hospitals, and others that can lead to a referral.
The internet is a great possibility as well. If you blog and blog often you’ll come up in searches more often. What can you blog about? Anything! Changes you’re making, the state of treatment in the country, philosophy, the economy, the fact that you’ve started a garden, your new chef, and particularly anything that gives a useful tip or information to a consumer or someone who can also help you in return.
You can also pay to advertise on the internet, but that can get expensive, unless you barter for space on your web site, or for services, etc. The internet is like life in some ways, the more active you are on there the more you get noticed. There are experts you can hire to help you with this. A good SEO (search engine optimization) person can help get people to your website who are looking for your help. Also, take a good look at your website. Once people get there is it convincing them to come? There’s an old adage in advertising that goes “telling isn’t selling.” Most websites merely inform rather than sell. They inform, but they don’t inspire further action like a phone call. Telling, in fact, isn’t selling, these are difference languages.
If you have anything you can do that’s newsworthy, do it and get press for it. Hold an event, have a fund raiser for a charity, give a special gift to your community -- and invite the press. You have to do something to get noticed, so get active.
There are a lot of ways to get out there. Really look at who your clients have been, where they have come from, where you might find others. Do you have a specialty that could appeal to a specific group of people? For example, if 90% of the people you’ve treated are steel workers, then that’s a specialty. If they’re Hungarian, that’s another specialty and you might want to address it in terms of language and your menu. Use whatever you can to set yourself apart or appeal to a specific group. It’s easier if you have a specific target to hit rather than trying to go out to the general public at large.
IF NOT US, WHO? IF NOT NOW, WHEN?
Now that you’ve gotten someone’s attention the real selling begins. Here the questions become more about what you’re selling, what the benefits are and how much it costs? In every instance it eventually comes down to a price verses value story.
When I started in advertising 30 years ago the first thing we learned was find your USP – your Unique Selling Proposition. This is the same as a point of difference, or a competitive edge, whatever you want to call it. For some it’s the fact that they have horses, or equine therapy, for others it’s the lowest price point.
The places usually hit hardest in a bad economy are those just under the really expensive places. The really expensive places cater to a crowd that, often times, doesn’t feel an economic slowdown. But the so called upper middle class feels it and the middle class and so on down. In every other instance the price tag tends to get scrutinized a little harder in a bad economy -- especially for some of the more luxurious places. When you have a very successful model like The Betty Ford Center that has had a host of celebs go through its doors yet shuns all the trappings of luxury it gets easier for people to tell themselves that the luxury stuff has nothing to do with getting sober. Of course, there will always be people who want the luxury, but there will be less of them in a bad economy.
Should you lower your price? Maybe. If you do, try and do it in a way that is either not obvious or is really obvious. In other words, you can lower your price by creating “specials” for a limited time. This can also help in terms of “converting sales” – in other words convincing people that now is the time to take advantage of your special offer. Or, you could make it an across the board price change and tie it to something specific, for example the economy, making an announcement like, “Starting today, we are discounting our price by the same percentage the national unemployment is at.” Which is to say, if the unemployment rate is 11%, you’ll be giving an 11% discount. If it goes up or down your discount will follow accordingly. You could further say that you’re also giving an additional percentage of income to food banks across the country. Get a cause going – it’s newsworthy. And people feel good about you.
MAYBE YOU NEED A PARTNER.
One thing you should always look for, but never more than in a bad economy, is relationships that can be mutually beneficial -- even better if there’s an additional benefit for your clients.
I’ll give you the best example I know – Clarity Enterprises, Inc. Some thought we were crazy to launch in this economic climate. But, as a matter of fact, it’s probably the best time ever for us. Because, as a provider of neurofeedback services to recovery centers, we give you, the addiction treatment facility, a great point of difference.
Certainly, in this business, the biggest point of difference you can have is success. It somehow seems to be an intangible item in recovery scenarios, but certainly anyone spending any sum of money to stay in a residential center today is looking for the chances of success. What if you could have a success rate of 80% or better? That would be a huge point of difference. Especially if it were a claim you could validate. There is one way to do that immediately. It’s with neurofeedback. Prolonged substance abuse and addiction result in brain damage. Neurofeedback training restores the brain functioning, reduces cravings, and helps the recovering addict control impulses and deal with the cravings that result in relapse.
Neurofeedback has been tested and proven time and again in all kinds of university conducted research. Three studies of interest are:
Peniston, 1989 – a study done in conjunction with the Veterans Administration in Colorado. All subjects were Viet Nam veterans who had other forms of treatment unsuccessfully prior to the study. They were severe alcoholics who also suffered from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
The outcome was that 80% of the subjects stayed sober and had no further issues with PTSD as of a follow-up study done three years after the treatments.
Dine Navajos – A study done with 19 alcoholic Native Americans in 1994. The treatments were culturally appropriate. Again the three-year follow-up showed that 80% of the subjects stayed sober.
Cri-Help – Cri-Help is a recovery center in North Hollywood, California. The study included 121 subjects (60 in the control group, 61 in the experimental group, or those that received the actual neurofeedback treatments). A three-year follow-up concluded that 77% of the experimental group remained sober (those that received the neurofeedback treatments) versus only 44% of the control group (those that did not receive the neurofeedback treatments).
The Cri-Help study also documented that the neurofeedback treatments significantly improved anxiety, depression, stress, sleep and other disorders, and the experimental group stayed in treatment 50% longer than the control group.
WHAT WE DO MAKES WHAT YOU DO WORK BETTER, FASTER AND LONGER.
As stated, neurofeedback deals with cravings and relapse. It counters impulsivity. But, just as importantly, it makes the brain far more receptive to the treatments and therapies you’re already employing. So, the therapies and treatments you’re now using have far greater affect. Your success goes up. You have more successful clients who make recommendations to others on your behalf. And we can document your success rate because with our program your clients continue the neurofeedback sessions for a full year, even after they’ve left the residential facility. By the way, this also means you have a continuing revenue stream from each client after they’ve left your facility. Which leads to the next point…
FIND OR CREATE OTHER REVENUE STREAMS.
Like the neurofeedback aftercare program I just mentioned. Or, we could also create an outpatient program for your facility. Or a highly specialized “executive” level program for people who are more on the go, or have too many obligations and can’t stay 30 days in a treatment facility. If you have more options available you have more chances of hearing a “yes” when speaking to a potential client.
Again, look for strategic partners that can gain a mutual benefit from working with you.
STAYING AHEAD OF THE GAME.
Because the good times were so good for so long people naturally just let the business develop itself. These days you need to be informed, of what’s happening in the industry, what’s happening in the country, how you can stay ahead of the competition. You should be looking not only at marketing for treatment facilities, but at marketing in general – you could find a great concept that could cross over to your situation. Subscribe to Marketing Week, for example, look at what types of promotions other industries are doing and what kind of press events people are doing. I once worked on a fabric maker’s account – their key accounts were lingerie manufacturers. They really couldn’t afford advertising, they didn’t have the budget. But they did have enough money and resources to make a huge bra that we put on the John Hancock Tower -- which generated millions of dollars of press. So, get creative about getting out there. But, obviously, be appropriate to the business you’re in. We do good in this business. If you can combine it with other ways to do more good, you’ll most often have a winner.
And, by all means, check out neurofeedback. After all, I wrote this to promote what we do at Clarity. It’s part of our marketing strategy. See how that works?
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