This program has major benefits and major drawbacks. The facility itself where the women stay is as good as its going to get unless you're rich enough to go to [a luxury facility]. You get your own apartment with one or two room mates. The big issue that needs to be addressed is staffing. They need to get counselors that are not concerned with having power over the girls and are concerned only with empowering us in our recovery and teaching us to live again. As it is, the girls are very much treated like children who need to be disciplined instead of grown woman that need to be taught life skills. The groups were where they need the most work, they were absolute chaos. The girls ran the groups and the counselors had very little ability to keep them under control. It was very distracting to the point that I left several times rather than hear everyone screaming at each other. There was also a safety issue, a woman came in with a black eye because her husband had beat her while he was using. After they made up she brought him inside the building several times even after being warned not to. ... However as I said there were some counselors there that genuinely cared for us and took whatever time we needed to talk us through our bad days. I will say however that one of them was fired after I left. I don't know what the reasoning was so I can't really comment on that. I believe I got as much out of that program as I did because I was completely prepared to get sober and none of the issues that I noticed were enough to keep me from fighting for my life. After my first time going I did relapse about a month or two after I left but the second time I went inpatient I have stayed sober. If I hadnt wanted sobriety so badly I do not think I would have stayed. I was not able to do aftercare because I had to return to work, so it was my choice not to attend, they do have aftercare programs. They have two very fancy apartments that they show as examples of where we were to stay. The actual apartments are much smaller and have a lot of issues such as mold and bad plumbing.
