Since I posted part 1 of this series, more than 70 people have reached out to share information about various recovery organizations and a few treatment providers, all within the greater Richmond area.

The vast majority of individuals I’ve spoken with thus far have chosen not to be named on the blog. Choosing anonymity is understandable and will always be respected. It does, however, raise the bar on the number of sources and/or supporting documents needed to corroborate the information.

Below are two recurring themes across several organizations I need help corroborating.

If you have direct knowledge of the following or similar practices in a recovery organization, please reach out to me.

1. Sexual harassment and predatory behaviors across four recovery organizations:

• Organization 1:
  • Multiple current employees have reportedly exploited the relapses of past participants by paying them for sex and feeding their drug habits. One employee reportedly let the former participant shoot heroin in his car during the encounter.
• Organizations 1 & 2:
  • Male operators have been propositioning current participants for sex (and sometimes engaging in sex with those participants). One participant was reportedly paid to keep quiet about it.
• Organization 2:
  • Operators retaliated against individuals who spoke up about sexual harassment and ordered participants and employees to refrain from communicating with those individuals.
• Organization 3:
  • A male operator has repeatedly shown up at women’s recovery houses late at night, unannounced, at times walking into their bedrooms without knocking.
• Organization 4:
  • A male employee and known “13^th stepper” has a history of sexually harassing female participants at that organization without repercussions.

2. Forced IOP, resident brokering, kickbacks:

• Former participants and employees at three recovery housing organizations report IOP practices similar to those described at True Recovery and WAR Foundation in Part 1:
  • Participants are enrolled in Medicaid and then steered to the IOP provider chosen by the recovery house operators.Residents are often threatened with various sanctions, eviction, or jail for noncompliance with IOP.At two of the three organizations, most residents attend IOP online. These online sessions are described as “pointless.”
    • Participants can “check in,” put their phone in their pocket, and then go about their day. Some reported their operators openly condoned this. One operator told a participant with a work conflict, “all you have to do is log on.”Some of the sessions consist of watching Youtube videos.Two operators openly shared with employees and/or participants that they get paid for sending residents to IOP (in other words, they openly admitted to receiving illegal kickbacks).
  • At one of these organizations, “relapse treatment plans” were reportedly written by peer support staff – individuals with no clinical credentials. Not surprisingly, the plans consisted of putting participants back in the same IOP.
• One local treatment provider has reportedly offered cash to individual employees of different sober homes for recruiting patients to their IOP program on a per-participant basis.
• Two recovery housing organizations have reportedly received kickbacks for sending participants to out-of-town or out-of-state treatment facilities.
• Participants across four local recovery housing organizations have been pressured to switch their psychiatrist to the same psychiatrist preferred by all four organizations.
• Two organizations routinely accept residents with serious mental health conditions they are not qualified to handle, putting everyone in the homes at risk. Participants believe this is done to “milk them for their Medicaid.”

This list is not all-inclusive. I will be sharing additional requests for information as I look more heavily into other topics. Please subscribe to the blog or check the site periodically for those updates.

Please also share this with anyone you know who might be open to talking about their experience.

2/25/23 Edit

FAQ:

Are you only requesting further information from people who are willing to be named?

No. I am requesting information from anyone who has knowledge of the above topics in any central Virginia recovery organization or addiction treatment/counseling provider. I will not share anyone’s name or identifying information without their permission. I will also work with each person to ensure they are comfortable with the level of detail provided on the blog. I will not include any details that my sources feel could compromise their anonymity.