The Treatment Plan
The treatment plan is the road map that a patient will follow on his or her journey through treatment. The best plans will follow the patient for the next 5 years where the relapse rates drop to around zero (Vaillant, 2003). No two road maps will be the same; everyone’s journey is different. Treatment planning begins as soon as the initial assessments are completed. The patient might have immediate needs that must be addressed. Treatment planning is a never-ending stream of therapeutic plans and interventions. It is always moving and changing. I have cowritten a thorough treatment planning book and computer program that should make treatment planning easy: The Addiction Treatment Planner (Perkinson & Jongsma, 2006a, 2006b). The planner comes in two forms, as a book and as computer software. The book and software help you write your treatment plan with point-and-click simplicity and have been approved by all accrediting bodies.
