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will find information and resources related to evidence-based treatment models, counseling and
therapy and payment and insurance options.
Treatment for addiction takes many forms and depends on the needs of the
individual. In accordance with the American Society of Addiction Medicine, we offer
information on outcome-oriented treatment that adheres to an established continuum of
care. In this section, you will find information and resources related to evidence-based
treatment models, counseling and therapy and payment and insurance options.
The recovery process doesn't end after 90 days of treatment. The transition back to
life outside of rehab is fraught with the potential for relapse. Aftercare resources such as
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community understands the struggle and provides guidance born of personal experience.
We run two things in Colorado and they are nothing like each other. One is an outpatient and intensive outpatient clinic in Highlands Ranch, about 13 straight-line miles south of Denver. The other is The Recovery Village Palmer Lake, a residential campus about 44 straight-line miles south, both farther by road.
So a Denver reader is not choosing a building. They are choosing a shape: stay in your own bed and drive to appointments, or leave for a while and come back. Which one fits is a clinical finding, and it usually turns on the first few days rather than on preference.
Below: what the rungs are, which withdrawals need someone medically trained nearby, what each Colorado site publishes, what the campus asks you to leave at home, what supervised withdrawal does not do, where cannabis sits, how Colorado pays, and what happens after. Our Colorado treatment guide covers the rest of the state.
Two Sites, Two Shapes of Care, and Which One a Denver Reader Needs
Start with the rungs, because the two sites sit on different ones.
Federal guidance describes the settings in order: the physician’s office, freestanding urgent care or an emergency department, a freestanding substance use or mental health facility, intensive outpatient and partial hospitalization programs, and acute care inpatient beds, with the adult detox levels underneath [1]. Highlands Ranch occupies the lighter end of that list. Palmer Lake runs from the heavy end down.
The alcohol and drug question splits at the same place. With alcohol, what decides the setting is usually whether stopping needs medical supervision. With most other drugs, it is what the weeks afterwards look like. From the second rung upward, the work is much the same.
Colorado’s number is worth having in mind. The state recorded 1,610 drug overdose deaths in 2024, an age-adjusted rate of 25.7 per 100,000 people [2].
Alcohol and sedatives are dangerous while you stop. Federal guidance says the signs and symptoms of acute alcohol withdrawal generally start 6 to 24 hours after the patient takes his last drink [5]. It says the majority of alcohol withdrawal seizures occur within the first 48 hours after cessation or reduction of alcohol, with peak incidence around 24 hours [5]. It names seizures and delirium tremens among outcomes in severe alcohol dependence that can lead to fatal consequences [5].
If someone is having a seizure, is unresponsive or has trouble breathing, call 911. For a mental-health crisis call or text 988.
Opioids are dangerous once you have stopped. The same chapter says that unlike alcohol and sedative withdrawal, uncomplicated opioid withdrawal is not life-threatening [5]. What follows is the risk. Tolerance drops, so someone who has just been through withdrawal can overdose on a much smaller dose than before, and most opioid overdose deaths occur in people who have just detoxed [6].
If someone is having a seizure, is unresponsive or has trouble breathing, call 911. For a mental-health crisis call or text 988.
That is the whole case for booking the next step before the first one ends. Our alcohol withdrawal timeline sets out the days.
What Each Colorado Site Publishes About Itself
Their own pages, their own words.
Denver Mental Health and Counseling, in Highlands Ranch, is the near one. Its page says the facility offers an intensive outpatient program with individual and group therapy sessions, and cards Outpatient Treatment, Intensive Outpatient, Dual Diagnosis, Individual Therapy and Group Therapy [3]. It also puts numbers on the difference between its two tiers: it describes traditional outpatient programs as generally providing under nine hours of treatment per week, and an intensive outpatient program as providing at least nine hours a week with a more structured plan, with patients returning home after sessions [3]. Those are the campus’s figures for its own programs, not a universal rule.
The Recovery Village Palmer Lake is the residential one. It cards Medical Detox, Inpatient Treatment, Partial Hospitalization Programming, Intensive Outpatient Programming, Outpatient Programming and Aftercare Planning [4]. It publishes Same-Day Admission Available and Walk-Ins Accepted under Admissions, and describes itself as a 110-bed facility that welcomes adults from all backgrounds [4].
Reading them side by side answers the question the first paragraph posed. If the first days need watching, Highlands Ranch is not where that happens. If they do not, the trip south to Palmer Lake is a cost with no clinical return. Both sit on our treatment centers page, and our Colorado Springs guide covers the other end of the drive.
Getting There, and What the Campus Asks You to Leave at Home
Thirteen miles and forty-four miles, both south, both longer by road. Neither is a flight.
The part that catches Colorado households out is not the distance. It is the admission rules, and Palmer Lake publishes them. Its not-permitted list names drug or alcohol paraphernalia including CBD and THC products, and says those are destroyed on admission rather than stored [7]. Prescribed narcotic or controlled substances are on the same list, with the same consequence [7]. In a state where two of those are sold legally on the way there, that is worth reading before packing.
Other published rules are gentler than people expect. Cell phones are permitted in all levels of care outside clinical group hours, with a security sticker placed over the camera on admission to protect other patients’ privacy [7]. Family may drop off items with staff, which are then quarantined for 24 hours [7]. The campus says its list is not exhaustive and the treatment team makes the final call [7], so confirm the current version on the phone, because published rules change.
The Recovery Village Palmer Lake, in Palmer Lake, Colorado, cards Medical Detox, Inpatient Treatment, Partial Hospitalization Programming, Intensive Outpatient Programming, Outpatient Programming and Aftercare Planning on its own page. It is about 44 straight-line miles south of Denver and farther by road.
What Supervised Withdrawal Does, and What It Leaves Undone
It has one job and it does it well. The trouble starts when people mistake it for the whole course.
Federal guidance puts the limit plainly. Detoxification is not substance abuse treatment and rehabilitation, and a detox program is not designed to resolve the longstanding psychological, social, and behavioral problems associated with alcohol and drug abuse [8]. Said another way, most people need long-term treatment after detox [6].
That is why the useful question on the first call is not “can I detox there”. It is “what is booked for the week after I leave”. A plan with one rung in it is not a plan, and this is the single most common way a first attempt comes apart.
Cannabis Is Legal in Colorado and Cannabis Use Disorder Is Still a Diagnosis
Legal status and health risk are two separate things, and in this state they are easy to run together.
Federal health information is direct about it. Cannabis can be addictive, THC levels in products have increased over time, and stronger products raise the risk of addiction, known as cannabis use disorder [9]. Daily use and starting as a teenager both make that more likely [9]. Someone trying to quit may get mild withdrawal symptoms, and the ones named are irritability, trouble sleeping, decreased appetite, anxiety and cravings [9].
Two further facts belong in the same paragraph. Recreational cannabis remains illegal under federal law, whatever a state allows [9]. And CBD is a different chemical from THC and does not cause a high [9], which is worth knowing if the two have been used interchangeably in a household conversation.
None of that makes cannabis the reason someone lands in treatment on its own; often it sits alongside alcohol. But a Denver reader who has been told legal means harmless has been told something no federal source supports. For a program we do not run, start at findtreatment.gov.
Coverage in Colorado: Health First Colorado, the BHA and Commercial Plans
Colorado splits the work between two state agencies, and knowing which is which saves a phone call.
The Department of Health Care Policy and Financing runs the Medicaid side. Its own page describes a Behavioral Health Initiatives and Coverage office that governs the behavioral health policies, benefits and strategies of Health First Colorado, which is the state’s Medicaid program, and says behavioral health includes mental health and substance use issues [10]. The same page says the office exists partly to keep the department aligned with the Colorado Behavioral Health Administration, and that Colorado behavioral health services are regulated by that administration [10]. So one agency pays and another regulates, which is why callers get passed between them.
On a commercial plan the policy decides, and a benefits check is the only way to find out what yours says. Two federal rules sit under a Marketplace plan. Mental health and substance use services are essential health benefits, a pre-existing condition cannot be used to refuse you or raise your price, and no yearly or lifetime dollar cap may be placed on an essential health benefit [11]. Under the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, a plan that covers mental health and substance use care may not apply harsher limits to it than it applies to medical and surgical care, and that reaches prior authorization and step therapy as well as visit and day caps [12]. The scope is worth knowing: it applies to non-federal governmental plans with more than 50 employees, to group health plans of private employers with more than 50 employees, and to the individual market [12]. Plans from small employers are not covered directly. They reach comparable protection through the Affordable Care Act’s essential health benefits requirement.
Our guide to insurance coverage for rehab walks through the benefits check, and our own cost page heads its list of what changes the price with program length, and puts detox at $250 to $800 a day among the ranges we publish on what rehab costs.
Outpatient Care and Support Around Denver
The last stretch is the longest one, and it is mostly not clinical.
Federal health information lists self-help groups, like Narcotics Anonymous or SMART Recovery, among what long-term treatment after detox can include, alongside outpatient counseling, intensive outpatient treatment and inpatient treatment [6]. Ask for a discharge plan that names one of those near home, with a day and a time on it. Both Colorado sites publish what they use. Palmer Lake lists SMART Recovery and 12-Step and Back to Basics among its therapies, alongside individual counseling, group therapy and relapse prevention planning [7]. Highlands Ranch cards Individual Therapy and Group Therapy as levels in their own right [3]. Ask which of those a discharge plan actually names, and on what day of the week.
On family, Palmer Lake publishes a policy rather than a promise. It says family engagement sessions are encouraged and may include loved ones and supports outside biological family relations [7]. Its visitation policy says visitors may only enter during designated visitation times, that a patient’s treatment team must approve any visitor, and that patients in the medical detox or inpatient programs do not have in-person visitors [7]. Nominate one relative as the contact with the treatment team before admission and route everyone else through that person.
Then the mechanics. Ask who holds the prescription afterwards, which outpatient level is named, and whether anything needs authorizing again. Our outpatient rehab page covers the lighter tiers.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a drug and alcohol rehab in Denver?
Not inside the city. We run an outpatient and intensive outpatient clinic in Highlands Ranch, about 13 straight-line miles south, and a residential campus at Palmer Lake, about 44 miles south, both farther by road. The Highlands Ranch site cards Outpatient Treatment, Intensive Outpatient, Dual Diagnosis, Individual Therapy and Group Therapy. Palmer Lake cards the full range from Medical Detox through Aftercare Planning.
Should I start at the outpatient clinic or go to the residential campus?
An assessment decides, and the deciding factor is usually the first few days. If stopping itself needs medical supervision, that happens at Palmer Lake, which cards Medical Detox. If it does not, the Highlands Ranch clinic keeps someone in their own home and their own job while treatment runs. Say on the call what is being used and how much, because the answer is built from that.
Can I be treated for cannabis use disorder in Colorado?
Cannabis use disorder is a recognized condition and legality does not change that. Federal health information says cannabis can be addictive, that THC levels in products have increased over time, and that stronger products raise the risk. Ask the admissions line directly what a given site treats. For a program we do not run, start at findtreatment.gov.
Will Health First Colorado or my insurance pay for rehab?
Your own plan decides, so ask for a benefits check covering network, level of care and authorization. On the Medicaid side, the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing governs Health First Colorado behavioral health benefits, while Colorado behavioral health services are regulated by the Behavioral Health Administration. Under a Marketplace plan this care is an essential health benefit with no yearly or lifetime dollar cap.
What should I do if withdrawal has already started?
Say so on the first call, because it changes the order of everything. Federal guidance names seizures and delirium tremens among outcomes in severe alcohol dependence that can lead to fatal consequences, and treats 24-hour medical care as generally the preferred setting for alcohol, sedative-hypnotic and opioid withdrawal. If someone is having a seizure, is unresponsive or has trouble breathing, call 911. For a mental-health crisis call or text 988.
Sources
Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. (2006). Detoxification and Substance Abuse Treatment, Chapter 2: Settings, Levels of Care, and Patient Placement. Treatment Improvement Protocol (TIP) Series No. 45. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK64109/
National Center for Health Statistics. Drug Overdose Mortality | Stats of the States. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/state-stats/deaths/drug-overdose.html
The Recovery Village. Denver Mental Health & Counseling. Advanced Recovery Systems. https://www.therecoveryvillage.com/locations/denver/
The Recovery Village. The Recovery Village Palmer Lake. Advanced Recovery Systems. https://www.therecoveryvillage.com/locations/palmer-lake/
Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. (2006). Detoxification and Substance Abuse Treatment, Chapter 4: Physical Detoxification Services for Withdrawal From Specific Substances. Treatment Improvement Protocol (TIP) Series No. 45. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK64116/
MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia. Opiate and Opioid Withdrawal. National Library of Medicine. https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/000949.htm
The Recovery Village. What to Expect at The Recovery Village Palmer Lake. Advanced Recovery Systems. https://www.therecoveryvillage.com/locations/palmer-lake/what-to-expect-palmer-lake/
Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. (2006). Detoxification and Substance Abuse Treatment, Chapter 1: Overview, Essential Concepts, and Definitions in Detoxification. Treatment Improvement Protocol (TIP) Series No. 45. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK64119/
MedlinePlus. Cannabis. National Library of Medicine. https://medlineplus.gov/cannabis.html
Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing. Behavioral Health. State of Colorado. https://hcpf.colorado.gov/behavioral-health
HealthCare.gov. Mental Health and Substance Abuse Health Coverage Options. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. https://www.healthcare.gov/coverage/mental-health-substance-abuse-coverage/
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA). https://www.cms.gov/marketplace/private-health-insurance/mental-health-parity-addiction-equity
This page is for general information and is not medical advice. Only a licensed clinician who knows your history can tell you what is right for you. If you or someone you know is in immediate danger, call 911. For free, confidential support 24/7, call or text 988.
Calls will be answered by a qualified admissions representative with Advanced Recovery Systems (ARS), the owners of DrugRehab.com. We look forward to helping you!
Phone calls to treatment center listings not associated with ARS will go directly to those centers. DrugRehab.com and ARS are not responsible for those calls.
