Linwood House and its owner UKAT represent the worse to for me in terms of my experience of paid addiction rehab. And for anyone reading this blog post, feel free to contact me over UKAT and Linwood House, and in my opinion the appalling manner in which Linwood House was run.
I won’t go into my addiction here, suffice to say I am in recovery and thankful for it, having lost people I have known to addiction, and that it affects so, so many people.
You can read about my fun and games with addiction in my other blog posts, the role my OCD played which is a topic in its own right, and of what I learnt.
And this piece of prose is a WARNING to people in addiction as to the perils of private rehab, its addiction therapy; all based on my experience over twelve and a half years from the point of my realising I had a potential problem with my first AA meeting in November 2011, to September 2023 when I entered a place called Vernon House, and more on this to come.
UKAT and Linwood House as a Case Study
I have been in the Priory, Linwood House, Chapman Barker (NHS), and now ANEW. So I feel I have a benchmark from which I can be very honest about the service provided by private and paid rehabs, feedback from people who have been there; and I can safely say why, in my opinion, private organisations should not and must not be involved in addiction treatment.
Vulnerable people and addiction
I first knew there was a problem in 2021 when on advice I attended my first AA meeting in November.
When you are in addiction at it’s bitter end which for me was 2023, so is your family by proxy, your friends and others; you are incredibly vulnerable both mentally and physically. With severe reliance on an additive substance, mentally you barely function, cognitively wanting the hell to stop. Physically you are likely to need a medical detox as you are biologically addicted, and will suffer withdrawal without the substance, hence suffering the chronic cravings that lead to needing the fix to the point of insanity, poor decisions, and out of character behaviours
So, where you and you family need intervention this is where (I now to my horror realise) the money men come in now dressed in the form of rehabs, addition facilities. Dressed with a solution (there is not a solution in the form of a quick fix they peddle), care, and deep concern. Be aware they are only after money.
They are attractive for the following reasons. And if you check my LinkedIn profile you will see that I am an advertising man by history, and understand the following themes. UKAT are a prime example of all that is wrong with unregulated private firms. Now I’m not saying unregulated in terms of CQC etc. I talk unregulated in terms of ethics, delivery of service, and aftercare. Sadly and with shock I hope you’ll read how the practical delivery of addiction services by private concerns is sloppy and riven with a conflict of interest.
The common point of entry
Normally via a phone call after engagement with a website.
Tailored marketing is utilised.
The websites of these companies are optimised to appear in search engine results.
The companies have swish sales teams/call centres on the end of the phone.
This language on literature and websites is solution orientated and couched in caring terms.
All paid for service providers have a natural conflict of interest. Namely money. They need bums on seats in their facilities in order to pay the bills, so sales will always outway ethics because it has to.
Older and established organisations like Priory Group do not escape. Oh no. They merely have more polished brands that attract people, with a higher grade of facility, hence the costs.
There is, I found, a common economy with the truth, and with the facts as to the addiction recovery process they offer. You’ll find that they won’t keep statistics, let alone share them. For example how many clients stayed sober after year having used your facility?
All pitch a solution at cost in their lovely facility. With therapy, help. The reality is far from the truth.
The delivery, the truth
I found you are simply paying for an overpriced hotel room of varying quality. Therapy commonly follows the first three steps of the 12 Step Programme as created and shared by Alcoholics Anonymous. And the therapy varies, it varies massively.
The core problem is a paid service.
A paid entity cannot push a client in addiction to the limit. And if my story is anything to go by, you need pushing to the limit to overcome your addiction, because if in rehab you need help. You are normally at the end of self, and maybe like me you’ve not picked up on what the Fellowships of Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Cocaine Anonymous and others have and do offer. Blunt, honesty, shared experience.
A paid business I discovered won’t push the fee payer to the point they leave, or bad mouth the brand. This is something very simple but a crucial Achilles Heel in all these businesses. They won’t destroy the addict within because it affects the flow of money. The fee paying client is always right at the end of the day.
I suggest you sack off paid rehab. Self detox is possible, as is charitable. I did it. You learn the real pain of addiction.
UKAT is a prime example of preying on vulnerable people, families, friends, with a solution that is copied from free outside organisations whether AA, NA, CA etc. They take people into their service and truly overcharge. The addict is so desperate for a medical detox they’ll do, sign, pay for anything. As will lovded ones. And these places cost thousands.
When you break it down you are paying a lot of money to get a bed, food, detoxed, and therapy. It should not cost this much. Why? Because organisations like ANEW fucking well prove you can provide facilities for a fraction of the cost.
Did you know a GP can prescribe a home detox for alcohol, but often don’t due to not being able to monitor it. My point is the cost is not great. So in a paid for facility, on being cleaned up you are then put into therapy, and the pisser is that it's normally Steps 1, 2, 3 of a 12 Step Programme with a few bits added; something that is free of charge out in public life and delivered in my opinion in a more honest, genuine manner, tailored to you. With the paid facilities it is shocking delivered as wrote, so undermining how the outside organisations actually work.
The paid rehabs get you in, detox you, do the steps and a bit of therapy, and bang you think they are God.
Their one size fits all is great when playing a business numbers game, which provides yield, but awful with dealing with one person's reasons for drinking for example. Hence the dreadful success rates. But define your success.
Ambulance chasing
I am strongly of the view that these paid organisations are ambulance chasers. They are there when you are at rock bottom and you will snatch at anything to get you out of the mire, and money becomes no object. I know as this is the experience I now have behind me, and the worse of the lot being UKAT, and I spoke to a few organisations.
I am absolutely disgusted with the 2.5 months over two periods in 2021 I spent with UKAT. A building site of a facility, poor management, poor therapy, a sausage machine method toward clients. And all of this driven by a sales approach that leverages poorly people. And what really pisses me off is the regulatory bodies such as CQC not having a Scobbie Do as to what is going on.
A few good people and the conflict of interest
Now, not all people in paid rehabs are ethically bankrupt. I came across in The Priory for example, on its nursing ward staff who knew their stuff, cared as though you were their own, and paid no care to money, and had distain for the Addiction Therapy Team. So, please do not tarnish all in these organisations, that would be wrong. Just as much as I came across one excellent Therapist at Linwood House (UKAT) who was wasted there and has now moved on to better help others.
In life most things have defects, including organisations, and yes I agree The Priory and UKAT have and do save lives and help. The issue I have is the sheer cost ratio to achievement, and of how the cost does not reflect what happens in the non for profit sector.
Why Rehab when the Fellowships are out there?
The Fellowships of AA across to NA or CA do work , they really do. But some people are tough cookies, and do need intervention especially if a medical detox is needed. I was one of them.
Let me make clear that I am not against a facility if that brings out of control and dangerous addiction to a halt.
So is there a place for paid services? YES, but not in its current format. I think the issue can be solved with regulation. Commercial/ethically led intervention is needed as the likes of the CQC are hoodwinked as to what is actually occurring, and can only really focus on the nursing side, and thus make poor assessment of rehab/addiction facilities as it is such a specialist area.
Don’t use the likes of UKAT or The Priory; go non for profit - Case Studies
At the end when private rehab had not worked I luckily through AA learnt about ANEW. And it is not the only non for profit facility that one can use. For example via ANEW in Hyde I have now learnt about Elisha House in and Damien John Kelly House in Liverpool.
These organisations work closely with the individual and their reasons for addiction. You see substance abuse is both a cause and symptom. The non for profit strives to understand and help the individual understand why they drink, akin to deep therapy from a psychanalytical basis. The addict is taught to see and challenge their addict side, that like Hyde has with Dr Jekyll, subsumed the original person as a way of escaping what bothers, has traumatised them.
Cost is literally to cover the bare minimum with support from State and other sources.
People are helped from middles class backgrounds across to those fished off the street.
Compare this to Priory Group and specifically my entering its Altrincham facility in 2020. Now a huge amount of slack can be cut for this organisation as I entered literally as COVID kicked off. It was chaos and I don’t blame the facility for how they handled things, and they did give me the offer of going home. I chose not to.
What I learnt from my four week stay can be summed up as follows: “Great brand, comfortable, nice facility, okay therapy, banal.” You buy into a big brand and yes you get unrivalled medical care on the Ward you live on and structured therapy as to addiction from the team. But and this is the cruical but; all they did was work through Steps 1-3 of the AA Programme and add in a life story and some consequence letters. The aftercare revolved more around face to face/Zoom checking in and glory tales of how well people were doing, but if a relapse occurred you became a persona non grata booted off the aftercare. There was and is not any sense of community. I suspect failure rates are immense. I personally would say to someone that they don’t go there, save their money, and tough it out with a non for profit. Brand in this case does not engender quality. But I respect the professional approach of the medical staff that cannot be faulted. The ATP team specialising in therapy were flawed and clearly at odds with each other. It was a one size fits all approach. This does not work.
Jesus Christ on a bike, where do I even start with UKAT and Linwood House?!?! I entered for four weeks in 2021, and chose to stay for another four - more fool me. Please, please call or message me before going near this organisation.
The facility was only interested in money. There was no direct contact with medical staff, apart from the dispensing nurse on her way out to retirement with an attitude that stank to high heaven. The Doctor dealt with you over a video call with absolutely no empathy at all. Medicines for withdrawal handed out like candy - truly shocking. Young members of staff supervising clients abused their roles based on lack of experience and training. Disorganised to say the least would also be polite.
The therapy team run by Julie, who I believe is till there, delivered by wrote therapy, sort of adhering to Steps 1-3 of AA. No work books. Nothing. No grasp of anything really. And in no uncertain terms I dump this firmly on Julie’s doorstep. UKAT must be aware of this and take no action.
As said therapy sessions were by wrote, with some of the therapists disinterested and clearly disheartened by UCAT. There was and is a turnover rate of these. I have heard of one and a half page life story’s across to unplanned off the cuff sessions. There was absolutely no examination of personal reasons or trauma for why a person used a substance(s). All people I have spoken to ex-Linwood have been scathing as to what they received for their money.
The therapist to client ratio shocking.
They were more than happy to let clients (like the Priory) head to their bedrooms and stay there flying in the face of ANEW for example where you are forced to mix and face your addiction. There is so much more I can list suffice to say the Clients out of therapy were left to their own devices. No signposting, no constant teamwork integration, working on self. For example, there was no enforcement of attending Zoom meetings, let alone going to face to face ones, and I suppose UKAT will hide behind COVID. This was money, my money, thrown down the drain.
I left, lasted a few weeks, picked up a drink as I had not looked at me and why I drank. This slightly obvious fact overlooked on the basis of their sausage machine mentality as to clients.
I went back for two weeks, left, and drank the next day. More wasted money.
My money was happily taken off me by Bill the General Manager at the time running the facility (won’t surprise me if UKAT blame him for it all) who was clearly under a lot of pressure whilst sort of caring for his clients.
In 2022 (thank God I did not go again) I contacted UKAT with a view to entering. I’d relapsed. I in fact went to the NHS Chapman Barker Unit. I was promptly charged £1,500 deposit and the day before, yes the day before, was contacted by Linwood House to be told that on entering I would be on a final warning due to previous behaviour of a sexual nature. In a vulnerable place I was mentally shot to bits and fell to bits. It transpires the young member of staff did not have grounds to say this, nor make or deliver such information, and I now know from leaked information (I suppose I could make a Freedom of Information claim) the accusation based on poor information recording and thus was hearsay, as was confirmed by the new general manager (and my inside contact that let me see the data on a work laptop) and the money refunded. No real apology. The detail I write is necessary as I was certainly not up to any wrong sexual behaviour in Linwood. It is an example of how badly run the facility is. I suspect all this was swept under the carpet, and no action taken. At this point I really could not be bothered. Anyway I got over it but learnt a lot.
UKAT and Linwood House is bad. Very bad. But it all looks so good. This is a case of polishing a rehab turd.
They say the pen is mightier than the sword and I hope this goes some way to expose UKAT. Any attempt to sue under consumer legislation based on poor service would, sadly, be painful and drawn out. It is not that I don’t want to fight, or have bile in my throat, it is more about doing what is right for me. If one person reads this and does not use UKAT then that is payment enough for me.
Charity rehabs, staffed by those who have been there
I will use ANEW as an example, or Elisha House, or Damien John Kelly House, or the NHS Chapman Barker Unit Why? Because they are setup and run by people who have been in and suffered from addiction, or understand it medically as per Chapman Barker.
Speaking of the NHS, where it has money for addiction it is selfless and good, working closely to help people. The problem is it is not designed for therapeutic residential treatment. Chapman Barker is a one week, give or take a few days, detox centre, and much more is needed after this.
My advice, charity rehabs, options - A conclusion
Go non for profit, or contact CGL or other initially depending on where you live. Please don’t use paid private organisations. Your detoxing may be done on your own, which is a shitty but educational experience. Or talk to these organisations to help you obtain a charity/State paid for detox. These organisations and their people can help here.
What is so, so important is their ability to understand and deep dive into your addiction. They can push and prod and poke to their heart’s content, as they have the ability to tell the client to fuck off and to pack their bags. In attacking the addict we must use truth and tough love to get a person to look at their addict truly. Give them the tools to break the cycle of addiction, don’t sugar coat it.
Please go to these organisations first. You can even do taster days and talk to residents. Please don’t make the mistake I did of paying for a fix - there is not one. You have to do it yourself with brutally honest help.
Such organisations are a great path to ongoing recovery via the Fellowships. CRUCIALLY they focus on creating, building, and living COMMUNITY after treatment. And this is so important. The original AA people back in the 1930’s could not understand after cleaning a person up, why they’d pick up and go back to the hell of addiction. It is because you need connection with people in recovery to remember where you have been, and of how you can live you life differently and deal and cop with your own baggage without numbing yourself. And that is what drink and other does, it numbs you but only in the short term - you have not learnt to face and make peace with your trauma* and sit in it.
*Trauma does not have to be something major or horrid. We as humans all have trauma in life. It is about how we live with it. For example, two people go for a job interview and both do not get a job. One thinks “oh well, I learnt something, try again”. The other feels worthless, unloved, a failure, and goes to the pub for a drink to block these feelings out. This person may have baggage from childhood where they were neglected and thus feel worthless and rejected, which carries through to the interview failure, and they act according to their belief of self. “I am not good enough” and they cannot sit in this, but a drink will take them away. They play out their believed history. It is this that needs addressing and technically not the drink, for that is a symptom, and means of coping. If the behaviour is hysterical then it is historical goes an old saying.
Please note!
Recovery is about you wanting it and doing it. No amount of money or for that matter charity will do it for you.
So do read what I have written previously with an important caveat, namely that only you chose to drink or use, and only you chose to stop. So in one sense you cannot blame outside players in the game you have chosen to play, but they were participants in my game, the paid one, and they were vultures and still are.
