I have made many mistakes as a parent. None greater than sending my son to Centered Health, aka Bailard House. I take full responsibility for this. I now know that I didn’t do proper research. I was taken in by their website, facility and what I now see as a slick sales pitch. If I am honest, I have to also acknowledge that I was swayed by the fact that they simply took my insurance and didn’t require any additional payments from me. Never before had I put money before my child’s well being and I never will again.
From the moment we started the program, things didn’t feel right. I kept rooting for things to work. I didn’t listen to my instincts as a mother. The entire time he was at this program he got worse and worse, becoming someone that I no longer recognized.
After comparing notes with other parents it became clear that this was not simply an issue for my son. I talked with therapists and administrators of the program and felt like I was being handled. I asked to speak to the owner of the company and learned that he and his investors lived in New York and were never on site. They had no qualifications to be operating a treatment program. This was clearly about making money off of my child’s suffering.
When I dug a little deeper I was SHOCKED by what I learned. This facility had only been open about a year at the time of our stay. During that time they had a TON of investigations by the state of California and serious type A citations that you can read about here; https://secure.dss.ca.gov/carefacitysearch/facdetail/198209205
As you will see this includes incidents of kids sneaking out of the house at night, brining alcohol into the program and getting drunk, having staff members get into power struggles with you and allegedly deliberately pouring makeup on the kids clothes, being over capacity, covering up incidents by not filing proper reports, Adults working at the program that have no child abuse index clearance (They could have convicted pedophiles working there for all they know!), Having more kids in the facility than they are allowed, throwing kids out of the program without good cause, and allegedly financially abusing a kid! HOW DOES A PROGRAM LIKE THIS STAY OPEN?
The thing I feel most awful about is I didn’t listen to my kid. He told me that this place was a zoo. Most of the things listed by the state are consistent with what he described to me. I have since gotten him quality treatment- but so regret having put him through all that I did at this place. My single goal here is to keep other families from going through what we did.
Many families are speaking with each other about Cenered Health and spreading the word to inform other parents before they choose to place their loved one at Centered Health. The company has deleted reviews that were left on other sites and only left positive ones (which are likely to be fictiitious).
This place was a revolving door. Doctors leaving, staff leaving, people were quiting or being fired constantly! We didn't knnw what was going on with our child. We pulled her out and only then did we receive calls in response to our complaints. When asking to speak with the owner, he refused to speak with us. Outright refused! Only contracted counselors would call us. This is completely unnacceptable. We honestly had no idea who was in charge at this place. People would just come and go and the place sort of ran itself that way.
The facility is clean and beautiful and that is what fools people into thinking it's going to be a great experience.
The lack of structure and authority permit things to happen that shouldn't. There are numerous complaints on the Commuity Licensing website and those should be reviewed by anyone considering this place. It's public information but not comprehensive.
My advice to all parents would be not to send your teen to Centered Health under any circumstances. No matter what they say, look elsewhere. NO EXCEPTIONS! You will deeply regret entrusting Centered Health and the evil and selfish owner with the health of your adolescent. There are so many facilities - look elsewhere.
Our child was a client at Centered Health during the summer of 2017 and I would not recommend this organization or facility to anyone.
Our experience was atrocious. We were very taken in by the ocean view, beautiful home, on site chef, and competent people consulting on the telephone. The people on the phone are not the ones at the facility every day though. As a matter of fact, we spoke with Kristin and Irene and never saw either at the facility. The food and the view were the only good things about the facility. The owner was a horrible man that never returned our calls, (not once) didn't appear to care about the facility or the kids, and has the reputation of being a tyrant. This is understood once experiencing a few weeks at Centered Health. Not one time did he ever call us. Only administrative assistants or the group psychologist returned our calls and not every cal. Only sometimes were calls returned.
Our teen needed a place to regroup and get grounded and the environment was highly unstable during his stay. Staff was turning over too fast and causing a lot of shake up for him and the er kids. We were unable to get a hold of our child even when stated it was urgent. Our child was thrilled the first week being in a new environment with trip to the beach and then quickly discouraged after other clients teased him and did things that made him extremely uncomfortable. He would get attached to a staff member and they would quit and this happened numerous times during his stay. He couldn't call us or speak to us privately and this made us uncomfortable as our child couldn't express honestly what he was feeling and what was going on.
We thought we were going to an amazing rehab facility and while some professional staff (contracted) that ran groups were good, the majority of the people we interfaced with had no authority. And when seeking someone with authority, there was just no one available. What's even more concerning was that was the day time experience - imagine the night!
We felt we wasted our money and were lured in by the promises of outstanding therapy and diverse group sessions. Our phone consult and on site tour were so wonderful. Once our child was there, within 10 days, we were concerned about everything. We would not recommend this facility to you for your teenager. You should keep looking and don't be fooled by the ocean view. Many reviews on line are positive but I truly don't think they are from real parents. I am a real parent and our family was not only discouarged but we also felt ripped off and traumatized by all the instability and lack of insight into what was going on with our child during his stay.
I would STRONGLY urge you to look elsewhere. If you speak to anyone for a reference, I would also encourage you to validate who are actually speaking with and ask difficult questions. I wouldn't trust on line references, phone references, or anything. It all failed for us.
If you want your child to actually get help for whatever they're struggling with, Centered Health is not the way to go. In the time that I was there, clients managed to have sex with several other clients that came in. Clients also managed to sneak in cigarettes and use drugs while on pass, and easily fake the urine tests. They also had easy access to razors, which some used to self harm. The staff are too busy on their phones or chatting amongst themselves to monitor the clients. Male staff walked in on female clients changing, several times. A client snuck out in the middle of the night and stole alcohol from a nearby store because the staff were too busy watching Grey’s Anatomy on their phones to keep an eye on them. It's simple to sneak out or run away because the doors and windows all have alarms, but anybody with half a brain could figure out that all you need to do is take out the battery to disable them. They managed to get into the “locked” computers and access social media on a daily basis. The clients also managed to steal the phone every night and make unapproved calls. Centered Health fired the only decent staff, and this place has gone to s*** (not that it wasn't s*** already...its just worse now) As soon as they see this review, they will try to have it taken it down because they are SNAKES.
As a parent with little knowledge about mental health treatment, I am shocked that this place is allowed to maintain a license to operate. Not one staff member here seems to know what is going on.
The exception is the person who is doing admissions. They knew just what to say to sucker me in.
Centered Health did nothing other than waste our time and money. We are much poorer for our experience with them.
The only thing that our daughter learned while there was that she started cutting herself when she gets upset. If anyone asks, I encourage them to go anywhere other than this chaotic mad house.
Centered Health Reviews
I have made many mistakes as a parent. None greater than sending my son to Centered Health, aka Bailard House. I take full responsibility for this. I now know that I didn’t do proper research. I was taken in by their website, facility and what I now see as a slick sales pitch. If I am honest, I have to also acknowledge that I was swayed by the fact that they simply took my insurance and didn’t require any additional payments from me. Never before had I put money before my child’s well being and I never will again.
From the moment we started the program, things didn’t feel right. I kept rooting for things to work. I didn’t listen to my instincts as a mother. The entire time he was at this program he got worse and worse, becoming someone that I no longer recognized.
After comparing notes with other parents it became clear that this was not simply an issue for my son. I talked with therapists and administrators of the program and felt like I was being handled. I asked to speak to the owner of the company and learned that he and his investors lived in New York and were never on site. They had no qualifications to be operating a treatment program. This was clearly about making money off of my child’s suffering.
When I dug a little deeper I was SHOCKED by what I learned. This facility had only been open about a year at the time of our stay. During that time they had a TON of investigations by the state of California and serious type A citations that you can read about here; https://secure.dss.ca.gov/carefacitysearch/facdetail/198209205
As you will see this includes incidents of kids sneaking out of the house at night, brining alcohol into the program and getting drunk, having staff members get into power struggles with you and allegedly deliberately pouring makeup on the kids clothes, being over capacity, covering up incidents by not filing proper reports, Adults working at the program that have no child abuse index clearance (They could have convicted pedophiles working there for all they know!), Having more kids in the facility than they are allowed, throwing kids out of the program without good cause, and allegedly financially abusing a kid! HOW DOES A PROGRAM LIKE THIS STAY OPEN?
The thing I feel most awful about is I didn’t listen to my kid. He told me that this place was a zoo. Most of the things listed by the state are consistent with what he described to me. I have since gotten him quality treatment- but so regret having put him through all that I did at this place. My single goal here is to keep other families from going through what we did.
Many families are speaking with each other about Cenered Health and spreading the word to inform other parents before they choose to place their loved one at Centered Health. The company has deleted reviews that were left on other sites and only left positive ones (which are likely to be fictiitious).
This place was a revolving door. Doctors leaving, staff leaving, people were quiting or being fired constantly! We didn't knnw what was going on with our child. We pulled her out and only then did we receive calls in response to our complaints. When asking to speak with the owner, he refused to speak with us. Outright refused! Only contracted counselors would call us. This is completely unnacceptable. We honestly had no idea who was in charge at this place. People would just come and go and the place sort of ran itself that way.
The facility is clean and beautiful and that is what fools people into thinking it's going to be a great experience.
The lack of structure and authority permit things to happen that shouldn't. There are numerous complaints on the Commuity Licensing website and those should be reviewed by anyone considering this place. It's public information but not comprehensive.
My advice to all parents would be not to send your teen to Centered Health under any circumstances. No matter what they say, look elsewhere. NO EXCEPTIONS! You will deeply regret entrusting Centered Health and the evil and selfish owner with the health of your adolescent. There are so many facilities - look elsewhere.
Our child was a client at Centered Health during the summer of 2017 and I would not recommend this organization or facility to anyone.
Our experience was atrocious. We were very taken in by the ocean view, beautiful home, on site chef, and competent people consulting on the telephone. The people on the phone are not the ones at the facility every day though. As a matter of fact, we spoke with Kristin and Irene and never saw either at the facility. The food and the view were the only good things about the facility. The owner was a horrible man that never returned our calls, (not once) didn't appear to care about the facility or the kids, and has the reputation of being a tyrant. This is understood once experiencing a few weeks at Centered Health. Not one time did he ever call us. Only administrative assistants or the group psychologist returned our calls and not every cal. Only sometimes were calls returned.
Our teen needed a place to regroup and get grounded and the environment was highly unstable during his stay. Staff was turning over too fast and causing a lot of shake up for him and the er kids. We were unable to get a hold of our child even when stated it was urgent. Our child was thrilled the first week being in a new environment with trip to the beach and then quickly discouraged after other clients teased him and did things that made him extremely uncomfortable. He would get attached to a staff member and they would quit and this happened numerous times during his stay. He couldn't call us or speak to us privately and this made us uncomfortable as our child couldn't express honestly what he was feeling and what was going on.
We thought we were going to an amazing rehab facility and while some professional staff (contracted) that ran groups were good, the majority of the people we interfaced with had no authority. And when seeking someone with authority, there was just no one available. What's even more concerning was that was the day time experience - imagine the night!
We felt we wasted our money and were lured in by the promises of outstanding therapy and diverse group sessions. Our phone consult and on site tour were so wonderful. Once our child was there, within 10 days, we were concerned about everything. We would not recommend this facility to you for your teenager. You should keep looking and don't be fooled by the ocean view. Many reviews on line are positive but I truly don't think they are from real parents. I am a real parent and our family was not only discouarged but we also felt ripped off and traumatized by all the instability and lack of insight into what was going on with our child during his stay.
I would STRONGLY urge you to look elsewhere. If you speak to anyone for a reference, I would also encourage you to validate who are actually speaking with and ask difficult questions. I wouldn't trust on line references, phone references, or anything. It all failed for us.
If you want your child to actually get help for whatever they're struggling with, Centered Health is not the way to go. In the time that I was there, clients managed to have sex with several other clients that came in. Clients also managed to sneak in cigarettes and use drugs while on pass, and easily fake the urine tests. They also had easy access to razors, which some used to self harm. The staff are too busy on their phones or chatting amongst themselves to monitor the clients. Male staff walked in on female clients changing, several times. A client snuck out in the middle of the night and stole alcohol from a nearby store because the staff were too busy watching Grey’s Anatomy on their phones to keep an eye on them. It's simple to sneak out or run away because the doors and windows all have alarms, but anybody with half a brain could figure out that all you need to do is take out the battery to disable them. They managed to get into the “locked” computers and access social media on a daily basis. The clients also managed to steal the phone every night and make unapproved calls. Centered Health fired the only decent staff, and this place has gone to s*** (not that it wasn't s*** already...its just worse now) As soon as they see this review, they will try to have it taken it down because they are SNAKES.
As a parent with little knowledge about mental health treatment, I am shocked that this place is allowed to maintain a license to operate. Not one staff member here seems to know what is going on.
The exception is the person who is doing admissions. They knew just what to say to sucker me in.
Centered Health did nothing other than waste our time and money. We are much poorer for our experience with them.
The only thing that our daughter learned while there was that she started cutting herself when she gets upset. If anyone asks, I encourage them to go anywhere other than this chaotic mad house.