A hospital day care program for alcoholics

A high drop-out rate for conventional outpatient counseling of alcoholics led to implementation of a hospital-based intensive day care program in which patients attend treatment activities at the hospital throughout the day for ten days. During the day care program, patients are introduced to aftercare with supportive counseling and Alcoholics Anonymous. Day care has been found to enhance program flexibility to meet specialized patient needs, and to dramatically reduce the number of drop-outs. Significant short term improvement is noted in 41.6% of patients treated with intensive day care. Intensive hospital-based day care is proving to be a low cost, effective treatment modality. Long term outcome studies are suggested.