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  • Report:  #1068717

Complaint Review: Wellington Retreat - west palm beach Florida

Reported By:
anonymous - franklin, North Carolina,
Submitted:
Updated:

Wellington Retreat
2200 north florida mango road suite 201 west palm beach, 33409 Florida, USA
Phone:
877935587328
Web:
www.wellingtonretreat.com
Tell us has your experience with this business or person been good? What's this?

   I am writing this letter in hopes that I can persuade at least one person out there to chose a different treatment center other than Wellington Retreat for themselves or a love one, if this happens then the time it takes me to write this letter was worth it. Please take the time to read this carefully. During my stay at the Wellington Retreat and since doing some research  I have learned that the Wellington Retreat Treatment Center was started and founded by Dr. Robert A. Moran I will only refer to him as Moran in this letter because in my opinion he should not be a doctor. In early 2010 Moran was introduced as Medical Director at Caron Renaissance Treatment Center in Boca Raton Florida then shortly after he was let go because of his lack of discipline when prescribing Suboxone to the patients. Moran was actually known by the patients and staff there as Dr. Suboxone. The dangers of Suboxone are well documented even at Wellington Retreat the patients refer to Suboxone as drinking Moran's Kool Aid and if your a opiate addict Moran will try everything to convince you to take it without telling you the dangers, but keep in mind your trading one addiction for another. Anyone coming to South Florida to get clean from opiates then wanting to go to a Halfway House best of luck finding one that will take the controlled substance Suboxen. So after Moran was let go from Renaissance he partnered up with a very prominent well respected person in the treatment business and in October 2010 started The Wellington Retreat within a year Moran manipulated a way to get rid of his partner so he could have Wellington Retreat to himself. Wellington Retreat has only been in business for for a total of 2 years and 9 months so remember this when choosing a treatment center. Moran is a odd looking character who wears his pants over his belly button and wears these awful looking bow ties everyday very comical and you can find his picture on play money at wellington Retreat that the staff pass out to the patients that are behaving so they can buy snacks.

This is the most important part, this treatment center is for both addiction and mental health. Never have I been a patient at a treament center or even heard of a treatment center mixing both addicts and mental health patients together this creates such a unbalanced and unhealthy situation for everyone even the therapist. Imagine going to group as a addict and having mental health patients in the same group or turn it around and being a mental health patient with drug addicts and alcoholics  around you. This blows my mind and Moran's explanation for this....it should make the addicts more thankful that they don't have a mental health issue are you kidding me! We addicts have enough problems to worry about and how can you concentrate on yourself in group when your constantly being disturbed its not fair to the mental health patients either having to sit in groups that are dealing with addiction. If your love one is a mental patient the only group they have is called Discovery which is twice a day and all they do in that group is play games or do puzzles and if they are really lucky they will find crayons so they can color. The Therapist that ran the Discovery group when I was there would just text on her phone for the whole time she ran group is this the help you want your child to be getting and charging your insurance company for. Basically if your sending your love one there for mental health in my opinion, is that Moran will keep your love one medicated enough to have him or her not create a problem and bilk your insurance company until it runs out. Most of the mental health patients the Wellington Retreat recieves are from local hospitals Psyche wards it is well known around South Florida that Wellington Retreats takes the worst of the worst the ones no other treatment centers want so please keep this in mind when thinking about Wellington Retreat. Groups that are run at Wellington Retreat least when I was there are boring and not educational and nothing against the coordinators that work there, but they ran a lot of groups and they do not have the creditials to be running them. A few major things to consider also is if you like to smoke BEWARE they will tell you anything to get you to come in, but believe me they will make it very difficult for you to smoke there and if your like me not having enough cigarettes will trigger you to want to leave and get high. Moran hates smoking!! If you are looking for some enjoyment at the beach,movies,working out or anything fun good luck because if a patient acts up during the week everyone gets punished for that one person's behaviour because Moran's theory on this is the patients should take ownership in this patients bad behaviour so guess what your not doing fun things very often.

The living arrangements are a joke Moran used to have the patients living in beautiful houses along the intercoastal, but recently bought a cheap hotel Wellington Retreat is housing the adults and adolestants patients at a America Best Value Inn this is no 5 star Hotel! It is a 4 stoty hotel, on the 4th level is the adults unit both male and female and remember addicts and mental health patients are together so you can imagine what the narrow hallways are like with patients running around and they have to smoke in a small room what a nightmare, on the 3rd level is their adolescent unit both male and female ever since opening up this hotel Moran has been keeping levels 1 and 2 open to the general public in order to generate more money. The problem is the general public is unaware there is a treatment center above them. They (the guest) are constantly being approached for cigarettes and to borrow thier cell phones by the patients and there have been many times when the guest staying at the hotel travel to floors 3 and 4 by mistake or their kids have been playing on the elevators and get out and have to be redirected by the Wellington Retreat staff. Wellington Retreat has no idea who these guest are not to mention there are adolescent patients that need to be protected, they need to either make this a hotel or a treatment center! It should not be about money because Moran drives to work everyday in his $100,000 Mercedes or his $80,000 Range Rover and is always boasting about his yacht to the staff and since i am on the staff the patients get yelled at a lot by Moran, but we always felt bad for the staff when Moran yelled at them right in front of everyone because these are hard working and good people. I believe he has Napoleon complex.

When you our your love one's insurance is running out they will convince you to go to their Transitional Living which is a section 8 townhouse complex where you will reside and pay rent. The townhouses are right in the middle of a cesspool drugged infected community the police are called everynight,what would make a treatment center put their patients at risk here?

I could go on and on about the horrors of Wellington Retreat and when I have more time I will write somemore. In my opinion Wellington Retreat will bilk every penny from your insurance company or worst your pocket this treatment center is by far the worst traetment center I have been to. Please I IMPLORE you to stay away from this place. I wrote this so that it may save you or a love one from getting bad treatment there are many great treatment centers out there take your time in finding a good one it may very well save you or your love ones life!! In memory or a lost friend ElleBasi......

 

 



3 Updates & Rebuttals

Lisa Mikesell, LCSW CACIII

Longmont,
Colorado,
USA
Wellington Retreat

#2General Comment

Mon, December 05, 2016

I am a Licenced Clinical Social Worker and Senior Substance Abuse Counselor.  I am a therapist, and provide couseling to addicts and alcoholics, many of whom also have mental health concerns.  i have been a counselor for 30 years.

 

My 22 year old son is an addict who suffers from Major Depressive Disorder.  We put him in treatment to try and save his life. This was very painful for me, of course, but I was willing to do whatever it took to get him help.  We placed him in treatment facily after treatment facility, from California to Florida, all promising to work with dual diagnosis clients.  15 times, our son was discharged when his sobriety triggered a deeper depression. He became suicidal.  We became desperate.

 

Our son found Wellington Retreat, and placed himself there from his 7th Psych ward, after 15 other treatment programs. 

 

Finally, finally, we have found a place that is helping him.  Dr. Moran and his team of medical and mental health providers, are actually helping him.  My son is difficult to treat.  But, Wellington is not affraid.  My son is on medication, see's Dr Moran EVERY DAY, for medication evaluation and focus on physical and socail difficulties.  The team is erasing the damage done by the other facililities.  He is starting to come around.  He is smiling again, and is thinking clearly again.  He is clean and sober.

 

I have hope for the first time in years.  I am profoundly greatful to have found this program. It is one of a kind.

 


WellingtonSucks

Florida,
This is MY EXACT story, to a tee

#3Consumer Comment

Mon, September 09, 2013

Just..unbelievable! I literally use the EXACT SAME Shutter Island reference to describe my 2 week stay at that nuthatch Hellhole and people DO NOT BELIEVE ME, they think I am exagerrating! Now at least I can show them this post from ANOTHER patient repeating my experience, practically verbatim, word-for-word. It's like you had the exact same experience I did. I was "lucky" enough to have been in there before the move to the motel residence thank God for small miracles, I guess..I heard about the motel situation from someone who came into my subsequent treatment facility who had also left Wellington so I apparently missed that mess by a just couple of weeks. But yeah, when that lying Moran flunkie named Jacqi took me on the tour and I saw the "transitional living facility" in that obviously drug infested Section 8 housing project, I KNEW that I had made a huge, HUGE mistake allowing myself to be admitted to Wellington Retreat, I remember that revelation very clearly because from that point on my life was the nightmare you describe until I finally escaped that nightmare of a so-called treatment facility. Shutter Island, man. Yeah, I stayed in the big, fancy house on the lake but it was still a nightmare from beginning to end. Yes, we were reduced to smoking butts we found in ashtrays and on the GROUND, scrounging like animals with no dignity whatsoever. And our money was deemed worthless since you could only buy the f**king granola bars with those asenine Moran dollars, ego-maniacal little weasel. When I was there this girl actually left, went out and smoked crack and Moran let her right back in because she had drank the Moran Kool-Aid and was/is probably a lifer at that place, I think she had been there like 9 months at that point and obviously had no more a handle on her addiction than someone fresh off the street. I went in there an addict and when I BEGGED to be released to another facility, Moran tried to tell me I was "hallucinating and having a psychotic episode", and I have NO history of hallucinations or mental illness whatsoever, just a drug problem. So one day, after this one particularly bizarre session of that joke confrontational therapy group he runs, where a bunch of psychos basically hurl insults at each other and accomplish nothing, I was so completely horrified I said "that is IT, I am OUT of here NOW, try and stop me." I pretty much demanded at that point, DEMANDED he either release me (and I didn't even care at that point if it was to other place just wanted out of Wellington) or I would sinply walk out the gate and call Social Services on him and report him to whatever Florida licensing board he answers to as a mental health facility because he and his treatment were ABUSIVE, SHADY, absolutely untherapeutic, and in all honesty probably worsening the patients' existing problems! Finally it was over. Within 2 hours I was released, literally just put out onto the street with all my bags (that my crackhead roomate had packed up for me because I wasn't allowed to go back to the house), fully addicted to Suboxonne and Valium with no place to go. I didn't even get a chance to see if anything of mine was stolen or left behind, nor was I allowed to bring with me any of the meds my insurance had PAID FOR, just put OUT onto the SIDEWALK. I had to walk down the road to the sleazy poolhall in the RAIN with all my stuff just to call other treatment facilities out of the freakin phone book, on my cell and I was pretty terrified because I knew I needed to detox from Moran's drugs and hadn't even begun getting treated for my initial addiction at that point. All I did in there was sit in on his effed up and emotionally disturbing therapy group which was/still is a joke. Yup, Moran put me out on the STREET, FULLY HOOKED ON SUBOXONE AND BENZOS because he is just such an awesome and caring doctor! Luckily I got into another REAL treatment facility the next day and when I told them about what happened at Wellington, they didn't believe me...until another Wellington patient came in with the same EXACT story like 2 weeks later. Who would believe it? It's like too over the top to sound true, what actually goes down in that place! It must sound like a fabricated story which is the sad piece. And you are DEAD RIGHT how it is a huge mistake having just addicts in the same group with mental disorders, that is just WRONG on so many levels, bizarre as hell, almost surreal! When I was there, some mentally disturbed kid went into a violent, psychotic rage because I guess greedy Moran wouldn't think to admit he had made a huge error and that the kid really needed a higher level of care. We were all absolutely terrified. I never witnessed such a thing in my LIFE, we all were cowering on one side of a room while this kid smashed his entire body into a glass door until an ambulance came and took him to the psych ward. I felt so bad for this kid, he had just not had proper treatment, another victim of Moran's. Then at one point we all had to go to some soiree at a fancy hotel where Moran and his staff shmoozed patient's families, trying to make it look like their treatment was going swimmimingly. I can't believe anyone actually buys into his lies and deception, I mean the man even LOOKS like a liar, a tiny little flat-out liar and deciever. I am having flashbacks just thinking about all this like post-traumatic stress it was truly horrific, I get the image of short little Moran with his Hollywood white fake smile, little pink shirt with the stupid little yellow tie, and those expensive shoes he likes to wear. I'm just..floored reading your story. It is like we lived the same experience. I hope my seconding your detailed account will help convince others NEVER, EVER send someone you care about, or go yourself to WELLINGTON RETREAT. 


anonymous

franklin,
North Carolina,
Retraction of 2 Statements

#4Author of original report

Wed, July 24, 2013

 I would like to retract 2 statements of my oringinal letter. I learned today I had mistakenly believed 2 statements to be true were hearsay. The 2 statements are as follows: 

1. then shortly after he was let go because of his lack of disipline when prescribing Suboxen to the patients Moran was actually known by the patients and staff there as Dr. Suboxen (this statement was hearsay)

2. within a year Moran manipulated a way to get rid of his partner so he could have Wellington Retreat to himself (this statement was hearsay)

All other statements made in the oringinal letter I personally witness or stated (in my opinion).

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