ASAM Levels of Care for Addiction Treatment
Addiction Treatment Levels of Care and Programs at Icarus Idaho
ASAM levels of care are an important tool for your medical team to assess how much help and support you may need in overcoming substance use disorder. Addiction treatment takes on many shapes and sizes rather than being a one-size-fits-all treatment. These levels allow us to tailor your care to what you most need.
ASAM criteria assess medical needs, physical and emotional health, readiness to change, potential for relapse, and likelihood of recovery. The levels of care range from 0.5 to 4. At the lower end of the scale, clients will encounter early intervention. At higher levels of care, you may require medically managed detox 24/7.
Icarus Behavioral Health in Boise is committed to providing you with the highest quality care, meeting you where you need us most. With this modality, involved inpatient care and outpatient care is tailored to your individual needs. Here is what you should know about ASAM assessments.
What are the ASAM Criteria?
Before we talk about the level of care you might receive at Icarus Idaho, it’s important to note a little history. The American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) was founded in 1954 for treatment teams to collaborate to benefit patients. Treatment services such as counseling were considered alongside psychiatry and general well-being.
The ASAM criteria are implemented to determine a client’s level of care, mark when they are ready to transition to outpatient treatment, and even determine when discharge is imminent.
As soon as you make contact with a rehab facility for your substance use disorder, you will likely be assessed using these ASAM criteria. The following six dimensions are used for patient placement and treatment planning.
Dimension 1: The Need for Medical Detox
When a medical professional first encounters a client, they might obviously be under the influence or dealing with acute intoxication. This isn’t uncommon for providers who work in this field, and they may take precautions to ensure that clients are safe from themselves, others, and even physical symptoms.
If they believe withdrawal will be difficult or possibly dangerous, they might enroll a client in medical detox. Detoxification requires frequent monitoring under the careful eye of medical staff. Whether on-site or through a partner facility, Icarus Idaho offers around-the-clock access to support services, medication-assisted treatment (MAT) when indicated, and medical management in our detox programs.
This first dimension is also the best time to assess a substance abuse treatment system based on your risk factors, history of alcohol and/or substance use, and psychological evaluation.
Dimension 2: Biomedical and History
Your treatment provider handles the collection of history and personal details at this assessment criteria dimension level. To make it to the second dimension, you may notice that there is a bit of overlap with the first. Namely, it exists to take a detailed health history to inform treatment services.
If your illness requires medical monitoring, this is the stage where it will be addressed. All medical needs and background information collected at this stage are designed to keep you safe during the early intervention of addiction medicine.
It informs the level of care, as people who have more risk factors for serious ailments might require more supervision in a residential treatment or detox program.
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Dimension 3: Emotional and Behavioral Conditions
Addiction treatment often starts with the ASAM criteria regarding your potential for physical health complications. However, that’s not to say it’s the only thing that matters to a treatment team. While physical health may take priority, the third dimension accounts for emotional and behavioral health.
Are there underlying conditions for your substance use disorder that should be addressed with the help of a counselor or licensed therapist?
At this stage, the ASAM criteria also evaluate cognitive skills and capacity. Anything that might influence your thoughts, feelings, or behavior should come into question before you seek treatment. At Icarus in Boise, our addiction treatment providers will give you a comprehensive assessment to see where our team needs to start.
Dimension 4: Readiness to Change
While the first three ASAM criteria are designed to pinpoint potential roadblocks to recovery, this fourth dimension signals an internal shift in the client. You have reached the fourth dimension when you finally decide that you can no longer sustain life as it has been.
In the parlance of Alcoholics Anonymous, you admit that you’re powerless over your addiction. In the language of SMART Recovery, you have found the motivation to change. No matter how it is framed, the time is ripe to seek help for lasting clean and sober success!
This is the ideal stage at which clients come to us, ready and motivated to change their behaviors for the long haul. You might be a great candidate for residential treatment if you’ve decided on your own that life is harder than it should be. Even if loved ones convince you to come, it can be a motivator with potential for change.
Dimension 5: Potential for Relapse
This fifth dimension often comes further into the assessment and may come as you transition to a lower level of care, such as intensive outpatient programs. You’ll qualify for a partial hospitalization treatment level if your team feels that you are at a lower risk of relapse.
However, this fifth dimension can also be assessed during intake. It determines the likelihood of use without treatment, an assessment of potential problems that inhibit sobriety, and your risk of relapse more generally. Clients who seem less likely to relapse might enroll in outpatient treatment (level II compared to inpatient).
Dimension 6: Recovery
Last but not least, the final ASAM criteria relate to your recovery goals. How does your living situation or support system contribute to your continued efforts to remain sober? At this stage, we will use ASAM patient placement criteria to decide what level of care you need right now.
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ASAM Treatment Services Provided Based on Criteria
These six dimensions are utilized to determine what level of care is necessary for a given client, whether for standalone substance use disorder care, or for those clients requiring dual diagnosis treatment.
Icarus Behavioral Health in Boise adheres not only to therapeutic preparation directed by the ASAM criteria, but we use it to inform whether you should attend inpatient or outpatient services level.
Here are the levels of care you might be assigned to.
Level 0.5 to Level 1: Less Restrictive Care
If you fall under the lowest level numbers of the ASAM system, then you may not require intensive help from a full-time residential program.
At level 0.5, you are in a phase known as early intervention, where the most helpful thing for you may be education to prevent the further development of a substance use disorder.
A slightly higher number at level 1 indicates that you might benefit from outpatient or other aftercare services that require less than nine hours per week. This could mean that your substance use disorder is mild and responds quite well to minimal intervention. However, this could also be a step down from inpatient treatment.
Level 2: Intensive Outpatient Treatment and Partial Hospitalization
At this stage, you may require more help than you get with the minimal hours found in level 1 care.
Level 2 is just a touch more intensive than the previous level, requiring more than nine hours of services per week but fewer than twenty. You may also have access to medical care 24/7 or within a reasonable time frame.
Level 2.5 is typically indicative of a partial hospitalization program where you spend more than 20 hours each week in treatment but don’t spend the night. It might be the first step down from residential care. You still have access to managed care providers and intensive treatment programs, but have a bit more flexibility to practice your sobriety.
Level 3: Inpatient Care
When you first seek out help, clinical instructions typically require that you undergo more rigorous tests and treatment planning. You’ll still have regularly scheduled sessions as you did in lower ASAM levels of care, but there are meaningful and valid differences across the third level.
Level 3.1 might mean living in a halfway house or a sober living community. You’ll have access to help and treatment for at least five hours per week while receiving the structure needed to commit to and continue with sobriety. The focus is usually on relapse prevention.
Levels 3.3 and 3.5 indicate that your symptoms require structured environment settings. This could be an acute care general hospital where you gain access to high-intensity care. You’ll move at a pace that feels good for you with 24/7 oversight from a team of medical professional services.
Level 3.7 means you are in a medically monitored inpatient program but may not require hands-on attention from a doctor or medical professional around the clock.
Level 4: Physician Monitoring 24/7
At the highest ASAM levels of care, you will have a medically directed evaluation to see if you require more hands-on treatment with a medical provider. You may have severe but manageable withdrawal, still requiring at least once-daily checks from a doctor. This is true if it’s just the patient’s wishes to seek the most intensive help possible.
Treatment effectiveness often means starting at this highest ASAM level of care. There isn’t only one treatment modality to choose from, but this is a great starting point for someone new to clean living.
Keep in mind that treatment reimbursement may be lower for this level of care, as it’s expensive for insurance companies to maintain.
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Seek Help at Icarus Behavioral Health in Boise Today
Are you ready to start the treatment process and want to know where you fall on the ASAM levels of care? Icarus Behavioral Health in Idaho can help by selecting specific treatment modalities as we leverage the utilization review criteria found under this framework.
Whether you require medical management or outpatient services, we help maintain behavioral stability. Let our enrollment team verify your insurance benefits and help you find the perfect treatment program at our facility now with a quick phone call!
