META HOUSE RIVERWEST CAMPUS NORTH

The residency program does not work with, acknowledge, or respect family. There does not seem to be any consideration for the whole health of recovering residents. They refuse to communicate anything - care plans, timelines, coordinate medical and mental health appointments with the family/caregiver. This adds more, and unnecessary, stress to a highly emotional and uncertain situation. They claim to be used to family not being involved. The behavior of the head residential clinician indicates a targeted goal of alienating family from being involved. They also only allow visits from children below a certain age. Not from other family, caretakers or emotional support people. Meta House came highly recommended, but if this is the best Milwaukee has to offer, I will remain deeply disappointed. Two stars because my person likes the food there. Otherwise, one star for their overall treatment of me as a close relative and caretaker.

I did not personally stay here.( I overheard conversations over the phone). However, their staff needs more education on how to treat the residents. The residents who live there are struggling with enough mental, emotional, and physical stress. The staff is supposed to "HELP REDUCE" Not escalate the stress. FALSELY ACCUSING A RESIDENT SHOULD COME WITH CONSEQUENCES! TALKING DOWN TO A RESIDENT SHOULD COME WITH CONSEQUENCES. Meta house has a book of rules for the residents and micro manages their clients. Yes rules are necessary and should have consequences, when not followed. Staff should have rules as well and be monitored as strictly as the client rules. I'm disgusted by the abundance of ignorant employees, Meta house pays to be disrespectful and lacking in empathy. They should thank their lucky stars I'm not in charge!

Very very dirty facility, poorly trained/educated staff. They control women's behavior with food. ie, if the staff (with rapid turnover) catches a woman being good, you get a token, 4 tokens earns you a creamer for the one cup of coffee you're allowed per day. (Which is served from the office for 30 minutes per day.) If you're a bad girl, you get a punishment token. You are not allowed to eat when you're hungry- only certain times. (except for a few snacks: seemingly old hard boiled eggs or mostly rotten fruit) No pop, treats or kindness from the staff. They do not accommodate any special dietary needs and they have no medical knowledge or training.There is one functioning (really dirty) phone shared amongst 20 women and they misplaced at least one of my meds EVERY DAY. The staff freely eats chips, candy, treats, pizza, takeout etc in front of the women who are given plates of the cheapest carb loaded and often expired by weeks or longer food available. My room was robbed the first day as there are no door locks- "staff" enter at will, Better than prison, worse than a halfway house, about equal to jail.

Meta House has saved my life, and more than once. I chose to go there a second time as I knew the work I had to put in personally would be required of me there, and knew that not being treated as if there was something ‘wrong’ with me was especially important to me to get through and over such a shameful time in my life. It makes me very sad to see others who had negative things to say about Meta House; whether it be their residential, sober bridge housing, or outpatient treatment. They make it clear that you are in charge to make the decisions for yourself in your recovery process… and that they will not do it for you. Nor will they give in to complaints about something that has been proven to work for so many others. I found that when I had issues accepting the way things work there- residential or sober housing- it was something wrong in me that I, personally, needed to take a look at. If you do what you’re supposed to do, treat it as a GREAT opportunity, as it truly is, and act first, you will succeed. I have known the staff for nearly ten years, and any sort of mistreatment from them is unheard of. Well, unless it’s false accusations. It takes much much more than 30-60 days to recover from an addiction, especially when there’s mental health issues to daily recover from as well. They lead and YOU do the work! They support while YOU make choices for your own life. It’s a respectful and kind and understanding place. Robyn runs housing like a well-oiled clock, which is a huge task with so many women and all of them having self-admitted issues. The treatment model used here is Nationally recognized. It works if you DO the work yourself. I do refer, and will always refer, anyone I know in need of their services to Meta House. Others, especially in Southeastern WISCONSIN, can’t compare. I’ve tried. Many with negative words or attitudes about them are probably using again right now or back in treatment somewhere, or even back at Meta House. Life saving!

So I was in residential for about 6 months. My therapist was amazing. I didn’t care for her at first but towards the end I realized how much I’ve grown and become a better person because of her help. Only thing I think they need to work on is who they hire for staff. Some of the staff were amazing and some were just as bad as some of the other gossip girls in treatment. And as for the housing community I was there for 1 year and at first I had different therapist for about a month or so and then she left for a better job and I got a different therapist who I actually liked at first but towards the end I was really glad to be done with her. Also I think that they need to work on helping girls with housing resources after their time us up at housing. I was grateful to have a friend to stay with when my time was up. And luckily got my own place a month after that. Also want to shout out Cindy the front desk lady at Outpatient! She was amazing and always made my day! And the GED teacher Lashawn was amazing as well! I got my GED because she never gave up on me! And so I’m grateful for being able to accomplish everything I did because of meta house but they need to work on a few things. And work on the bullying that happens in residential and outpatient from other girls in treatment. I was bullied in residential and outpatient and when I brought it up to my therapist, staff, or my peer support nothing was done. And I don’t want any future girls to go through that. Other then that I’m grateful for being able to do the program and become the person I am now !