What Happens During a Home Detox? Answers From Qualified Clinicians

Home detox is not for everyone. Why? Because any medical treatment involves risk, and withdrawing from alcohol is a high risk event. As such, home detox can only be provided where risks can be mitigated: They can never be eliminated.

Here at Find Me a Rehab we have experienced addictions clinicians who can help you with Home Detox Services UK as well as providing a Free Rehab Referral Service

To determine who is suitable clinicians will need information that covers a range of areas including:

• The amount of alcohol being consumed daily
• How long you have been drinking for
• Any previous detox’s and when the last one is
• Current medication
• Medical history
• Availability of adults over the age of 18 who are able to provide 24/7 support

With very little exception, a home alcohol detox can only be offered to someone who drinks less than 30 units a day. It is essential that you are honest about how much you are drinking.

If you try and obtain treatment at home knowing you are consuming more than 30 units a day you are, literally, putting your life on the line: It simply isn’t worth it. Indeed, it is not always cost effective to have a detox at home and going in for a weeks treatment (where you will have a proper medically supervised detox in a safe and regulated rehab centre) can actually cost less.

If you have a history of alcohol withdrawal seizures, and/or have had a recent detox then it is extremely unlikely you will be accepted for treatment at home. Certain medications may preclude you from home treatment. Your clinician will advise you.

Here at Find Me a Rehab we have experienced addictions clinicians who can help you with Home Detox Services UK as well as providing a Free Rehab Referral Service

What is a home detox?

In essence it is a treatment plan to help someone successfully detox from alcohol in the comfort of their own home. Using benzodiazepine medication, typically Librium, dosages are taken up to four times a day for the first couple of days, reducing over a 7-10 day period.

Other medications, such as vitamin replacement therapy and some sleeping pills at the end of the course of Librium are also standard.

The vitamins are essential as the glucose in alcohol prevents the absorption of certain vitamins meaning someone is prone to alcohol related brain damage without them.

While there are different schools of thought as to how long you should take them for, and how many you need a day, they are available without prescription and won’t do you any harm if you take them without needing them. They are, however, essential at the beginning.

What is the assessment process for a home detox?

Most home detox companies will have a non-clinical colleague ask you some screening questions to ensure that you may be a viable candidate for home treatment (they may also take a refundable deposit). An arrangement will then be made for you to speak with a clinician.

The clinician will want to go over the information given on the initial screening and to confirm your current medication, medical history and particularly previous treatment for alcohol dependency, if appropriate.

Does my GP need to know?

Ideally yes, but we understand that there will be occasion where clients would rather there GP not be aware. It is sometimes necessary for a medical history to be sought, which would include current medication. However, this is available to any NHS GP patient, without charge, and without declaring what it is for. Modern GP computer systems enable a medical summary to be printed out by a receptionist. You will need photo ID to confirm you are the patient.

What actually happens during a home detox?

That depends on who provides the service to you. A lot of companies who offer this service do so illegally. They will merely offer an assessment with a clinician (or a nurse/pharmacist prescriber) over the phone and send you some pills in the post. Please do not use one of these companies. There is no fallback if something goes wrong.

Why are some companies providing an illegal service?

All medical services in the UK have to be registered with the appropriate governmental body. In England, that is the Care Quality Commission. At this time, there is no Alcohol Home Detox service registered anywhere in England, Wales, N.Ireland or Scotland that is registered to provide such a service.

How it can be provided is if a medical doctor with specialist training in addiction (usually an addictions psychiatrist or a GP with further training) works in an addictions registered service and wishes to provide additional services “out of hours”.

This is permissible but only if the doctor sees the process through from beginning to end. This means the Doctor has to conduct the assessment, take payment, prescribe the medication and monitor the patient for the duration of the detox.

Some companies will use a nurse/pharmacist/paramedic prescriber: This is illegal because the company is not registered to provide home alcohol detox.

Thus it is perfectly legal for a company to provide an alcohol home detox if they do not hold registration but only with the above caveat. In other words, if you find a home detox company on the internet and only get to speak to a doctor as part of the process it is illegal. As such you have no recourse if somethings goes wrong. Many are internet based and are, literally, being run on a laptop in someone’s kitchen or, in one particular case: Thailand by someone on the run after being prosecuted by the Care Quality Commission for running illegal services.

What happens during a home detox?

Ideally, once you have been assessed and medication prescribed, a clinician will come to your house on the day you are due to start. It is standard practice to use a breathalyser as you need to be at a certain level of withdrawal before you start treatment.

Most clinicians will advise you to stop drinking at midnight the day before. Some physical observations will be taken and marked on a chart which marks withdrawal signs.

Ideally, the clinician will stay with you for the majority of the first day. However, you must have an adult, over the 18, who is fit and well who has agreed to be with you, at least for the first 2-3 days. A simple blood pressure monitor is required. These cost around £10-15.

For the first two days, approximately, blood pressure and other signs are recorded on this chart which gives a score. This gives the clinician an indication as to how you are responding to the treatment plan and whether your medication needs to be adjusted. This is not uncommon as everyone responds differently.

The amount of medication, and the intervals change over the period of the treatment plan. Initially you will be taking medication for withdrawal four times a day with several capsules at a time. Over time the amount you takes reduces as do the intervals at which you take them. The vitamin replacement pills will be twice or three times a day for several months.

Is a home detox a low cost alternative to admission?

No! A lot of companies, especially those who are trading illegally are, literally, selling you £15 worth of pills for £1,600. That is all they are doing: Selling you pills. They will pay a nurse/pharmacist/paramedic prescriber about £250-300: Not a bad profit!

Those who use a doctor but only for the consultation are, again, operating illegally. As mentioned above, no company in the UK is registered to provide this as a standalone service so they can only offer it with the caveat mentioned. A weeks admission into a safe, registered and fully regulated rehab centre does not cost that much more. Most companies are referral agents. They are interested, solely, in commission.

Our clinicians have worked in the majority of UK centres and for companies that provide at home services. We will be happy to advise you on where/where not to go.

What are the drawbacks of having treatment at home?

Many people will call in asking for treatment at home saying they have lots of family support and friends around them. If recovery was that easy then rehab centres would all close down. Alcohol numbs emotions. It blots out difficult thoughts.

When someone stops drinking these emotions and thoughts come to the forefront. Without appropriate support, relapse is very likely.

Most people who detox at home will relapse: if not by the end of the 1st week, then usually the second week. Home treatment does not provide aftercare.

One of the most challenging aspects is when clients who have previously had a detox have relapsed and think they can do it themselves at home with medication.

If you broke your leg three times would you try and fix it at home yourself on the fourth occasion?

Here at Find Me a Rehab we have experienced addictions clinicians who can help you with Home Detox Services UK as well as providing a Free Rehab Referral Service

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