Valley Vista
Bradford, VT
$1000/day, takes insurance.
*background info*
I had had a hydrocodone problem that quickly escalated into an oxycodone problem, and had been using about 200-400 mg a day of oxy when I found heroin in the summer of 2013. I had started working in NH, and I found a few connects there plus my old connects in VT. For some reason, while I kept everything as under control as possible with my oxy use, I quickly spiraled out of control with heroin. I was using around 4 bundles/grams or 500-600 mg oxy (sniffed, not IV) a day, and drinking around 20-30 drinks a day before checking into rehab.
Valley Vista is in central VT on the NH border. Not far from the WRJ/Lebanon area (Upper Valley). I checked in around the end of Sept. I had been trying to get in for five days, but there were issues with my insurance, so I had had five straight nights were I went "all-out" figuring I'd be checking in the next day. I didn't sleep at all the night before. I went in at 11am, and hadn't used since probably 11pm the night before. They started me on a sub taper there, which took me 9 days to complete.
The facility was not bad. I had never been to rehab, nor have I since, so I have nothing to compare it to. They do men's, women's, and adolescent programs. They will do sub tapers, but I knew a few people there who went to a separate detox facility first. You have to participate in activities there, and lots of them, the whole day is scheduled and after your first three days mandatory. They will prescribe whatever else you are prescribed within reason, and will give clonidine (after BP check) or melatonin at night, other sleeping meds as well but I didn't want trazadone. There are a lot of groups and classes.
Smoking is allowed on scheduled breaks. No cell phones, laptops, iPods, clothes must not have holes and no alcohol/drug logos/reference. You will generally have 1-2 roommates unless they are not full. There are nurses 24/7 and a GP Monday-Friday 8-5 or something like that. You will have an assigned therapist who you meet with weekly.
It's a 12-step kind of place, AA/NA meetings every night in house, sometimes with a guest speaker. Lots of assigned "homework" on recovery material. The only real downtime is before 8am or after 9pm.
Visitors every weekend (children every other wknd), one 15 minute phone call every other day at assigned time (you can make phone calls to doctors, etc with permission at any time).
I had fun there. I had been working 60+ hours a week for 10 years straight, and even more than that for the previous few months, and I was completely exhausted. Being there was like a vacation. Decent food, and nothing to worry about since there was no possible way to get H while I was there. Honestly, it's possible that someone may have been able to sneak it in while visiting, but more likely that they or I would get caught. They do check all of your belongings before you can have them.
All in all, I'd say they have a good program, I only have two complaints. The first is more personal but could be a potential issue for others: my insurance decided to stop covering treatment after is been there 2 weeks. My insurance (CIGNA) required weekly authorizations every Monday, and after the second one, they told the rehab that I was only covered through Thursday morning. That was my 16th day. Since my bupe taper was drawn out over 9 days (not typical, most are 4-6 days, but my use was high), I was actually still in withdrawal when I had to leave rehab. I technically "graduated" (completed the program), but I was still sick, which led to a literally instant relapse. The second complaint I had plays I to this: they will not prescribe you suboxone to leave with. After my taper, I decided I wanted to stay on suboxone, because I have pain issues which both started my use and trigger my use. They gave me all the time I needed to find a suboxone dr on the outside, but in my area, the first appointment I was able to get was a month later. They will not prescribe suboxone to get you through a month, or even a week. If you have an appointment lined up within maybe 2-3 days, they will keep you on bupe and script you a couple days, but otherwise, you are SOL. These two factors combined directly led to my relapse.
However, I feel under normal circumstances, the treatment would have been successful. Even though I relapsed the day after I got out, I did learn a lot to help me through. Once I was able to find a suboxone dr (I ended up moving and had to find a different one), I was able to stay clean for the most part. I think that if I hadn't been sick when I left (or if I had bupe), I would have had a much better chance, but it's more of an insurance issue than an issue with the rehab.
Out of five stars, I'd give them say 3.5. The program really helped me start living like a normal person again, which was something I had really been struggling with during my prior attempts to get clean. I had gotten clean probably over 100 times on my own, but I had no idea what to do next. Waking up in the morning (as opposed to whenever I felt like it), showering daily, brushing me teeth, eating regularly... All the things people do without ever thinking about it were things that had been lost to my drug use. The structure of the program got me back into a routine, so that even though I relapsed when getting out, I was able to keep a normal lifestyle again, especially after I did ultimately get clean three months later after finding a suboxone dr. I would highly recommend to those reading, that when choosing a rehab, you choose one that is fairly structured, especially if you have the same issue of not knowing how to live a normal life anymore.