( CNN ) -- Tragically , another celebrity has died after years of struggling with addiction , personal demons and multiple stints at rehab . Country singer Mindy McCready 's death is in the headlines , but similar tragedies happen every day and you never hear about them . Take the case of Wyatt D. , who went to rehab at least 12 times for treatment of heroin addiction and whose family notified me last summer of his death from drug-related causes . Caroline R. went to rehab five times before medical complications related to severe alcoholism took her life . And Marnie M. died from a cocaine overdose after attending more than one famous rehab where she never received any professional psychological counseling for her troubled past . These are n't their real names , but sadly , they were real people . All these people desperately wanted to overcome their drug and alcohol problems and , like McCready , they sought help . They attended some of the most recognized facilities in the country , only to be offered the same type of treatment over and over and to have it suggested that something was wrong with them when treatment failed . Just this week , Drew Pinsky , who treated McCready on the third season of his show `` Celebrity Rehab , '' said in reaction to her death , `` Unfortunately , it seems that Mindy did not sustain her treatment . '' TV show hosts offered the typical platitudes : `` Stay in treatment ; treatment is effective ; please get help . '' I 'll speculate that something else might have been going on with McCready , as it was for many of the more than 100 people I interviewed who had recently experienced the American addiction treatment system . I visited 15 addiction treatment programs across the country -- from celebrity rehabs to high-end 12-step facilities to outpatient programs that treat indigent people . The stories I heard illustrate what some studies show to be shortcomings of our drug and alcohol treatment system -- that the approaches tend to be one-size-fits-all , even at expensive residential rehabs -- and that patients often receive very little individual counseling . Instead , they participate in some form of group activity for around eight hours a day , not including meals , even though there is no evidence that group treatment is best for addiction recovery . Some outpatient programs provide no one-on-one counseling at all . Many said they were n't comfortable sharing problems with peers and could n't get sober until they found one-on-one treatment . Although about seven out of 10 alcoholics who are encouraged to go to Alcoholics Anonymous during treatment drop out in less than a year , the 12 steps of AA are included in some form in the great majority of addiction programs . Research shows there are other ways to recover and many clients said AA did n't work for them . Still , they were n't told about other options , such as Women for Sobriety or SMART Recovery . Rose T. thought her relapse after her first treatment might have been prevented had she been told about Women for Sobriety . She found the organization on her own and said , `` To sit in a room with others like me makes me feel less alone . '' At AA , if addicts relapse , they 're often told they must start over , losing their sober time , which can be a setup for a drug or alcohol binge rather than a fresh start . Many programs are not using approaches that scientific studies find to be effective . For instance , only about two out of 10 programs use one of the FDA-approved medications for treating drinking problems , such as Naltrexone or Antabuse . And some prominent programs that treat opioid addictions , heroin or prescription painkillers such as OxyContin , refuse to send patients home with the very medications that can help keep them sober or `` clean . '' Research shows these medications , such as Suboxone and methadone , are the most effective approach for opioid addiction , and that they both lower the death rate and the relapse rate . I have talked with people who had struggled for years and finally found an end to their drug obsession when they received such long-term treatment . A recent report in the journal Substance Use and Misuse that analyzed Dr. Drew 's `` Celebrity Rehab '' found that `` although many patients had histories of opioid use , there were no positive messages '' about Suboxone or methadone -- in fact , the medications were portrayed as unacceptable treatment options . The authors believe that this further stigmatized methadone and Suboxone use and that many opportunities to provide science-based information were missed . For people to get well , treatment for psychological problems or `` demons '' must be integrated into care for addictions , and by qualified professionals . Unfortunately , the standards for gaining the credentials to be addiction counselors , who provide most of the care at treatment programs , are woefully inadequate . According to a 2012 report by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia , 14 states do n't require licensing or certification of all counselors , only six states require a bachelor 's degree and just one requires a master 's degree to gain credentials . We 'll never know if another episode or type of treatment would have saved Mindy McCready , but we do know that , for a significant number of Americans , business-as-usual addiction treatment is n't working . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Anne Fletcher .
Anne Fletcher : Tragedies similar to Mindy Fletcher 's addiction and death happen often . She went to drug rehab programs and found one - size - fits - all addiction treatment . She found lack of one - on - one therapy and no integrated mental health treatments . Funding for training of addiction was woefully inadequate .