STAY AWAY! We sent our son (I am not including his name b/c he has asked that I not) to the…read moreEpiphany House after trying everything and feeling totally exasperated with our options. We knew we had to do something when his alcohol and heroin addiction became violent (one night he assaulted a pedestrian and smashed the windshields of half a dozen cars in our neighborhood). Only by the grace of god, did we eventually get him clean for 2 months and we were elated! We thought the Epihany house seemed like a great idea to get him acclimated and some badly needed friends. We met the owner, the entire staff, all of whom seemed friendly and interested in our son. On the surface, everything seemed great so we admitted him to the house. Slowly, the skeletons started to appear...
Fist we discovered that the Epiphany house has only been around one year! The "staff", if you can call them that, have no formal training at all in addiction recovery! No social worker. No therapist. No profesionall counseling. No nothing! Absolutely no support is offered, except being around other boys, many of whom were terrible influences for our son. So what ends up happening is our son, like many of the other clients, spent months playing video games, watching TV and wasting time without counseling or guidance to address his underlying addiction.
Second, the food the kids end up eating is atrocious. The "chef" makes extremely simple and mass produced food and only for dinner and only some nights. The rest of the time the kids eat pizza (LOTS of it), burgers and soda and other junk; whatever is cheap and lying around.
Third, the drug testing is completely a joke. My son told me that many of the kids would keep using drugs and get urine from other kids to cover for them! We paid a tremendous amount of money to ensure that he is kept with kids who are clean. NOT the case. My son was surrounded by other kids who were using and it's a miracle he didn't relapse while there!
Fourth, besides doling out medicines, dont expect the "staff" to have any idea about how to manage your child's psychiatric needs. If your son has any overlying psychiatric condition, the staff will be clueless. My son has bipolar and needs to be on lithium. When I spoke to the staff to ask if they were aware of my son's absolute requirement for lithium and to plead with them to ensure he gets it, I got back, "what's bipolar?" SERIOUSLY????? Again, another example of staff that just babysit and don't actually help anyone stay clean.
Fifth reason, the boys are told they can't have girls over, but directly next to my son's room, another boy routinely brought his girlfriend over for a rendezvous. It's just what my soon needed.... Not being able to sleep because of the noise coming from the this guy and his girlfriend late into the night. Just another example of the frat house like atmosphere here!
Last reason to stay away. There are so many better options. Sober living homes can provide real counseling, real support, real help and dont just babysit your kid while milking you of tens of thousands of dollars. I wont say the name of hte place, but our son is now in just one of those homes and is finally addressing his underlying addiction and getting REAL help.
IN SUMMARY: If you want your child to be babysitted by incompetent and inexperienced staff who have no formal training in addiction recovery services while you are charged tens of thousands of dollars, the Epiphany House is just right for you. If you want somewhere that will actually help you child, keep looking; you wont find it here.
