Santa Barbara Rescue Mission

This place cares more about their stats than the actual people they claim to want to help. I was there for a time, and it was clear that staff had their favorites and the rest of us were ignored. They claim to have therapists to take you thru a program called Genesis, but my therapist never cracked the book. I was lied about by a crazy woman, subsequently kicked out, then had a ton of my things stolen. Plus, the religious freedom that is sacrosanct in America? Completely ignored here as they shove JESUS down everyone\'s throat. Almost certainly run by racist, right wing wackos. Highly unrecommended.

I wish I could say that my time at tihis facility was positive and helpful, but iI can not. After my application was approved iI was put on a waiting list and required to call in daily. After three months iI was informed that a bed was available. All went well for the first few days. Then I started to notice the cadiness of many girls in the program, which made things uncomdortable. The staff was, to put it mildly, totally unprofessional. One staff member was a neurotic mess. Another senior staff, was was most often rude and unable to make decisions and stick to them. There was a feeling of seperation among the \"clicks\" which were formed. The atmosphere was unwelcoming. This is not conducive to rehab success.

Sooooo doing a full year and graduating at Bethel House, the drama central, gossip filled (including some staff and also a staff member talking crud to residents about other residents), people crud talking behind people backs and staff having favorites, being obvious to the residents that weren\'t their favorites. So much unneeded drama in a place where we are trying to learn better ways of communicating and controlling our old behaviors and old patterns that destroyed us and need to learn better ways of dealing with issues in a civil way ..... and what really makes me angry and upset and was especially NOT AT ALL IN ANY WAY OK!!!!! Is when a BH staff member works at a drug and alcohol rehab, teaching, counseling, giving advice, teaching us to learn that we can learn to live a great sucsessful joyful life without using or drinking so we start trusting them because they are our teacher..But then loosing all trust in them when someone had to come take over their morning shift because the person working that day was an hour and a half late... acting strangely. And NO they didn\'t fire her imedietly and let her come back the next day which made it seam like they don\'t care for the residents well being.... just absolutely wrong. It could have been triggering to us and change our whole view on what we there for learning, getting the help we need and trusting the staff to counsel us.... in the long run being there I learnd to not trust people who are there to help us and teach us, i learned that nothing has changed from when i was growing up having a hard time making friends and people gossiping about me, talking behind my back and even the people you\'re close with still talked crud behind your back. It never changed its still the same and is still tramatic to me so being there made it even worse and if i had felt safe and more comfortable without all the drama i think i could have been able to focus more on learning everything that was being tought there. I mean yeah I sure learnd stuff and have some tools I work with now that I\'m out of there BUT....when will it ever end? Just do me a favor BH, pay attention to the residents that are living there now. If you are so bored that you need to talk badly about me or other people who left or graduated and want to find something to talk about, maybe talk about how you need to change the way you run the program and get staff that fallows an actual Christian lifestyle. Isn\'t that what the whole program is based on? Because when I lived there It was not in any way God\'s House. There was nothing there that made me feel at peace and safe. Always uncomfortable feelings that just didn\'t feel right. No one not even staff acted the way God would have wanted us to act in the House of God. Omg it feels so good to finally let this out! Ahhh I\'ve been wanting to express my feelings for so long but never had the courage to do so.... so yeah, I graduated, I\'m gone... there is no reason for you to keep tabs on me anymore. You did your thing. Time to focus on the residents you have now. And yeah, even though you give us a bible, have bible studies, send us to bible study and church. You should really consider actually having the residents and staff living the Christian lifestyle while they are in the Bethel House Program... if not, chang the name of the program becauze its misleading.P.s stop gossiping about me and other people who are out of the program now and saying to some of us we\'re doing things the wrong way, and blah blah blah. You guys say you only want us to live a healthy life and you really care for us don\'t talk bad things about us. And when you guys still give advice or your opinions and I don\'t think that\'s the best for me and I don\'t do it your way i get blamed for my personal issues on not following your advice. And they are not at all related whatsoever.... Personally, really.... you guys should be working oh how you can make Bethel House more of an effective program with less relapse rates and successful outcomes.......... Just saying

Very good staff who put client needs as a priority. It was inspiring and an effective treatment of addiction. We have one of the highest success rates in the country. We have good staff to client ratio's. The Genesis relapse prevention counseling and faith based education is key to our success. We survive by donations only.

I was just 'ready' so anything was good for me...this was a facility that had the majority of patients as court ordered. It was very 'faith based' rather than 12 step.