Beachside Rehab Reviews

During intake at the facility I was brought to I was informed that I was being “Baker Acted”. I was then locked up with much higher acuity psychiatric patients for the weekend. During this time I was afraid for my life. A tech was assaulted as well as another patient. I was sexually assaulted. My husband was desperately contacting anyone he could to try to get me out. Beachside directors told him there was nothing they could do. When I was released and returned to beachside I had to go through a 4.5 hour intake process as I had been discharged. Apparently this happened because I was gone for more than 24 hours. I made the choice to stay in hopes of being able to treat the recent trauma immediately.

After a few days and multiple failures on beachside’s part to make me feel safe, I ultimately left AMA after being yelled at by a director. “We’ve done everything to make you feel safe!” was her response to me having an emotional breakdown. Crying, but calm and controlled for fear of being sent away again. They assured me that what happened to me had never happened before and that major changes were being implemented to prevent such a horrific failure from happening to another patient.

They took me in and I got something out of it but it was pretty much terrible. Most of my information wasn’t confidential. Most of the clients knew that I was HIV positive. Beachside didn't do things in a respectable manner. They were pretty biased. They didn't take people for who they were. They were looking at how you looked, instead of listening to what you had to say. And they had their favorite people who had been there two or three times. It was helpful and I was away from my situation. I learned some new tools too but I was very dissatisfied. I went home with more baggage.

Overall, the experience was great. The staff was wonderful and made it very enjoyable. I like the fact that they have usually experienced addiction and it shows where they were at now. They were very helpful with their advice. The chaperone people and the people that work in the detox helped me out a lot. There is a doctor that works there who does psychodramas. He re-enacts people with PTSD or bad experiences that they don’t wanna relive. It has helped a lot of people there.

When I don’t have anything to do, I always play card games, but we were not allowed to play cards. People have to make Uno cards on the cards. Also, no one is gambling, but you could play other games you could gamble on, which made no sense. Also, I was told on the phone that I could have access to my laptop to finish my college credits. But I was never able to and failed the last bit of my class due to that. Otherwise, the activities were great, like horseback riding and going to the beach.

The detox portion is in a really dangerous area and should be moved. Before I got there, a bullet went through the window and through the living room. Also, when you get in the van and the bus, you see a lot of shady stuff. If someone decided to leave that area, it would be easy for them to relapse. They don’t tell you this. They keep things hidden and you sign a bunch of paperwork. I wish I had more time at the house with the classes. I’ve been through so many treatments, so I needed more time there to stay clean. It’s pretty intense with classes every day. It’s not a vacation, but I’d recommend Beachside Rehab to anyone that wants to go.

The interaction I had with their staff was great, except for my therapist. He couldn’t put himself in my shoes and my current situation. I made the mistake of giving him access to speak with my family and my attorney, and I just felt like he was trying to persuade people to persuade me which I didn’t appreciate. I have respect for the guy because I know he just wants the best for me, but it felt that gave him the power to just go and do those sort of things.

I’m back using a bit and I didn't get too much strength going forward to stay to clean here at Beachside compared to the other state-based program that I was at. But as far as the education and their curriculum, I learned a lot more. But at the same time, I stayed sober longer after the last program I was at and that has to do with my spiritual beliefs and my faith. But their food was great. I also enjoyed my time at Beachside and I was happy overall. Everyone was really nice and helpful. The experience was educational and I wish I had stayed longer. I had a court case that I needed to get back up here for but I wish I had made arrangements to come back and do the outpatient aftercare program because I like Beachside, including the place and the way that they operated.

There were also a couple of things that we, as clients, felt unhappy about and it seemed like not a lot was done to change them. I understood when they took away morning meditation. It was a matter of staff availability. But we had tried to come up with different ways of how to change the schedule or things that we would enjoy more and they were shut down. If we went out of our way to formally present documentation and signatures, seeing that about 99% of people at Beachside believe that we should do this or would really like if this thing was done, it didn’t seem that that was taken into consideration as well. Then we were told that we can file a complaint to get our needs met, but my needs were not met a lot of the time even when I voiced them personally to my therapist. I love Beachside’s staff though. They, together with the other clients, were the ones who helped me settle in more than the ones from the executive level.