Secondary Care Programme

Understanding Secondary Care

Also known as extended care or step-down support, secondary care serves as the transitional phase between the intensive structure of inpatient rehab and the freedom (and challenges) of daily living.

During your primary care, you detoxified, developed coping skills, increased your self-awareness, and learned how to avoid relapse triggers. Secondary care takes these fundamentals and helps you put them into action in a semi-supported setting. It’s designed to ease you into real-world situations while providing professional help to adjust and strengthen your recovery strategies.

This stage is less restrictive than full residential treatment, granting you more autonomy while maintaining a safety net of expert guidance. Secondary care focuses on boosting your confidence, enhancing your resilience, and supporting your gradual return to independent living, all without the pressure of going it alone.

Key Components of Secondary Care

• Relapse Prevention: Strengthening your ability to identify and manage triggers early to avoid setbacks.
• Everyday Life Skills: From budgeting to meal planning, developing sustainable routines that promote ongoing recovery.
• Continued Therapy and Emotional Support: Access to individual and group counselling to navigate new challenges as they emerge.

The Importance of Secondary Care

Addiction leaves a deep mark on every aspect of life, from physical health decline to challenges in mental and emotional wellbeing. While primary care offers the crucial structure and support to break free from addiction’s grip, the early stages of recovery are often delicate and vulnerable. Even after sustained abstinence, old triggers, unresolved feelings, and everyday pressures can quickly become overwhelming.

For many, the shift from the tightly controlled environment of residential rehab to full independence can feel like a sudden drop, a leap without a safety net. This abrupt change often leaves individuals, no matter how committed, feeling exposed and ill-prepared to handle the realities of daily life.

Secondary care is designed to bridge this gap. It provides a measured, supportive transition that allows you to maintain the progress you’ve achieved in primary care while adapting to independence at a manageable pace.

In practical terms, secondary care

• Minimises relapse risk by offering ongoing access to professional support, counselling, and peer networks.
• Enhances coping skills by allowing you to practice them in everyday settings with expert feedback to fine-tune your responses.
• Builds confidence in handling life’s demands, whether relationships, responsibilities, or stress, without falling back into old patterns.
• Smooths the transition into independent living by replacing abrupt change with gradual, supported progress.

Far from being an optional extra, secondary care acts as a vital buffer. It strengthens your hard-won recovery, prepares you to face future challenges with resilience, and provides the stability necessary for lifelong sobriety.

Who Benefits from Secondary Care?

Secondary care is tailored for individuals who have completed their initial rehab programme successfully and are prepared to move forward, but still appreciate the importance of ongoing professional support and structured guidance.

This stage is especially suitable for those who

• Are dedicated to maintaining their recovery over the long haul and recognise that healing doesn’t stop after rehab ends.
• Seek a balanced, sober living setting that combines personal freedom with the comfort of a supportive framework.
• Require extra time to build vital life skills, repair relationships, or gear up for returning to work or education.
• Are facing the often tough transition back to everyday life and prefer a gradual, manageable approach rather than an abrupt change.

Secondary care also plays a vital role for those who may have previously tried to re-enter daily life on their own but found it overwhelming or met with obstacles. It provides a compassionate, structured space to reinforce recovery, rebuild inner strength, and restore confidence in living a healthy, rewarding life.

What Does Secondary Care Look Like at Providence Projects?

Intensive Daily Therapy

Our secondary care programme features a comprehensive and immersive daily therapy schedule, far beyond what typical outpatient or step-down options provide. This framework allows clients the time and focus needed to address complex issues deeply and develop practical skills essential for lasting recovery.
Therapy here is active and engaging; there’s no room for passivity. Every individual is encouraged to participate fully, understanding that sustained recovery requires dedication and effort.

A Close-Knit Recovery Community

Recovery thrives on connection. Providence Projects fosters a supportive community where peer accountability and encouragement play a vital role. Clients move around the facility in groups of three, our “buddy system”, ensuring no one faces their challenges alone. This network builds motivation and mutual support, strengthening commitment to recovery.

Regular drug and alcohol testing maintains a clean, sober environment, protecting everyone’s progress and reinforcing responsibility.

Tailored Relapse Prevention Plans

Central to our secondary care is creating a personalised relapse prevention plan, a detailed, stepwise guide to maintaining sobriety well beyond treatment. Working closely with professionals, clients will:

• Identify and understand their unique triggers.
• Develop and sustain a stable, structured daily routine.
• Build and maintain a robust sober support network.
• Create contingency strategies for cravings or setbacks.

This proactive approach transforms uncertainty into practical confidence, equipping clients with tools to stay the course.

Independent Living with Support

A key feature of UKAT’s secondary care is the separation between accommodation and therapy spaces. Clients live in comfortable, supportive housing near but apart from the therapy centre itself, fostering independence and personal accountability, critical for re-entering everyday life.

Managing their own meals, budgeting, and daily routines helps clients hone essential life skills. This thoughtful balance of freedom and structure nurtures resilience and confidence, turning recovery into a lived reality rather than just clinical treatment.

Holistic Activities for Wellbeing

Recovery encompasses more than just therapy sessions. To support physical health, emotional balance, and social connection, clients engage in a range of enriching activities, such as:

• Beach outings and coastal walks, promoting fitness and connection with nature.
• Team sports like volleyball, fostering camaraderie and teamwork.
• Weekly yoga sessions to enhance mindfulness, flexibility, and mental clarity.

These activities complement therapy, promoting a holistic approach to healing mind, body, and spirit.

This thoughtfully designed blend of guidance and independence equips you not just to stay sober, but to flourish in the crucial next step of their journey: sober living. As a seamless follow-on from secondary care, sober living provides a supportive, peer-led setting where individuals strengthen their self-reliance and resilience, all within a community dedicated to long-term recovery.

Contact Us Today

Frequently asked questions