How to choose

Most marketing in this industry is indistinguishable. Every website promises individualised care in a beautiful setting. The things that actually differ are harder to see, and mostly answered by asking.

What separates a good facility from a bad one

Research into what people say afterwards found something useful: the amenities made no measurable difference to whether someone would recommend a place. What did matter, overwhelmingly, was whether the facility delivered the amount of counselling it promised. Pools and private rooms are not the signal. Kept promises are.

Twelve questions worth asking

1. Who will actually be providing the treatment day to day, and what are their credentials?
2. How many hours of individual therapy per week — not group, individual?
3. What is the staff-to-patient ratio overnight?
4. Is there a doctor on site, or on call?
5. Are you licensed by the state, and accredited by CARF or the Joint Commission?
6. What happens medically in the first 72 hours?
7. What is the plan for afterwards, and who arranges it?
8. Do you treat mental health conditions alongside addiction, and who does that?
9. What proportion of people complete the program?
10. Can I speak to the clinical director?
11. What are the rules on contact with family?
12. What would make you say this is not the right place?

That last question is the most revealing one on the list. A facility that has never turned anyone away is selling beds.

What we show you, and what we can't

On every facility page we publish what the federal and state record holds — services, levels of care, who they accept, accreditation where we have it — each line sourced and dated. Inspection findings, ownership and license history are being added. Availability, price and outcomes are not published by anyone, and we say so rather than pretend otherwise.