My personal experience with outpatient treatment was not encouraging. I went of my own free choice after trying to quit on my own, Dr.'s and anti-depressants, and 1-1 counseling. I was highly motivated to quit drinking and took it very seriously. I think I started drinking again about a month or so into it, crashed a car, and slunk off to inpatient rehab (which had similar results by the way).
I learned by trial and error, and believe wholeheartedly today, that an alcoholic like myself needs a vast change in their reaction to life in order to quit drinking for good. And that psychic change rarely comes about by learning things in treatment. The things I learned were good and useful, just not sufficient for me. I needed a spiritual awakening as the result of AA's 12 steps, not just going to AA meetings.
I see this all the time in the diversion/drug court system around me. Some can come out of that 1-2 year intensive treatment and do OK, at least so far. The overwhelmingy majority of people have relapsed within a year of graduating that system. The ones that dive headlong innto AA along with it tend to stay sober.
I mention that only because that system is way more intensive and serious than any outpatient I've ever seen. I've gotten to know that program through H&I work in AA.
If what he needs is to work through his issues, any number of treatment options might work. If however, he is an alcoholic of the hopeless variety, he may find that only a spiritual solution can solve his problem. That's what myself and many other recovered alcoholics have come to believe through our own experience.