Palm Partners

Several years ago, I hopped a plane at the expense of a loving family member and spent over half a year at Palm Partners. I was considered a "poster child" of their program, and I believed with my whole heart that I was changed for the better. I was never going to use again. I poured myself into recovery and graduated clean, and my life fell apart shortly thereafter. Like dozens of others I'd met while I was down there, I became homeless in south Florida and adrift in the chaos of post-treatment addiction.

Although I'd never left my home town before PP, I began to drift around the country. No matter where I went, no place was ever as bad as south Florida. There's a whole generation of people down there who go to find help, get impressively better in expensive centers for a little while, and then crash once they're outside the safety net of treatment. Most of those kids would have been better off if they'd stayed close to home, where family could be nearby after numerous relapses, rather than states away where an unforeseen plane ticket home following a relapse is simply too expensive after the months of treatment for cash-strapped families to afford. Far from home, I experienced the worst of what addiction can do to a person after my "peak" recovery time at PP. Finally, after years of learning just how deep the rabbit hole can go with addiction, I found my own way to sobriety and inner peace by way of a bottom-of-the-barrel state-run treatment center followed by old-fashioned 12-step recovery. There was nothing remarkable about my last treatment center; it was no better than the other 5 I found myself in after PP.

For years, I abstained from passing judgment on PP and the whole south Florida recovery debate until I could look back with a clearer perspective. My gut told me for years that PP, while having a handful of outstanding staff, is corrupted by profit-driven motives. In an "industry" where lives hang in the balance and families send their loved ones with every last hope pinned to centers like PP, the dignity and well-being of a person should be foremost in his/her treatment plan. Instead, the capacity to generate profit for PP is what ends up driving the majority of the hundreds of treatment plans that I witnessed in my time there. I saw *multiple* young women relapse while in treatment, get horribly abused on Florida streets, come back, and get silenced by the most senior staff. A condition of their receiving further treatment was not to make waves in the PP community by way of sharing their "experiences". Having experienced trauma and loss of control, those women needed the choice to speak up as part of their healing process, and instead, staff further silenced them in a repeated violation of their dignity. Senior staff knew that each one of those women who relapsed on PP's watch could create a circus within the PP community, so they suppressed their stories. In contrast, I never met a male client who was told to stay quiet following a relapse at PP. They'd go around the community sharing every detail, and staff never intervened.

I saw kids arrive in limos who were given too many exceptions & passes by senior staff at the detriment to the whole community. While other kids around them relapsed on the drugs they repeatedly brought into the facility, they were allowed to stay (at increased cost to their already exorbitant bills). Beds were assigned paying clients, and when one client relapsed, they could double-book that bed and make double the profit. Then when the original client came crawling back, a new bed was sold at a substantially higher price to families that dug deep into empty pockets. "Your loved one's relapse is proof they need MORE treatment, not less." I heard that a lot. No two clients paid the same amount for 90 days. Every 6 weeks or so, when clients would start price-comparing and swapping stories of their intakes, senior staff would call community meetings to put a stop to the discussions and kick out kids who were particularly vocal (but never actually relapsed or broke rules).

PP had devoted employees to call insurance companies, bend the truth of a client's progress, and occasionally fabricate verbal reports of urine tests so that their coverage would be extended. I partied and did hard drugs with 4 different PP staff (from sales reps to counselors) in the months after leaving treatment and heard stories of scripts they were given to read, lies they told insurance companies and families, and cover-ups they were instructed to keep silent on. They were told never to quote a price for 90 days of treatment, because there is no "set" price. Price is dependent on what a family can provide. So they learned to ask questions about mortgages, car loans, income, and debt. Some of those same staff had themselves never been to a 12-step meeting, but they ran groups and spent 1-on-1 time with recovering clients discussing recovery. Some of them asked me probing questions about recovery while we were in the depths of using together. The difference was, the next morning they'd go to work at PP, and I'd slum around Delray to find more drugs.

After having finally found recovery in the humble rooms of a 12-step program in middle America, the things I witnessed at PP horrify me. PP wasn't unique. It was one in a community saturated with similar programs. The halfway houses, fancy a la carte counseling options, and detoxes are mostly driven by profit. On the flip side, Delray's state-run programs are notoriously bad as well. South Florida in general is a hellhole for accessing recovery services, regardless of your means. You'll always find a few standout staff at any facility no matter what (I went to dozens in several states during my time following PP). You'll always find a few corrupt staff too.

Your unit of measurement should be how profit-driven they are. A company should offer 90 days of treatment for a universal cost (minus scholarships and sliding scales); the cost should never be anchored by the maximum figure a family can pay. A company should not ask personal probing questions about finances and reply with nebulous answers like "how much is your loved one's life worth to you?". A company shouldn't make scandalous amounts of money on urine tests. And when a client relapses, a company should lead with honest discussions about their well-being before descending into discussions about money. Nonprofit and state-run treatment centers are better bets for being ethically run. They have problems of their own, but nothing like PP.

BOTTOM LINE: If you can't get your loved one home in the event of a sudden relapse due to lack of funds, then keep them closer to home. It's very likely to happen, given the nature of addiction. Ask yourself whether you want your loved one several states away, in a community saturated with drugs and extremely dangerous inner cities blocks away from PP, or if you'd rather have them be a 4-hour drive away where you can go pick them up if they end up in trouble or in a hospital. That's very different than enabling; that's saving your loved one's life. Rehab kids die a lot in south Florida. Their parents have to pay to fly their bodies home. It's costly. Have that conversation with yourself before signing anything.

There's nothing magical about the geography of south Florida or the accessibility of a public beach. The magic of recovery can happen in any community. If you're being sold on the concept that an expensive geographical commitment is THE answer, then know that you're being treated as a cog in a system that is much more powerful than you're prepared for. Find somewhere closer to home that is transparent in their business dealings. If they're promising you something that sounds too good to be true, look for the price tag. Remember that recovery almost always requires a series of stints in detox, treatment, and 12-step meeting rooms. Consider how you can best afford the long haul, not the magical promise of a 90-day facility that will cure your loved one. Avoid PP and its peer companies like the plague. Period.

A joke. Money grubbing social worker with no class Thomas Beley is disrespectful, condescending liar who doesn't care about anyone that comes there. Do your research, believe all the bad reviews you find (the good ones are probably paid for) and do not go or send your loved ones to Delray period.
The workers care, the "suits" do not.
Would love to here from the CEO, I have an earful for him. Peter Harrigan I would love to hear from you. I don't think you would like your wife or daughter treated or spoken to the way your staff treated and spoke to my wife. And before T. Beley tells you she was lying, I was on speaker phone listening to what was being said because he was already caught in one lie, telling me one thing and my wife another. Married 20 years, yes we still talk, And she doesn't lie! If anyone took the time to listen to her they'd know that. The utter bull [censor] we where told to get her there was ridiculous. One lie after another.

First let me say I was not court ordered. No one sent me to Palm Partners, I choose to go to Palm Partners. I am a 45 year old white male, married with three children. MY wife is a nurse and I own a medium sized construction company. I have never been to jail or had any legal issues concerning my addiction to pain medication. I was told there was a gym, a gourmet chief, that I could take my medication prescribed to me from my home doctor (non narcotic) and that I could take my body building supplements (no STEROIDs). However none of that was true. I arrived at the end of December 2016 around lunch time. I told them exactly what I take daily, how much and the last time I took it. They wrote it all down and said they would go see the doctor. Unfortunately, I was taking a very very large amount of pain pills daily. I explained this to them exactly. They said they would use subutext to get me off the pain pills. I questioned them about precipitated withdrawals. The nurse practitioner said it would not cause that and I would be fine. I pressed hard because I knew better. He convinced me that PW would not happen. Well guess what these I###TS gave me subutext within 9 hours of my last use and put me in precipitated withdrawals. Once I was sick from it, they came in and gave me more two hours later and it made me deathly sick. I went through hell the first night because of them. Once I got past that, I was so nauseous I could not eat. I got weaker and weaker as the days went by. The doctor designed a taper for me. I was called into the office by another nurse practitioner and she changed my taper after two days reducing it by 75%. So I went from taking an enormous amount of pain pills to nothing in four days and was shipped off to Palm Trails. I was in complete withdrawals. I could not eat, throwing up constantly, super nauseous. I was very sick. They did nothing, I suffered the entire week. I could not eat. I was so weak I could not shower. It took all I had to walk to the med office to get what they call "comfort meds" which did nothing. The first day they gave me someone else medication. My medication was in limbo and did not arrive until day two at Palm Trails. So I just laid there and suffered. Once I got the medication, I started taking it. The first day after taking the meds my throat felt really weird. I said something to the tech and he just blew me off. I took the night dose before bed. Come to find out I had an allergic reaction to the medicine and my throat completely closed. I could not swallow my own spit and was having trouble breathing. They got a van and took me to the ER. I got there at 9 PM and stayed until 5:30 AM. Once discharged I had to sit in the waiting room for an hour waiting on them to pick me up. Of course they take everything you own so I did not have the change to get something to drink. I felt terrible from withdraws and a very sore throat. They did not care. Once back on property, I continued to struggle to function. I lost 21 pounds in 12 days from my time at Palm Partners and they did nothing but let me suffer. On top of the hell I went through. Every person there smoked except me. I had smoke blown in my face every time I went to the cafeteria to get some Ensure ( all I could keep down) or any where else. It was an argument to get the Ensure. When I smelled the food which was absolutely not gourmet. I would throw up. The language from the other people (mostly 20 something year old kids) was terrible. Constant cursing, in every meeting, every function, every class. Terrible language that I was forced to listen to daily. This was the worst experience of my life. Palm Partners is a terrible place. Again, they will tell you if you ask about reviews that the bad ones are written by people that did not want to be there, court ordered, mommy and daddy ordered, etc. I researched this place and choose it. I questioned them about the bad reviews I read and they had an excuse for all of them. I which I would have not ignored the reviews. Do not go to Palm Partners unless you want to be treated like an inmate, ignored, given other peoples meds, left to suffer in your room or made sick at their hand.

Run for your life

As someone who works in online marketing, I can tell you that every reply to a negative comment is done by staff. I do that as part of my work regularly. However, I am replying openly as an employee for my company. The reason I point this out about staff doing this is because the replies have a consistent tone and are condescending in the same exact abusive manner they treat patients. At least try a reply without the obviousness that you are either staff or paid in someway to do this. Take it from me, any company that does what they do in their replies alone is unethical.

That's just the beginning. I have contacted numerous reputable treatment centers notifying them of the scam to get you there and the abuse I endured from staff members. They are telling me that reports about treatment scams are mainly in florida and their medical directors are reporting these findings to the accreditation associated with each facility. There motivation in having them lose their accredidation means lives will be saved when addicts cannot go to unethical facilities that are scams.

They have absolutely no knowledge about addiction but their website says the opposite. There are no big books to be found which speaks volumes. I won't go on like I could. But it's so important to report report report to every review site you can find and to the better business burea.

I have never seen such a scam. They get you there and however long your insurance covers is magically the amount of treatment you need. There are so many patients you can forget about any indidual attentiion there are young clients making up the majority of patients and they 're fornicatinv everywhere. This includes staff and the young females. There's a van driver Scotty from new York who was bragging to me and another older female patient that he'd been sleeping with a young loose attention seeking girl. He also admitted to still dabbling with crack cocaine while claiming 20 years of sobriety. I got into a jam not long after I got out and tried to contact anyone I could as they claimed to bring you back free of charge should need be. I never received the first call back. They billed my insurance 40000. I had called already and convinced my insurance that the charges weren't valid and they stopped payment!

My son was a patient there for 30 days. I believe this place is due for a major fraud investigation (insurance, Rx, medical, truth in advertising, etc.). My latest issue is when their business partner in crime, Royal Life Center, sent my son back to their DETOX due to a "relapse". They only kept my son for less than 24 hours, I believe this was due to the fact that they were unable to milk any more money from our insurance company. They were also unable to dump my son back on Royal Life Center. My major concern was how the case worker handled his release. The case worker had my son and the other person that he relapsed with in his office at the same time, going over personal information which I believe would be HIPPA violation. Why would you send two people that obviously are toxic with each other to yet another facility. So much for wanting to help people in need.

I went to pump partners they lied to get me down there just to get my insurance I had specific requests before I even went down there my grandson was in the hospital with neuroblastoma cancer I told them that I needed to be in contact with my grandson every single day I'm a part of his support system they agreed that under the circumstances that I could use the telephone and stay in contact with my grandson that was line number 1 line number 2 they told me that I would be able to have my cell phone and be able to use it that was a lie there was a young lady in there who was pregnant and she was bleeding and she went up there and said she needed the ambulance to call 911 they were few did her request told her she would have to wait for the doctor to come in that night she never got the assistance there was a lot of chaos going on in there people sleeping together in the bathrooms people going in your bedroom stealing crap when he would tell the staff they didn't give a crap it's just the way they ran the place they didn't give you any respect didn't treat you like you were a human being was all about money it was way more things that went on and I'm just so agitated but just express this is not a place that somebody in the predicament the cause you to go in there in the first place this is not a place that will give you solace or peace of mind they are liars they dont care about you they just care about your insurance they do not give you medical assistance or anything the way that they should I would stay away from palm partners they are liars I will repeat that over and over and over again Tom Parker are liars I'm using voice command that's supposed to say palm partners they just don't treat you with the dignity and respect that you deserve they lie to you to get you there the facility is not a good facility at all the only good person that I encountered while I was there was the masseuse she had a heart of gold and she truly cares about the people there this facility is wacked out all I can say is spend your money elsewhere don't go to prom partners and they did lie about the bills overcharging I had issues with that myself be leery stay away from palm partners it's not worth the hassle nor the heartache if you want help go see another place do your research

I cannot express enough how terrible this place is. Most of the staff is totally rude. Parents, DO NOT send your loved ones there. It is not a safe therapeutic environment. I never received any attention until I told them I was leaving due to a lack of profession able and respect. Then they were all over me. I am so sorry I wasted my hard earned money in this place. And do not believe anything the sales reps tell you. Palm Partners should be ashamed of themselves. Sadly they obviously don't care.

Beware of the tactics this facility uses and do not be fooled by it false advertising! This facility claims to be a dual diagnosis treatment center which is a joke. Having practiced in mental health for years I thought I had done my homework and I was desperate for help. I was worse when I left than when i entered. It is chaotic, run like a zoo w/ poor organization, overcrowded, unethical, and nothing but a money pit. PLEASE BE AWARE!