ABRAXAS Youth and Family Services

They offer inpatient hospital, outpatient, inpatient residential, detox and telemedicine. The practical difference is whether you sleep at home or at the center, and are 8 other centers inside 14 miles if neither suits.

They detox from alcohol, benzodiazepines, cocaine, methamphetamines and opioids. Coming off alcohol without medical supervision can be dangerous, which is why it matters that this is one of 1 places near Chicago that do it.

Chicago has 876 free AA meetings as well, which is not treatment but costs nothing and needs no referral.

They prescribe methadone, buprenorphine and naltrexone, which means the medication side is handled here rather than referred out to somewhere else in Chicago.

They treat adults up to and past 65. Ask whether the group sessions are mixed age, because in Chicago that often means one room rather than two.

They offer a program for veterans, which not every center around Chicago does.

Nothing should change without a prescriber looking at it, and a good program works that way. Interactions are the reason the list is asked for, particularly with anything sedating. Ask whether there is a prescriber on site and how soon you would see them.

It is a set of questions about what is being used, your health, and what you are covered for. Understating the amount is the common mistake, and it leads to the wrong level of care being offered. Write down who you spoke to and what they committed to.