Complaint Review: good future teen rehab - Select State/Province

 Thank God my son "M" is finally out of Good Future Teen Rehab Center. He was there for substance abuse and court related/ordered reasons but during the course of his stay, we discovered that he also had significantly difficult psychiatric diagnosis and problems. My son excessively smoked marijuanna and what ever myself, my husband or my son's father did -- nothing would help at all. Everyone suffered especially "M". Good Future could not wait to get their hand on my son and especially his (mine) insurance coverage. Even when we discovered that my son had serious mental issues and would be better off in treatment somewhere else, he was constantly punished by the head staff, especially Nathan Fears, for not doing homework. "M" had already graduated high school - why did he have to do homework? Seriously??? When he would go before the judge, Nathan would say how "M" was being oppositional. He was berated constantly by Nathan and other staff at the center. There were only three people (not Nathan and not Dr. B the owner who, by the way is not a psychiatrist and never once spoke to my son or try to control his medications) Rosemary, the teacher, Dr. Silbert, his psychologist and the nurse (sorry, I forget her name) who really helped my son. Dr. Silbert pushed and pushed that "M" see a psychiatrist for medication and I was told that there was a strong possibility that my son was at the beginning of being schizophrenic. My son did see a real M.D. and was given medications for depression and to control some of his crazy bhaviors and thinking -- and, thank God, it worked and is still working. The diagnosis that Dr. Silbert sugessted was even confirmed by a second MD psychiatrist at the local hospital mental health clinic.  The bottom line is that all Good Future wanted to do was look at "M"'s addiction and not his mental or behavior problems. I was told this was a "dual diagnoses" agency but no one except Dr. Silbert and the Nurse knew what was the right thing to do. Today, it is still a struggle with "M". He is not alowed in my home and we need to learn how to trust him, make sure he does not use drugs, or lie, and work on his psychological problems.  Before sending your child to an adolescent treatment center, make sure they can assess and treat both his addiction issues and his mental issues, not only the addiction. As far as I am concerned, the Nurse practitioner, the two outside medical psychiatrist doctors and Dr. Silbert saved my child's life and hopefully future. All Good Future, Nathan, the directors and the head doctor (Dr. B) cared about was keeping him there for as long as possible. You can interpret that anyway you like. If you send your child to a treatment center, please make sure they know what they are talking about about the mental health issues, otherwise, you will be spinning your wheels and wasting your time for months, like "M" did. Maybe, there is a better place or way to spread this word but I heard of other complaints on this website directly from my son so I figured I would also try this - I hope it will help someone.

Respectfully submitted by "D" and my son "M". Thank you for listening.