Recovery Centers of America

Well, pick up was supposed to be at 3:30 pm. They called my son in the morning to let him know that they had a busy day, and they would get him at 8:30. To him, that meant more time to get and do more drugs. At 8:30 they called to say it would be 9:30-9:45. When they arrived, my son was severely intoxicated. He walked out to the vehicle and the driver and I could see he was pretty messed up. I understand that they didn't have enough drivers that day. I should have driven him myself. My son was so messed up that the driver thought it best he go to the ER at Union Hospital. And that's fine, except no one notified me. I am the emergency contact. That was verbally verified (again) on the phone when we made arrangements for my son to get treatment. My son has been to various RCA campuses this year, at least 6 times. I am always the emergency contact.

I called Bracebridge the next morning to make sure he got there ok. They said someone would call me back. No one did. My son calls me at 12:30 pm and tells me he's in the hospital. He doesn't know what hospital and he's getting discharged. He is still not thinking clearly and sounds groggy on the phone. I ask him why RCA isn't coming to get him. He says he doesn't know what's going on. Of course he is mentally incoherent and wants me to pick him up at a pizza place that he found on his phone. I found him down the street from the hospital at a sandwich shop. We got in the car and called Bracebridge. I wanted to let them know that I had him and I was told that he had to go back to the hospital ER. They needed his discharge papers to admit him. I am a complete mess over what my son's been putting me through for the last 5 days.

We go back to the ER and a nurse comes out to let me know that they faxed the paperwork to Bracebridge 3 times, they didn't get the first 2 faxes. The nurse who took care of my son comes by to let me know that she verified Bracebridge got the 3rd fax and they said it would take 45 minutes to review the paperwork. His nurse also told me that she spoke to the nurse at Bracebridge after she sent it the first time (around 12:30 pm) and the Bracebridge nurse acknowledged receipt at that time, saying it would be a 45 minute review. The nurse at Union hospital was confused as to why Bracebridge said they never received the first 2 faxes, when in fact, the first fax was verbally acknowledged on the phone by the Bracebridge nurse.

Since Bracebridge is about 40 minute drive from the hospital, I decided to drive there. If they weren't going to admit my son, I still had to pick up his belongings. We get there and the nurse won't admit him as he is falling asleep, etc. I ask what should I do. I'm told to take him back to the hospital. I get really upset, it's 4:30, getting dark, my cell phone is dying and I don't know how to get out of there. The nurse doesn't want to deal with the situation and hands me off to someone who knows where his belongings are located on the property. The medical staff handled me and the situation so unprofessional. No compassion. No understanding. The young ladies in the barn where I picked up his belongings, were very understanding and helpful. We found our way out of there. It is so remote and dark. Thank God my phone had enough power to get me to where I could navigate myself.

We stopped to eat and called RCA Devon. They cleared my son to be admitted. They explained to me that Bracebridge is too far from a hospital and are reluctant to admit someone who looks so intoxicated. Why the hell couldn't they tell me that? Or call Devon for me to admit him there? So cold and cruel. Why didn't anyone let me know he went to the ER? SO UNPROFESSIONAL!

They brought me in there and I saw in the living room a whole group of women clustered together. They were all younger. But I was assigned to a woman about 10 years younger than me who was wonderful. She was an educated lady, so I had nice conversations with her. She and I bonded right away. She was wonderful and she gave me privacy. She really didn't put her television on, so I felt very secure. There was a lot of swearing and one girl that was really over the limit but I adjusted to it. And slowly, we started bonding one by one. I felt accepted right away. When I would go to the living room, I was very quiet. They had crayons there and gel pens and I started drawing, which I never knew that I liked to draw. I started drawing to keep my mind busy. I talked during the sharing moments. I talked a lot about my granddaughter who I adore and I'm very close with. And when I shared her age, we all bonded.

It was an awesome experience and I would recommend it highly to anybody. It is exactly what I needed. I got my five-month coin yesterday. I go to as many meetings as I can, including the Early Nooners, the Happy Hour, and I go to the AWOL. I went to as many AA Meetings with Friends of Bill W meeting from the cruise. I met lovely ladies, one was an entertainer on the cruise ship. Another woman was my age and we bonded again. I'm even friends with them still today. I'm trying to do my 12 Steps. I have a sponsor, so I'm really dedicated.

The only negative I can say is that I'm in Medicare and I have a supplement, the RCA did not accept that. In order to get accepted in, I had to get two credit cards with a net charge of $5,000 each. I left there with a balance of $12,500. It was upsetting because out of 25 ladies, I was the only self-pay. A lot of them were on welfare cases because the majority of them had been in prison and were there because it was either stay in prison or do a treatment program. The night I gave the two $5000 payments, I was told that there were scholarships being offered at RCA to help me to pay for the remaining balance. That really made me feel secure that night that I literally begged for RCA. Once I went to RCA, I asked right away for help with the scholarship and I was kinda given the runaround.

Finally, I went to the account manager, Anthony, and he said there was no such thing as a scholarship. Then, I talked to another accounting person and she said she was gonna see what she could do to help me. This was all done the first week that I was in. I said I didn't wanna leave there a month and not have any resolution to my request. I had one from Mike who is still there. I had very wonderful conversations with him. He seemed sincere that he was willing to get me help. I called him the week after I left and he took my call. He said he was still working on it and that nobody that he knew had ever gotten any scholarships.

One night, we were in our AA Meetings and one guy spoke and said how he had gotten a scholarship at RCA the year before. So, I had proof that other people had gotten scholarships. But ultimately, I never got any help. I ended up talking to somebody in Chicago and they said whatever scholarship amount of money that was available was used up the month of August. I said I was there half of August and half of September. He looked into the money for September and said they had no money for September either. So, I really got the runaround. And $22,500 when you're 73 years old is a lot of money. I had to empty out my bank account.

They wanted me to pay $550 a month and I told them I could not afford that. They brought the payment down to 100. With the surgery I just went through and the two cancer surgeries my husband had had since May, I told them I can't pay the 100. So, they brought my payment down to 55. But, ultimately, I said I'll never get to pay this off. It was gonna take 12 and a half years to pay the $100 and now down to 55, it's gonna take 24 years to pay them. It's ridiculous. I asked if they couldn't give me help while I'm alive and nobody is listening to me. That is my only negative thing. If somebody that was my age group wanted to go to RCA, I would tell them it's a good place to go but to be prepared to pay $22,500 out of pocket.

Furthermore, I was expecting a bit more of the therapy in there, rather than just a once-a-week “How you doing?” It wasn’t in-depth, like the core issues as to why we have it and why we’re there. Sometimes, it would be great to dig into it a bit more, but they said, “You could do that after.” And I thought that in a controlled environment, that would have been a good thing for a start. But that’s all right.

The girls there and I were all in the same boat when we were talking. When they were doing the discussion, it’s sometimes very repetitive. I know that we’re trying to instate some type of routine. But sometimes it’s good for the people that have gone through it and absorbed it, and they’re good to go for the next step to have that kind of next step ready for them to take, instead of lingering on things that they already had done and are okay. Recovery Centers of America has the first responders group and that was what saved my stay. Had it not been for Tony and that group, I probably would have left because of the clothing and the meds, and things that were piling on that were just very frustrating.

If it wasn't for one of the other patients, who I actually did become friends with, I wouldn't even have known where to go to eat dinner. She basically showed me around since none of the staff did that. That was a little troubling because if somebody didn't befriend me and showed me around, I wouldn't have known what to do. I brought that to human resources' attention and she was really great at it. She made an appointment with me right away, came to my room, and I told her my concerns. Communication was mainly the biggest problem. Maybe RSS didn't know what they were supposed to do versus the nursing staff. And of course, I'm in the middle, in the dark, not knowing what to do. In the end, they let me know that they understood my concerns and I was happy with that.

All the tools that I got from Recovery Centers, especially the Big Book, have equipped me to be successful on my post-treatment. I've been attending on all the encouragement that the group leaders gave and the importance of attending AA meetings when one gets out. I was lucky enough that I didn't need an outpatient recovery and they helped me. Along with the help of the therapist, Lisa, I had in there, Sarafina, who works there, was my liaison with the outside and she helped me find a therapist. She was really great, so it made my transition out easy. Also, Dana, who was in-charge of the medical part of my stay, was great in setting up so that I could get medication and then tracking with my doctor to make sure he was licensed for the insurance information. That went really well and I like Dana a lot. She also gave me the shot before I left. I was in Recovery Centers for the 30-day program and I was happy with it.