Addiction Recovery Success Rates

At Athens Area Commencement Center, we believe long-term recovery is built through consistent treatment, ongoing support, and continued engagement. Our outcomes reflect that approach. Clients who participate in intensive outpatient treatment, defined as at least nine hours per week, and continue with aftercare for 12 to 24 months have achieved a one-year abstinence rate of more than 80%. Published national data for individuals leaving long-term residential treatment programs has been reported at approximately 10%.

Since 1978, Athens Area Commencement Center has been family owned and operated in Athens, Georgia. Our longstanding relationships within the local recovery and medical community help connect clients with continued support during treatment and throughout the recovery process. We believe lasting recovery is strengthened by personalized care, accountability, family involvement, and a strong network of community resources.

Our Tools for Success

Community Assemblies

AACC holds Daily Informational Meetings for announcements and discussion of current treatment issues. Assemblies are designed to encourage sharing among clients and serve as the setting for AACC graduations.

Learning Time

In order to achieve a balanced and successful recovery, AACC believes it is important for patients to understand their disease through Educational Meetings. The facts about alcohol and drug dependency are presented in a direct format in a nonjudgmental atmosphere wherein counselors explain root causes of the addiction and provide solutions for recovery.

Group Therapy

The heart and soul of AACC is Group Therapy. There are two types of group sessions: experiential and reality. Experiential Therapy allows participants to exchange personal experiences through life situations and learn from each other. Reality Therapy encourages participants to examine where they are on the road to recovery. Most participants find group therapy to be the most challenging aspect of treatment, but also the most helpful step to recovery.

Healing Families

Drug and alcohol addiction can be devastating to the family of an abuser. The family’s role in the recovery process is vital. AACC encourages family members to meet together in Group Sessions, as well as privately in Individual Sessions with counselors, to talk about the effect of addiction on the family, the recovery progress, and the family role in continuing recovery care after leaving the program.

Discussion

The backbone of AACC is based on the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). Local AA and Narcotics Anonymous (NA) volunteers bring step-studies to AACC, and patients are also taken to meetings within the community to help guide them into a lifelong program of sobriety.

Aftercare Continuum of Care

Recovery doesn’t end with the completion of treatment. Overcoming an addiction is a lifelong process of healing. AACC works with each patient on developing skills to make the transition from therapy to a healthy lifestyle. Our Aftercare Program offers clients support and counseling services for up to two years after completion of treatment.

Why Outpatient Treatment Is Successful

My experience at the Athens Area Commencement Center was enlightening, to say the least. Looking back, being able to go home at night was a very positive thing, because I had looked at long term in-house treatment facilities and did not want to be separated from my family and job to get treatment. After graduation from the Commencement Center program, I entered their Aftercare Program, which kept me accountable for my sobriety and gave me a group setting with other recovering alcoholics and addicts to discuss life’s situations in early recovery. I was also encouraged to get involved with one of the Twelve Step Programs early on and was taken to AA meetings while in I was in treatment. Today I am sober and living a life I could never have imagined!

An Anonymous Grateful Client