I want to say welcome back to you, and to say welcome to Newbie Dadside.
Before I comment though, I want to caution everyone before they post responses to remember that we do not use names of facilities - good or bad - so if you know anything about the facility in question, please PM the poster and do not post comments good or bad about the named facility in your reply.
That being said, I definitely agree wholeheartedly with dadside in that the person has to want to get better (which your son says he does - Hooory !) and that any type of long-term facility is much better.
They usually say that the user needs to stay twice as long as he/she was using. I think that's the ratio they told my husband and I in all the therapy and family counseling sessions we attended.
My son did the outpatient, 3 day inpatient, a few week long stays in psychiatric hospitals and even a 2 week inpatient stay at an adolescent rehab hospital. None of those stuck.
What finally did stick, and like dadside's son, saved my son's life - was a dual-diagnostic (psychiatric and substance abuse) residential program for 10 months. His was a locked facility. He literally couldn't run, as he was locked in - along with the 11 other boys. They lived together, went to school together, cooked together, had therapy together. It was peer pressure in reverse - they held each other accountable and when one slipped, they had to answer to the group.
As they reached certain levels, they were allowed to go to the public school or hold a job outside the facility and were allowed home visits, so were then at risk to run - but by then, my son had been drug free for at least 3 or 4 months and felt accountable not only to himself and his family (which was a first, trust me), but to the group he was with.
I'm not familiar with that program, but hope that if anyone is, that they PM you. If your son is ready to get drug free, a good program can be key in helping him stay on that path.
Good luck to you, and keep us posted!
Hugs,
Deb