Way Back Inn offers “Extended Residential Care” (ERC) for substance use and gambling disorders, as well as co-occurring disorders.

Extended Residential Care is a highly structured, long-term therapeutic living environment for individuals to grow and nurture their new life in recovery.  Individuals struggling with the disease of addiction have often lost or lacked structure in their lives.  One of the functions of Way Back Inn is to revitalize and instill renewed productive living habits and daily life functions.  The aim of the program is to lay the foundation for a lasting recovery, including maintaining one’s overall health, family relationships, and social relationships.

For the duration of the ERC program, each participant lives in one of our homes from 90 days to one year, depending on one’s unique story and treatment plan.

While in the ERC program, participants receive clinical services, housing, and food.  Each client has their own individualized treatment plan, receiving between five to nine hours of clinical services weekly, including individual and group sessions with our Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselors.  We include programs at this level of care that assist with time management, employment, and budgeting.  We have two ERC homes in Maywood for men-identified adults and one facility in Oak Park for women-identified adults.

Upon completion of the ERC program, individuals may apply to “step down” into the next level of care and live in one of our Recovery Homes.  Recovery Home participants receive clinical services at a reduced frequency.  This encourages each person to transition into independent societal living once they leave our program.  The length of stay in our residential programs is determined by each person’s individual needs.  Our active Recovery Home is a multi-unit building located in Melrose Park.

The overall goal of our Extended Residential Care and Recovery Home programs is to help our participants foster a fulfilling life in recovery.

A glimpse into Way Back Inn’s programming:

• Group therapy
• Individual therapy
• Communal living
• Family-style meals
• Daily community meetings
• Structured living
• Renewed daily life functions
• 12-step support
SMART Recovery & other peer support groups
• Certified Peer Recovery Support specialists
• Aftercare
• Alumni Association for continued connection
• In-house AA meetings to build 12-step peer support

Peer Support: A peer recovery network, such as a 12-Step program or SMART recovery, is important for continued recovery.  As part of Way Back Inn’s structured living program, clients are encouraged to attend at least four 12-Step or other peer support group meetings each week during their stay to help build a recovery support network for when they are no longer living in our residential facilities.

Examples of 12-Step support groups: Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), Narcotics Anonymous (NA), Gamblers Anonymous (GA), and more!

Way Back Inn is committed to treating each client with dignity and respect and to developing an individualized treatment plan.   Way Back Inn utilizes motivational interviewing, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), and the cycle of change into its individualized treatment plan, per the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM). All therapeutic interventions, groups, and education utilize evidence-based best practices.

What to bring and not bring when being admitted.