The Alberta Adolescent Recovery Centre (AARC) is a long-term treatment program for adolescents suffering from substance dependency. The AARC program is often the last resort for addicted youth (ages 13-21) and their families who have exhausted numerous social agencies and treatment programs, with little to no success.
AARC offers comprehensive assessment, treatment, and aftercare programs. It is built on four primary therapeutic modalities:
- Twelve Step facilitation including Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), Narcotics Anonymous (NA), and Al-Anon (for families and friends of alcoholic/addicts)
- Positive peer influence
- Group, family, and individual therapy
- Rehabilitation of functional family relationships.
The AARC program is divided into structured stages of treatment that are designed to help clients attain specific milestones in their recovery. As the client progresses through the stages, they are given more responsibilities and are gradually reintegrated back into society. The stages have corresponding AA/NA steps that our clients learn in order to gain daily living coping skills that replace dependence on drugs and/or alcohol. Each client completes the AARC program at their own pace but on average, clients finish the program in 10 months.
After the completion of the AARC program, clients are encouraged to attend weekly aftercare group sessions for 6 months. This provides new graduates with support as they transition from treatment back into the community.