Every participant in the Georgia PHP will need to have an ongoing doctor/patient relationship with a physician who is an addiction specialist. If you attended treatment in a nearby treatment center, you may choose (but you are not obligated) to continue seeing the physician from your initial treatment setting.

Why do we have this requirement? The Georgia PHP believes that addiction is a chronic illness and needs chronic disease management. This does not mean that you have to see this individual weekly; however, they need to know you well enough to step in should problems arise in your recovery. If, for example, you have to undergo a surgical procedure and need addictive substances postoperatively, your addiction physician will be available to help you navigate the dangerous waters that occur when a recovering person is administered addictive medications.

Because addiction does not occur in a vacuum, your addiction specialist physician will also help with any needed psychiatric medications. They are also a resource to your primary care physician, helping them work around medications for medical conditions that have the potential to reignite your addictive disorder.