Impact Drug and Alcohol Treatment Center

They hire people with very little clean time, you have to get naked, squat and cough while they watch. There is a 45 day black out where you are not allowed to make ANY PHONE CALLS. Detox days do not count towards this, generally detox here lasted 14 days. So it s actually like a 60 day black out of no outside contact what so ever. There are NO exceptions. Not your supportive mother who s never used drugs or alcohol, not your sponsor, not to call to pay a bill, nothing. There is no television, no radios and no games. On the weekends they do allow a movie. The house is closed from 8am-8pm, regardless of the extreme heat that the valley is known for. This means you are not allowed to go inside from 8am-8pm and must spend your ENTIRE day outside in the pit which is a little patio with a gazebo where everyone sits and chain smokes. You have no other option, you must stay and sit outside on the patio all day long in the heat. They don t have any books for you to read, I once inquired and was told to read the NA book. It is very very culty, they take it very personally if their program is not conducive to your own individual recovery and mental health. There are no therapists or psychologists or psychiatrists. There are only case workers who are not trained professionals through psychiatry or therapy. They are all addicts in recovery who have came through the house which means they went through detox and inpatient through impact and were cut of from all outside contact for 60 days, then put into a program where they work 16 hour days 6 days a week. At that point they are called RA s. They live across the street in a sober living owned by impact, where they are not allowed to have their own phone or phone use, Internet or television. They only get paid 200$ a week for 16 hour work days with 1 day off a week. It s very sad, they are being taken advantage of because many of them came from being on the street. It s basically a way for them to hire employees and not pay them and work them 16 hours a day and cut off all outside contact. After 5 months of 16 hour days and 6 day work weeks, they then take a college course and become case workers. Case workers, I reiterate, are not required to be licensed therapists or doctors or psychiatrists. This place claims to be dual diagnosis, but they have 0 focus on mental health and are strictly just addiction based recovery, not reaching the underlying condition and reasons that brought you to use drugs originally. They are strictly 12 step based. They also DO NOT ALLOW medication assisted treatment. They do not allow you to take suboxone/subutex. They do not allow the sublocade shot or the vivitral shot. They will not prescribe any mental health medications, no depression medication or bipolar medication, regardless of being properly and priorly diagnosed. They will, however, allow you to take CERTAIN medications if you come in with a prescription and bring the bottle. For the reader, I ask you to truly understand the conditions that are required for a true smooth recovery and ask yourself if this sounds like a reasonable program that will work for you. It DOES work for some, but much of what I have listed above they work very hard to hide until you are already admitted. Their rules and procedures are EXTREMELY outdated. Their detox is very barbaric and outdated, with better care and results being available and given in different programs. There has been many many recent changes brought on by modern studies and research that this place refuses to keep up with. If you think they will make an exception for you because of a special circumstance, they WILL NOT NO MATTER WHAT. I watched many many women AMA and check themselves out of the program prematurely due to the conditions stated above. Embarrassingly but admittedly, I have unfortunately been to many different detoxes and inpatient treatment facilities and this is the only one I would NEVER recommend or return to no matter how desperate I get. Actually I would quite literally actively try to keep others from coming here.

Tell me about 12 steps and guide me

I want to start of by saying I m not reviewing the treatment team as a whole. Only the man that I spoke to on the phone.When I called to inquire about being admitted to their sober living, he was a bit condescending to the point where even my case manager told me to hang up the phone. I tried to tell him that while I may not be an addict, I have severe mental issues and at this stage in my life I really need to be in a strict/stable environment so that I don t fall back into that typical party college lifestyle because using those substances could lead to me having a severe manic episode. He immediately cut me off and instead of letting me explain my situation, he completely ignored what I was trying to say. That being said, he might ve been having a bad day, which I can relate to. I just wanted to share this experience. I m sure the facility itself is great.