The problem with alcohol/drug addiction is that it's an illness, an illness for which there is no cure, other than giving up completely, even then there is no such thing as a 'cured' alcoholic, any alcoholic who has been sober long term will tell you they are a 'recovering' alcoholic rather than a 'cured' alcoholic. Nobody knows why, there's some evidence of it being hereditary, certain enzymes in the brain blah blah blah, bottom line is nobody knows why some people become addicts but most don't.
Alcoholics Anon and NA are great, as are the countless treatment centres including the well known celebrity ones, but pushing someone into treatment of any sort more often than not fails, because deep down, the addict doesn't really want to be cured.
An addict will only really seek treatment when he/she reaches rock bottom and they are desperate to be 'better', everybody's 'rock bottom' will be different, for some it will losing their job, losing their partner, losing their job and partner, or simply losing everything and living on the streets, even that is not enough for some to consider it as rock bottom and so they die. If you feed the addict to help them avoid their own personal rock bottom, you take away the need for recovery.
Without meaning to sound facetious, the centres described in the OP sound to me a little like going to the doctor with severe diahorreah, and being referred to a meeting room where they give you words of encouragement and dish out laxatives. It might work, but, lets be honest, it's a long shot.
A bloke called Bill W was a chronic alcoholic back in 30's America. He was on a business trip and had been sober for some time but paced around the room becoming more and more desperate for a drink, he asked the landlady if she knew of a local drunk, the landlady said no but Bill W persisted and she eventually gave him the name of the local doctor, who was a chronic alcoholic. Bill W promptly went round to Dr Bob's house and demanded to speak to him, 'I just need to speak to another drunk'. they spoke about the need to drink, the need not to drink, the heartbreak they'd brought upon others, they spoke for six hours. They found by talking about it, the need to drink subsided, temporarily at least.
That was the birth of AA, they now have an estimated 100,000 groups in 150 countries, with more than two million members. Membership is free, they ask for a donation at meetings, but only what you can afford, and if you can't afford anything, well just help serve the coffee.
'It works if you work it' is a well known AA quote, it basically means there's is nothing magical about the information in the program, nothing that will cure you just by hearing it. But if you do the work, if you turn the words into practices, you can make progress, doing the steps, reading the Big Book, going to meetings, working with your sponsor.
My wife (ex at the time because of her alcoholism) spent some time in an expensive rehab centre, she met some famous tv celebs who kept in touch, but she was back on the drink shortly after leaving, we were tentatively seeing each other again after a year apart by which time she'd started attending AA meetings, but falling off the wagon was a regular occurrence, she'd cry for days afterwards having let us and herself down. At one point she was attending 3 meetings a day, the rough one's in Slough and Maidenhead, the Doctors and Dentists one in Beaconsfield, the 'stars on sunday' one in Chelsea and everything in between, addiction transcends the classes. Eventually something clicked and she just stopped drinking. After a couple of years sobriety we re-married and she carried on going to AA for many years, sponsoring many newcomers along the way and volunteering for the telephone help line at weekends, that caused a few arguments, somebody would phone at 2 in the morning threatening to kill themselves, I'd overhear it and say 'just tell them to ******g do it and let me get back to sleep'. The thing was, the natural progression was for her to sponsor and help newcomers, not only did it help others, it strengthened her own recovery.
I later learned that people would come from far and wide if they knew she was going to 'speak' at an AA meeting, and she had to turn away many people who wanted her to sponsor them or mentor them.
Through her I got to know quite a few addicts, sadly, many didn't make it and died far too early, some were doomed by a terrible upbringing in deprivation and a lack of love, a lack of understanding, others had everything and more, but chose a self destructive path nonetheless.
Anyway, in December we celebrated her 29th year of sobriety.
Thanks for listening.
God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.
