Many struggling addicts want to get help and get clean and sober and turn their life around.  This is not always easy to do however and in many cases it takes a great deal of time, effort, and resources to pull this off and stay clean in the long run.  For example, many addicts have to try to go to rehab several times before they finally manage to stay clean and sober for at least one year, and even then, many will still relapse at some point.  Some research indicates that it takes about 5 years of solid sobriety before people are really committed to staying sober for good.

A growing trend these days in order to bring costs down is to offer outpatient drug rehab instead of inpatient care.  This is cheaper because the rehab is no longer paying to feed and shelter the addict, because they simply go home each night and then come back the next day.  Everything else, including all of the groups, can remain the same.

This has both advantages and disadvantages.  The main advantage is that the cost is significantly cheaper for the client, and therefore it is more affordable and can be accessible to more people.  But that is about it for advantages.  The major disadvantage is that the addict doing outpatient rehab is not protected like someone who is in the controlled environment of inpatient care.  For example, take someone who has an addiction to ecstasy and club drugs, who loves to go out and party with friends at night.  The environmental influence of the partying friends is still going to be applying tremendous pressure to that addict when they are in outpatient rehab, because they will be going home each night and still be exposed to those triggers.  In an inpatient setting, they would be much more shielded and removed from this threat.