What is a Guest?
Guest (noun): someone that has been invited to stay, to share a space or home; an individual who is welcomed and entertained by the person or people acting as a host.
We at Royal Life Detox are the hosts extending an invitation to all individuals who seek us out for help. For this reason, Royal Life Detox considers the individuals who stay with us to recieve treatment as our guests.
As your host, we are determined to provide a safe, supportive environment to encourage holistic growth in recovery. Our staff members carry out our procedures and treatment plans to keep each guest feeling supported and care for around the clock. The constant encouragement and non-judgmental support help guests form trust in our staff and among peers, allowing for self-acceptance and self-love that is integral to maintain recovery.
Guest VS. Patient
While it is common for a treatment provider to label the individuals in their care as “patients” or “clients”, we view you as a guest the moment you enter our facility and program. Throughout your stay, we accept the privilege of caring for your health, ensuring your needs are met. We strive to accommodate your unique set of circumstances, upholding the role of an honest and available guide to help you navigate through the recovery process. Here, you are our guest, and it is an honor to host you. As a guest of Royal Life Detox, we want you to remain comfortable, cared for, and calm throughout the entirety of your treatment with us.
Since the founding of Royal Life Centers, we have dedicated our programs to providing respectful, quality care to our guests. We have never referred to our guests as a patient, nor do we endorse the use of any language that can be construed as demeaning in nature. As a major treatment network, it is our responsibility to aid in the reconstruction of the standards and public perception surrounding addiction. We believe that the first step toward positive change is to alter the way we as a society talk about addiction. Shatterproof, a non-profit organization, has allocated its resources to nullifying the Addiction Crisis in the U.S. Shatterproof believes that the reform of addiction prevention, treatment, recovery, and advocacy can be made possible through the amendment of “the country’s consciousness” with a focus on ending the stigma surrounding substance use disorders.
What Is It Like To Be Our Guest?
It is necessary as Royal Life Detox staff that we treat all of our guests equally with the same standards of respect and stigma-reduction to develop open and honest communication.
- Guests are greeted in a calm and collected manner throughout the admissions process to ease their stress during their initial assessments.
- Staff conducts a biopsychosocial evaluation with each guest upon entry to our program. Following this, the therapist collaborates with the guest to create an individualized service plan (ISP). The ISP is tailored to the guest’s unique set of circumstances so that their treatment plan will best serve their recovery.
- We ensure that each guest understands that all questions are welcome and that we will provide the answers whenever asked.
- Guest’s are addressed by their preferred name to maintain a level of comfortability and cultivate trust.
- Our staff members take care to give each guest a tour of the grounds that they will call home for the length of treatment with us.
- We facilitate activities, entertainment, and education to accommodate our guests, ensuring that they feel welcome and supported.
- We keep the facility clean and suitable at all times.
- We initiate dialogue, ask questions, and encourage positive interactions between each of our guests as they create long-lasting bonds amongst their peers.
- Our staff provides 24/7 monitoring of our guests throughout the treatment process. All staff members save paperwork and all other potential distractions until after each shift change.
Most importantly, all of our guests at Royal Life Detox are seen as equals. Royal Life Detox respects our guests, treating them with consideration and support. Our goal is to offer a healing atmosphere in which all guests feel secure. For this reason, we always position ourselves so that we are accessible and accommodating 24/7. One of the ways Royal Life Detox implements equality and inclusivity within our programs is by utilizing guest-centric language.
What Is ‘Guest-Centric’ Language?
Royal Life Detox recognizes the influence and consequences of words— the impact our words have on the way that others feel. We are careful and considerate with the words we use, choosing to communicate in a language that exudes positivity and intention. For this reason, our guest-centric treatment methods extend beyond the programs and services and into the way that we address and speak to our guests. We do this with the understanding that while words can heal and promote growth, they can also harm and decrease an individual’s motivation.
As a matter of fact, a lot of family members and friends aspire to provide the support and understanding their loved ones need. However, the deeply ingrained stigmas directed toward substance use disorders act as a barrier between healthy communication. Unfortunately, a lot of people have never seen a constructive example of a non-judgmental language that respects individuals navigating the process of healing or finding help.
Guest-centric language, also known as person-first language (PFL), centers an individual before the disability, illustrating what the individual has, not what the person is. We at Royal Life Detox integrate person-first language into every conversation to emphasize each guest’s equal standing and individuality.
How can Person-First Language Help?
Person-first phrases provide consistent, objective terminology to avoid simplifications or labels when speaking with or about someone who has a substance use disorder. Unlike the common blame language found in conversation about addiction, “they’re an addict,” PFL rewords the statement as “person with a substance use disorder (SUD).”
As a result, person-first language takes the accusatory verbiage used to address addiction, challenging the assumption that a person is defined solely by their illness.
The phrase “addict” is outdated ad cruel. Using negative blame-based language implies that the speaker is somehow better than the person with a SUD. Keep in mind, most people using these insensitive terms lack the education that enables healthy communication. This ignorance is actually perpetuated by education systems as it’s rarely, if ever, mentioned in the media or school. In 1999, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) released a thought piece the expressed the detrimental effects of using the term “patients” in addiction treatment care.
Removing labels such as “addict,” “alcoholic,” “druggie,” and “junkie” and replacing them with person-first language such as “a guest with a substance use disorder” can decrease the inherent judgment, blame, and disgust many American’s associates with addiction. The long-standing jugment surrounding SUDs has trained the general public— and some clinicians— to respond to addiction with punishment over treatment.
Whether we like it or not, words shape how we view people and by extension how we treat them. In order to help people with substance use disorders, we must alter the way we talk about them and to them. This is why the use of guest-centric language and respect is one of the most important values to all of us at Royal Life Detox.
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