Why does the FAIR Foundation Support FAIR?
We know how hard it is to have a child diagnosed with an addiction or mental disorder that exhausts the family with the chaos it causes. Imagine having the strength to finally get your child evaluated by treatment professionals, have an opportunity to get them treatment for their addictive, abusive behavior, but not be able to afford the treatment because there is a lack of finances or insurance. In today’s economic climate it’s happening more and more frequently.
Since FAIR began they have made it a policy to take a substantial portion of their caseload each year pro bono. The FAIR Foundation seeks to help qualified families with program costs so FAIR can continue their pro bono work and spread it to more families.
How are candidate families chosen?
During an initial evaluation of the teen and family, the FAIR staff determines whether the family may need help financially. Families are referred to the Foundation by the FAIR staff and given an application to complete and submit. The Foundation looks at many aspects of the application, including the Federal Poverty Level for the current year, and the level of commitment the applicant family is willing to make. The board then decides if the family will be chosen to receive support for their treatment.
What is the cost of substance abuse and mental health treatment?
Together, the cost of IOP and After Care can run about $20,000. The FAIR Foundation provides assistance to cover up to half of the cost of treatment.
How effective is treatment at FAIR?
In 2016, FAIR admitted 58 patients into the Intensive Out-Patient program. Of those patients plus those in IOP on 1/1/2016, 57% successfully transferred into the FAIR AfterCare program and 16% transferred to a higher level of care. That is a 74% rate of successful Medically Advised (MA) discharges from IOP. The average stay in IOP was 35 treatment days (7-8 weeks).
Of the IOP patients discharged from AfterCare, 62% were considered Medically Advised discharges, either meeting the criteria for successful Aftercare termination with a consistent record of abstinence and/or a significant reduction in self-harming behaviors (depending on diagnosis and treatment objectives) OR needing a higher level of care to address a relapse or other self-harming behaviors. In this case, only 1 patient was identified as needing a higher level of care.The average length of stay for AfterCare patients was 16.5 treatment days.
Another gauge of the effectiveness of FAIR is the number of former patients and parents who continue to volunteer after they have left the program. Volunteers believe in this program because they have seen that it works. Each year parents volunteer more than 6,000 hours while teens are volunteering 10,000 hours.