#73: Pocket Guide: How to Quickly Vet Rehab Centers Online

In this “pocket guide” episode of the Unbreakable Boundaries podcast, host Jennifer Maneely shares how she quickly evaluates rehab centers when all she has is a website to go on. Speaking to families who are overwhelmed by endless Google results, she explains the simple criteria she uses to narrow options down to three solid choices.

Transcript

Jennifer Maneely: 0:00

Welcome back to the unbreakable boundaries podcast with your host. Myself, Jennifer Maneely, I'm going to try to start doing something a little bit new that I'm kind of excited about, something that I'm going to call pocket guides. These are quick little podcast clips that basically just help break different scenarios down today, I thought a good place to start would be, what do I look for when I'm helping a family member cipher decipher through the hundreds and hundreds of Google pages of rehabs when they're looking for something for their loved one to go into. And all you have, really, to start is a website to look at. And so I work with people nationwide. I do vet a lot of rehabs in the area, things that I can go to. But sometimes, you know, I live in North Carolina, and when I'm looking for rehab centers all the way across the country. It's not easy for me just to hop on a plane and go look and make sure that that is a place that is good. So I thought I would just come on and give a really quick download on what do I look for when I am looking for rehabs for people. So one of the first things that I look at, and this is pretty quick, is their phone number. Am I sending someone to an 800 number, or am I sending someone to the actual area code that the rehab is in, that's that's the first thing if there is an 800 number. And I'm not saying that that rehab is a good rehab or a bad rehab, but I do know that when I sit down and look at a facility for a family member that's looking for someone that's a that that needs support and help. I'm not sending them to a place that has an 800 number. I'm just not doing it. It could be the best rehab ever, but I am not confident in that. So that's one of the first things that I will immediately say, nope. On to the next one. Another thing that I look at is, and this is some design stuff, a little bit of design stuff, but like, is there rehab? Is there rehab website? A decent enough website that it it flows, it makes sense. Sometimes when I go to these different websites, it's like, I don't even know where to begin. I don't know where to where, where I'm supposed to click first I'm looking for help. And they have 1000s. I mean, I'm being a little sarcastic in this, but they have so many different services they offer. And down a rabbit hole, I get overwhelmed, I get confused, and I'm probably going to check that one off the list as something that I'm just like we're moving on to the next one. Because here's the thing, I mean, there are so many freaking rehabs out there that that are good. If I'm confused and overwhelmed at their website, I'm probably going to feel fairly similar when if I if I go there to vet them, that's probably how I'm going to feel when I go. So I just kind of check them off and say, Nope, I'm not going to do that. One thing, one of the goals that I have when I am helping someone kind of sift through these resources to find something that they want, is I, my goal is to narrow it down to three options, right, three different options for for various different reasons. Maybe there's like a little bit more of a focus on a mental health, on some of these rehabs than other ones. And so that's my goal. And so it's good to kind of know what your goal is to start is, I just want to narrow it down to three. And the other thing that I really look at when I'm going through, because I work with families. And I'm not saying there aren't rehabs out there that that are missing this part, and that's okay, because that might be their audience. But if I because I'm working with the family members, when I look through services and the things that they have to offer, is there any sort of family component now, there's a lot of rehabs out there that are catering to people that don't have family involvement, and so they may not have anything to do with the families, and that's okay. So I'm not saying that that's necessarily a bad rehab, but because I'm working with the families. Yes, when I look for resources, I want to see that there is a family component there. So that's something that I look for very quickly, and I will move on to the next one if there isn't a family component. Because when you do have a family component as part of that, it means you have a dedicated person there to help the families navigate through this. What it's like to be in, you know, rehab like families need support. They need to to know what to do, what to expect, and all that stuff. And so I want to send someone to a place that has some sort of family component in there. Some are more extensive. Some rehabs have more extensive family programming than others. That's not necessarily like I'll get into that later, but I just want to see if there's a family component. Another thing that I have a tendency to want to look through for me. And again, this is not a deal breaker, but it is something if I only have a website to base it off of. This is what I am looking for. Is I want to know who their staff is, because a staff makes the rehab if you have a lot of people, maybe not. I mean, it's a good balance of people that are clinicians versus people that have lived experience on their staff with that are in recovery and stuff. And you can go through a lot of their staff bios and find out if there is a fair number of people that have lived experience on the staff. You You need that. You need more people that have lived experience. This is just my my personal belief. I think it's important. I think clinicians are really great, especially clinicians that do and are in recovery themselves, are really great. But it's not always a requirement, necessarily, that they have lived experience. But I want to know if their staff is very familiar with this in that's I mean, that is something that's really important to me, and when I help sift through these things. If I can't get a read on that, then I'm probably going to move on to the next one. One of the things that I don't do, that a lot of people do, is, and this is sounds counterintuitive, but I don't necessarily look at reviews I used to, but what I found is that a lot of times you have family members who have loved ones that are either being manipulative or they didn't stay, or family members that are under under assumptions that this rehab is going to fix their loved one and because they didn't get fixed, then somehow that it's the rehabs fault, and then they put a bad review up, and the rehabs for various reasons, a lot of like HIPAA protections Can't they don't even have a voice to defend themselves in situations. They have to stay silent and accept a lot of really harsh criticism that's, frankly, just isn't really, actually true. You have a lot of people who are also in there that may come out and feel bitter towards the rehab, but rehab is at a very emotional time, a very emotional place, and so sometimes that's just a person's perception, because they get really angry because they got told no over something very silly, and now their whole life is ruined. I'm being sarcastic, of course, but then they end up leaving and leave a bad review, when really the staff was just trying to do their job. So reviews, to me, are really not that important sometimes that they have a lot of really bad reviews. I will take those into account, and I'll look at it. But if you're sitting at a two or three star with a fairly decent amount of things that are covered, you know a good mix between 54321, stars. I don't, I don't really take that as as necessarily that that rehab is a bad place. So something to take into account. Do they talk about transitional housing anywhere on their thing? That doesn't mean that they have to actually have transitional housing, but I think it's important, when we're looking at ongoing support, are they looking at ongoing aftercare? Because rehab is just a start. There's so many different steps later, and we're going to get into and break these downs. I'm not even talking about. The phone call yet to this rehab I'm just talking about the first step of narrowing it down to three different places in your area. And the next podcast is actually going to be breaking down that phone call, and that's going to be the next Pocket Guide. I hope this was really helpful. Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any other questions. If you're in this situation, I get that this is a very nuanced thing. You may be new to this. I've looked at hundreds and hundreds of rehab websites. I can help sift through them pretty quickly. So if this is a situation that you find yourself in, please feel free to reach out to me and schedule a call. You can just go to my website, at the recovering family.org and just schedule a direct call right there. Or you can also go just directly email me, Jennifer, at the recovering family.org and just put in the subject line that you want to talk more about this topic, and I will be happy to schedule something with you directly and help you sift through all of this very confusing these very confusing situations, and get you narrowed down to three different places you can choose from. Thanks for listening, and stay tuned to the next podcast.