Questions to Ask at Rehab Intake

You have an appointment, and you are not sure what they will ask or who will hear the answers. Intake is the appointment where a program takes a history. SAMHSA's page on getting ready to start treatment, updated April 24, 2023, is a short plan for that day: how you will get there, what you carry, and what you are ready to say. License, accreditation, and which therapies sit on the schedule belong on the admissions guide. Use that page on the phone before you book travel. Use the questions below when someone is about to write down your medicines, your last use, and who can be told you are there.

If a person will not wake, is not breathing, or is having a seizure, call 911 before any appointment. For a mental health crisis, call or text 988. Do not skip a benzodiazepine on the drive so the history sounds calmer. The FDA boxed warning says an abrupt stop, or a cut that is too fast, can bring on seizures and can threaten your life.

What to have in your hands

SAMHSA splits the list by whether you sleep at the program.

For an outpatient appointment, you do not stay overnight. Bring an ID and an insurance card if you have them. Write down what you want to ask or talk about. Be ready to share treatments you have already tried, including medicines, why they did or did not work, and what you hope to get from care. Bring a list of current medicines and the condition each one treats. The bottles and boxes, in a bag, are an acceptable substitute for the list.

For an inpatient program, you stay overnight. Bring the ID and the insurance card if you have them. Learn what you can and cannot carry in, especially medicines, food, phones, and tobacco if you use it. Ask what kind of contact with family and friends is allowed. Be ready with the same account of past treatment and the same statement of what you hope will change.

The suitcase is the packing guide. Who may come later is the visitation guide. SAMHSA names the questions. It does not publish a national packing list or visiting hours. A blog that does is describing some other building.

Getting there is part of the plan. SAMHSA says to arrange transportation to treatment and back, and to plan childcare. A health care professional or a support group may help with that planning. For a telehealth visit, the device needs a charge and an internet connection. Why a video visit is the wrong room when withdrawal or a hands-on exam is the issue is the telehealth guide.

Before the day, SAMHSA suggests a few quiet minutes on why you want treatment, who you can turn to, and what you hope life will look like afterward. Those sentences are yours. They are not a contract the program can sign, and they are not a forecast.

What the clinician is trying to learn

The TIP 45 quick guide, reprinted on the NCBI Bookshelf, defines evaluation as testing for substances, measuring how much is present, screening for other mental and physical conditions, and a full look at the medical, psychological, and social situation. The initial evaluation is how staff see what might complicate withdrawal. You can listen for these domains and ask which of them the program actually covers.

Biomedical questions on that list include medical and surgical history, other psychiatric or medical conditions, medication allergies, and seizure history. Staff look at whether you are oriented, alert, and coherent, and whether there are signs of psychosis or thoughts of harm. A physical assessment includes a neurological exam. Temperature, pulse, and blood pressure are measured, and during detoxification they are supposed to be watched over time. The substance history is specific: when you last used, which substances, how much, and how often. A urine or other toxicology screen may be part of it. So is an account of past detoxification or treatment.

Psychosocial questions cover age, culture, language, and education; housing, including whether anyone at home could safely supervise; violence and suicide risk; a way to reach appointments; money for medicine and food, and whether you have work and income; children and whether their care is safe; legal matters, including whether a court ordered treatment; and disabilities that the setting has to accommodate.

You answer the list. You do not grade yourself on it. Ask who is asking, whether that person is a clinician, and what changes if an answer shows that the building cannot watch you safely. TIP 45 says people with severe alcohol withdrawal, delirium tremens, or seizures are not good candidates for detoxification in a nonmedical setting. That placement warning is the detox guide. What evaluation looks like once you are admitted is the first-72-hours guide. A signed intake packet is not those three days.

The quick guide also says detoxification alone is not sufficient treatment. The panel describes three parts: evaluation, stabilization, and fostering entry into ongoing care. A process that drops one of them is incomplete, in the panel's words. Ask what care is planned after today's history. An open chair that ends when the form is full has skipped a part the protocol treats as essential.

Who may hear the answers

The same quick guide says planning should include the patient and the people who support them, including family or an employer when that person is part of the network, and that family involvement has to respect privacy and confidentiality. SAMHSA's quality page says family members can be included as the person in care wants, because families can help someone see the impact of the illness and can offer support. The wish belongs to the patient. Ask whether a relative may sit for the history. Ask what staff are allowed to say after that relative leaves the room. When a program may even confirm that someone is present is the privacy guide.

Children are a placement fact, not a side note. TIP 45 says children of someone in detoxification need a safe place to stay, and that uncertain care should lead to a social-services consult while detoxification is underway. Ask before you travel. Do not assume the program has already solved the night.

If a court order is part of the story, say what the paper requires. The legal-status line on the TIP 45 list includes whether treatment is court-ordered. Supervision and clinical fit are the court-ordered guide. Bring the paper and ask the program what it requires.

Money sits beside the clinical history. Bring the card if you have it, and ask what happens to the bill if authorization is missing or later shortened. That process is the prior-authorization guide. "We will sort out payment after you land" is not a benefit check.

Questions to ask while they write

1. Which medicines should come in the bottle, and who decides whether I keep taking them?
2. What past treatment do you need described, including why it stopped?
3. Who does the physical exam, and where would a seizure be treated?
4. Do transportation, work, childcare, or housing change the level you recommend?
5. Who may stay in the room, and what can you tell them afterward?
6. What care continues after today's evaluation?

Search FindTreatment.gov for program names, then confirm intake rules with that program. A directory listing is not the history. Call or text (800) 653-9376 if you want these questions asked with you. SmarterRecovery is a referral helpline. SMART Recovery is a separate mutual-help program. The program finishes the intake, and a bed is reserved only when that program says so.

Additional Resources

Sources cited on this page:

• SAMHSA: Get ready to start treatment
• SAMHSA: Finding quality treatment
• NCBI Bookshelf: TIP 45 quick guide excerpts (initial evaluation domains)
• FDA: Boxed warning on benzodiazepines
• SAMHSA FindTreatment.gov
• 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline

Common Questions