ALMOST HOME AGAIN LLC

UPDATE: Changed to one star. This group home's negligence led to a homicide taking place--a client successfully killing another client. This is absolutely unacceptable and terrifying to hear as a former patient. This place needs to be shut down for good. If you are a caseworker or other person debating on placing a client here, please look into other places. Placing a client here could be downright dangerous at this point. I think that giving this group home 2 stars is being generous. And first of all, I can say that there were good moments and bad moments during my 3 month stay. At the end though, the bad FAR outweighed the good and I made the difficult decision to leave. Some of the staff really do care about the clients and seeing them improve. Others you can tell are not as invested. I should also note that most, if not all, of the residents are forced to be there. I had a roommate and she came in 8 days after I did and was bright, full of energy, and was always smiling. I slowly watched this beautiful human turn into a shell of herself that only wanted to lay in bed because of how awful she was treated and how this placement made her feel. It was heartbreaking. The only reason I stayed as long as I did (3 months) was because of the dog Suzie. She was loads more helpful than any of the other “therapies” that were provided. Admin were often incredibly cruel to us and they would target specific clients. I was often called attention seeking for just trying to get my basic needs met, but I was also called attention seeking when I would not reach out. Like what am I supposed to do at that point? Towards the end I was having nightmares about administrative staff, having mental breakdowns secretly each night so as not to draw attention to myself, and self harming. I have so much trauma that has come out of me being here that I will have to work through in therapy. Also, during the summer they didn’t get the garbage or recycling taken out for 4 weeks and I was told by an admin staff that it was because she’d rather get paid than the trash picked up. At the time of my departure, the dryer had been out of commission for 5 weeks. There was often an intense mold/mildew smell coming from the basement that never really got addressed. I did give this facility two stars simply because I have sadly been worse places. I was the only client there at the time of my stay that was there of their own free will, and I wish I had left before things got so bad. I know most people who end up here do not end up here by choice—but if you are looking into sending a client here please do your research and assess if this is the right fit, because some of the “treatment” provided by staff was borderline abusive.

I really liked this place, staff was great. Groups were great! Peers were awesome! But if you are experiencing a mental health crisis i wouldn't trust phoenix house to help you. So I recommend this place IF you think you will be stable! If you have serious mental health problems I don't recommend at all! If you are in a crisis and get violent (some people do when they are not in the right mind set and they don't mean to)you get charge.