Every sober living house approaches drug testing differently. It’s up to you as the sober living home operator to decide how you’d like to deal with drug testing at your home. Getting clear on the rules and expectations before you begin will save you a lot of headaches down the road. Using the right tools to help your staff and your residents stay on track can make the task a whole lot easier.
Today let’s look at the four steps to streamline drug testing at your sober living home and learn a few tricks for simplifying the process.
Get Clear on the Rules
First thing’s first—decide how your sober living home will handle drug testing. Nearly all sober living homes have drug testing as a part of their program, but there are many choices you need to make about how drug testing will be administered at your home.
Some common approaches we’ve seen sober living homes take are:
Weekly testing
Monthly testing
Testing every six weeks
Random testing
Testing upon request/suspicion of use
Some combination of the above
Whatever you decide to do at your sober living home, stay consistent. Write down your drug testing rules in your resident handbook (you have one, right?) and make every resident read and sign the document before moving in. If you’re using the Sober Living App, you can have your resident read and complete all of their paperwork—including their intake forms—on the device of their choice.
No matter where you house your intake paperwork, be sure to go over your drug testing rules in detail during the intake process. Drug testing rules should never be a surprise to any of your residents and the testing schedule should feel fair and even-handed, never arbitrary.
Schedule It
Now that you have a plan, implement it. Use a calendar like the one in the Sober Living App to schedule drug testing for all residents. Link the resident and a managing staff member to the event in the app so that the drug test appears on each of their calendars. If you don’t want residents to be notified of an upcoming drug test date, just link a staff member to the event. That way, the event won’t show up in the resident’s calendar.
If you’ve chosen to do random testing, use a random date generator like this one to choose drug testing days. You can set the number of drug tests you’d like the generator to choose and the time window under which they should fall for each resident. You can even choose to exclude certain dates like holidays, birthdays, or Sundays. Again, be sure to link a staff member to the event so that they know to follow through on the task.
Record the Results
Once your resident completes their urinalysis or breathalyzer test, it’s time to record the results. If you’re using the Sober Living App, this is as simple as opening the resident record and adding a drug test result. You’ll instantly see the resident’s entire drug testing history and you can easily add to the record from any device - even while you’re standing in the lab or waiting in the parking lot.
Stay Consistent With Consequences
The last thing you’ll need to establish at your sober living home is drug testing consequences. What happens when a resident fails their drug test? Again, every sober living home handles this differently.
Some common approaches we’ve seen include:
The resident is automatically asked to leave without delay
The resident is given a certain time period to leave (24 or 48 hours)
The resident is given a second chance to provide a clean sample
The resident loses certain privileges
The resident is required to obtain additional support
The resident is moved to a facility with a higher level of care
When you’re deciding on your approach, remember that relapse is contagious and that one resident’s relapse can affect other residents’ sobriety. However you decide to approach relapse, make it consistent. Be prepared for each relapse to feel like a “special circumstance” that warrants bending the rules. Resolve to stay the course no matter what.
One great option for dealing with relapse is to require your resident to return to inpatient or outpatient treatment to regain their sobriety. If your organization runs sober living homes as well as inpatient or outpatient rehab, the resident records you create in the Sober Living App can seamlessly transfer to BehaveHealth’s more robust EHR and integrated billing system should a resident needs to return to a higher level of care. Likewise, the resident records you create in the BehaveHealth system can easily carry over to the Sober Living App when residents are ready to move to sober living. This means less time spent on paperwork for both your residents and staff.
Try the Sober Living App Free Today
Drug testing is just one example, but the Sober Living App can help you streamline so many aspects of your sober living home. Stop letting the details fall through the cracks. Why not start your free trial today?