The idea of checking into an extended rehab center may be rather galling. After all, you will be away from home for several weeks or months. You also will be expected to give up the daily routine to which you have become accustomed.
The most challenging aspect in your mind, however, may be not seeing the people who mean the most to you. You could check yourself into an extended recovery center by learning who can visit you during your 90-day stay.
Security and Scrutiny of Visitors
When you are in rehab, your safety and well-being are the two main priorities your medical team will safeguard at all costs. They have a legal and moral obligation to make sure you are not exposed to anything or anyone that could harm your physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health.
Because of this obligation, the rehab center’s staff will scrutinize and put through security checks anyone who wants to come visit you during your stay. The actual facility where you will reside during the 90 days more than likely is a locked-down building with numerous security checks through which visitors must pass. People coming to visit you may walk through metal detectors, have their briefcases or purses checked, and possibly even be frisked before they are allowed back to the visiting area.
These safety checks are designed to prevent drugs, alcohol, weapons, and other hazards from making their way back to the recovery unit. People who violate the rules for visiting will be escorted off the property and possibly turned over to law enforcement.
Immediate Family Members
Your doctor, nurses, and therapist want you to have a solid support system ready to go once you are discharged and sent home. This network ideally should consist of your immediate family members who love you the most and want the best for you.
During your 90-day stay, the recovery center may permit immediate relatives over the age of 16 to visit you. These relatives can include your:
- Parents and stepparents
- Siblings
- Spouse or significant other
- Teenage or adult children
Children younger than 16 typically are not allowed to visit. In some circumstances, however, and depending on the facility, they may be permitted to visit you in the company of a trusted adult.
Relatives like uncles, aunts, and cousins beyond your immediate family also may not be allowed to visit. The recovery center’s staff do not want you to be overwhelmed with attention or emotion during your stay.
Legal Counsel
If you are in trouble with the law and expect to face arrest or a court trial after your release, you may need access to your lawyer during your recovery. Your legal counsel may be permitted to visit you during specified hours. The meetings may take place in the company of staff who are in charge of your care.
Depending on the circumstances, your lawyer may also have the right to visit you more often than your relatives. These frequent visits may be necessary to protect your constitutional rights and to help you avoid jail time after you are released from the rehab center.
Spiritual Advisers
Many recovery centers have spiritual advisers on staff. However, if you are a different denomination than the one practiced by the religious counselors at the rehab center, you may be allowed to call and visit with spiritual directors from your church, temple, or mosque.
Like other visitors, your spiritual adviser will be required to abide by the rules for visiting. He or she may be allowed to visit you during times that are otherwise off-limits to others like your immediate family.
Vetted Friends
You may be permitted to have friends visit you as long as they pose no harm to you. You will be asked about your friends before they can come to see you during visiting hours. The team in charge of your care will want to know things like:
- Whether or not your friends use drugs or drink alcohol
- If your friends have criminal convictions
- If your friends are somehow responsible for your addiction
- Whether or not your friends regularly carry weapons like knives or guns
If they are identified to be a threat to your recovery, they may not be allowed to visit you during your rehab stay.
During the time you are in a 90-day recovery program, it is reasonable to expect you to want to visit with people closest to you. Any visitors must abide by stringent rules designed to protect you and others in the facility. Call us today at 844-639-8371.