Our Editorial Process

The goal of the editorial process at Ark Behavioral Health is to provide readers with easy-to-read, reliable, and trustworthy information so you or your loved one can make the best choices about substance misuse, mental health, rehab, and ongoing addiction recovery.

We select topics based on research and the needs of prospective patients and their family members. If we achieve our goal, readers have access to clear, concise, and easy-to-understand information that can lead to meaningful action and lasting change.

Our High-Standards For Quality Content

Addiction, as well as treatment and recovery, is frequently misunderstood. This is why our content team works hard to reduce the stigma of addiction by:

• only using the most trustworthy sources (.gov, .edu, peer-reviewed journals, etc.)
• avoiding stigmatizing language that perpetuates addiction as a moral failure
• fact-checking and updating content with licensed medical practitioners

We ensure our content is up to our standards and helpful for readers by basing everything we write on four standards of excellence: 

Accessible & Easy-To-Digest

There is no shortage of information on addiction, mental health, and treatment on the Internet. However, much of this information is inaccurate, overwhelming, or stigmatizing. 

You’ll find our content is simple and straightforward. The goal is to address the subject matter immediately so you can easily find the information you’re looking for as well as feel confident in what to do next, whether it’s finding treatment and support or doing further research. 

Our pages are designed to include easy-to-digest information that can lead to real, actionable decisions regarding rehab, mental health, and recovery.

Evidence-Based & Trustworthy

Our content is trustworthy because we only write about topics that can be sourced with evidence-based and clinical information. We do this by using governmental and educational sources that include but are not limited to:

• Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC)
• National Institute on Alcohol Abuse & Alcoholism (NIAAA)
• National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
• National Library of Medicine
• Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
• Harvard Health and other university websites  

We provide a list of sources at the end of each page of content. Once a page is published, we have a team of clinical medical reviewers who provide feedback to ensure our writers captured the core of the topic with accurate, unbiased, and evidence-based information

Approachable & People-First

When writing content, our goal is to be people-first. This means we write with empathy and inclusion to convey information that is actually useful to those who need it most: individuals and families in need of addiction treatment and support.

Many on our editorial team, as well as our staff members at our rehab facilities, have lived with or been affected by addiction. We understand how hard it is to not only live with addiction but also find professional care and support that leads to lasting recovery.

As a result, our voice is clinical yet approachable. We strive to be transparent in our treatment offerings while using compassionate language that empowers you to address addiction and mental health in an inpatient or outpatient setting.

Frequent Updates For Continued Accuracy

Although we publish content on our website daily, we’re constantly reviewing content to ensure continued accuracy and up-to-date information. 

Our updating process is rigorous and includes:

• revising/updating statistics
• fact-checking information
• ensuring facility information is up-to-date
• updating treatment methods and practices
• double-checking sources
• checking for readability and transparency
• applying feedback from medical reviewers

Our Medical Reviewers

Our medical reviewers are licensed clinical providers who care deeply about information on addiction and treatment. They are selected via an in-depth vetting process so they can be relied upon for fact-checking the complex science and research on mental health and substance misuse.

Our Editorial Team

Our editorial team consists of content managers, editors, writers, and publishers. We work on multiple sites and have written thousands of pages for our audience. Our backgrounds are varied and rooted in research, library science, writing/editing, addiction medicine, mental health, and more.