Mobile Application for Addiction To ring in the New Year, Harmony Foundation’s Colorado drug and alcohol rehab will launch a new mobile phone application that will serve as a tool to aid clients in their addiction recovery process. Marvin Ventrell, Director of Community and Alumni Relations explains, “This App is a new tool that makes it possible to provide meaningful, continuous, and real-time help to recovering clients, long after they leave our campus. It is particularly well-suited to younger, technologically engaged clients who tend to need longer care.”
The app will work on both iPhone and Android platforms, allowing clients to record their recovery progress and receive immediate feedback from Harmony’s clinical staff. The app will even notify clients when they haven’t updated their progress or condition as a way to check in with clients and provide advice or additional services if indicated.
While in treatment, clients have a full schedule of group therapy, individual therapy, therapeutic assignments, 12 step meetings and educational workshops. Routine is a vital component to addiction treatment because it aids the recovery process through instilling accountability and responsibility. When clients leave treatment, some of the ingrained routines drop off, which is why aftercare is essential to long term recovery.
While there isn’t a one size fits all approach to aftercare, activities such as 12 step meeting attendance, therapy, fellowship, journaling and service all facilitate the recovery process. Many find that important facets of life begin to fill up their daily schedules such as restored relationships and professional endeavors. This can make balancing time between life events and recovery challenging. Harmony Foundation hopes to lessen that challenge by providing a quick and convenient tool for clients to track their recovery and get feedback at the tips of their fingers – literally. The app serves as a gentle reminder if a client has, for example, not been to a meeting for a while or has let other things take precedent over their recovery.
It is said that recovery should come first, as it is tantamount to all other aspects of life functioning properly. Without recovery, one may not have the rich relationships or jobs that come easy to many after getting sober. By providing an app as yet another tool to help clients stay sober, Harmony’s Colorado rehab provides an innovative, unmatched way for clients to find it easier to put their recovery first.
Marvin Ventrell and Harmony CEO Dot Dorman will present the Harmony App Program to industry professionals at the National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers Annual Conference in San Antonio, TX on May 19, 2013 and the 39th Advanced International Winter Symposium on Addictive Disorders in Colorado Springs, CO on January 28, 2013.