Reach Out: Post-Rehabilitation Care Programme at Cadabam's

Reach Out is one programme under one name, with two tracks, because recovery from addiction and recovery from a long psychiatric illness need different things after discharge.

The de-addiction track is for people discharged from Cadabams Anunitha, our Centre for Alcohol and Drug De-Addiction and Rehabilitation in Bangalore, including its women's centre. It follows the person through the high-risk first months after de-addiction treatment and into long-term maintenance.

The psychosocial rehabilitation track is for people discharged from Cadabams Amitha, Anvita, Ananya and Adrutha, our psychiatric rehabilitation centres. It focuses on independent living, work or study, and staying well with a long-term psychiatric condition.

What both tracks share is the principle underneath: discharge is a phase of treatment, not the end of it. Wherever possible, the team you see in Reach Out is the same team that treated you in the residential programme, so there is no starting over with strangers.

We recommend Reach Out to everyone who completes a residential programme at a Cadabams centre. Joining is the family's choice: before discharge, the treating team explains the programme, its schedule and its fees, and families who opt in plan the first month together with the team. Families often ask whether their person "really needs" continued care. These are the signs that they do:

• A real fear of relapse, in the person or in the family
• Difficulty adjusting to home, a spouse or parents after the structured life of the centre
• Ongoing emotional ups and downs, poor sleep or restlessness
• A weak support system at home, or a home where the old triggers are still present
• Feeling overwhelmed by responsibilities, money, work or social pressure
• Struggling to return to work, college or social life

If any of these apply, the first months after discharge are exactly when support matters most.

Anandhu, Senior Counsellor & After-Care Services Coordinator, Cadabams Anunitha

On the de-addiction track, Reach Out runs across two stages: Early Recovery for roughly the first three months after discharge, then Maintenance for up to two years. It is reviewed every month in the renewal-of-agreement session, so the intensity follows the person's progress rather than a fixed calendar. On the psychosocial rehabilitation track, the duration is planned individually with the treating team.

Reach Out cannot guarantee that someone will never drink, use or become unwell again, and no honest programme can. What it does is keep the known risks in view: it keeps the treating team involved during the months when risk is highest, catches warning signs and lapses early, keeps the family informed and involved, and adjusts the plan month by month. Recovery is a supported path, and Reach Out is the support.