Avenues Recovery Center at Eastern Shore — Local services in Cambridge

I would give them minus 10 stars if I could. Disgraceful. My daughter went there yesterday. What a mistake. First of all the pictures on google and on their website are NOT representative of this location. That should be considered fraud. The reception area is clean, but not where the actual patients are kept. It's filthy and unsanitary. The food is also unfit for people. They claim they only put two people in each room, but they had two other people in the dirty room with her. They did not bother to give her her meds the first (and only) night she was there (before I had to rescue her). My daughter called me shortly after she arrived (before she had to surrender her phone) and told me how bad it was. (she was there voluntarily - she wasn't just giving up, she actually wanted help) They told her to give it a night and if she still felt the same in the morning, I could come and get her. They spent most of the day trying to persuade her to stay and refusing to allow her to call me or give her own phone back to her. Around 2 in the afternoon they told her she could call me to pick her up. I live 90 minutes away which they were made aware of. At that time, they gave her back her phone and took her to the stop sign at the entrance of the facility and dumped her.... in the rain. They told her she could come back to get her personal stuff (clothing, medication, mandatory cash she had to give them for co-pays, etc.,) when I got there. She decided to walk to a nearby fast food place to get out of the rain. What kind of recovery facility dumps a person with mental and substance abuse problems out in the rain? Why would they not let her sit in the reception area??? Why didn't they give her her personal things at that time? When I finally got there, I picked her up and we went back to Avenues. (She had to stand at the door in the rain trying to get someone's attention. I called to try to get someone to acknowledge her, but no one ever bothers to pick up the phone.) They had packed up her personal things, which is inappropriate. She should have been allowed to gather her own belongings. I told her to make sure she had everything, especially her meds and her money. Her meds were there but not her cash. She let them know. She was told the accounting person is only there until 4:30 so we would have to come back. I am not driving 3 hours roundtrip for $25. I got out of the car to speak to the woman who gave her her stuff and she shut the door and locked it then turned out the lights and told me I would have to call the police, which I did. We showed the officer the email they sent to my daughter which PLAINLY states that all of her belongings, meds and money would be returned to her upon discharge. The officer showed them the receipt they gave her for the cash as well as mentioned what the email stated. Between the 3 employees he was speaking with, apparently no one was competent enough to handle money or anything for that matter. Then yet another person appeared and handed her another bag with more of her belongings so who knows what else they missed. I called the main number and was told they would connect me to the director "Charlie". Surprise, surprise, he did not pick up. I called the main number again, again pressed 1 for intake and the same woman picked up. She was extremely rude and talked over me, telling me to have a great night in a smug tone. I called again and asked for her name and she told me she already said it. She did not. I asked again. She told me she did not have to tell me. She was on the phones between 4:30 and 7 and I WILL find out her name so she need not worry. I was calm at all times and I asked for nothing unreasonable. I let them know I would be reviewing them on google, filing a complaint with the Health Department, the NAATP, and Maryland Attorney General. One down, 3 to go. I do not bluff. Their staff is going to find this out the hard way. DO NOT GO HERE IF YOU WANT HELP FOR YOUR ISSUES OR TO BE TREATED...

There’s a recent wave of 1-star reviews. These aren’t a reflection of the care Avenues provides. They stem from a coordinated campaign by a former staff member upset by their termination, who’s recruiting alumni, friends, and family to post negative reviews.

I joined the Eastern Shore management team in July after nearly four years with Avenues in Southern Maryland. Since the beginning of last year, 1,271 individuals have successfully completed treatment at Avenues ES. That number is both astounding and humbling. But our next frontier is raising every department to a standard of excellence in clinical care that Avenues is known for—ensuring that the highest level of clinical treatment is accessible to every person struggling with addiction.

Recovery is unimaginably hard. You will uncover layers and depths that led to a dependency on a substance. Our team will challenge you to turn the mirror internally any time you attempt to deflect from the vulnerability and pain it takes to sit with the discomfort of your addiction. Individual, family, and group therapy sessions won’t be just smiles and high-fives- doing real process work to heal is grueling. You also won’t have control over your schedule, your roommates, the thermostat, and the menu. And- you won’t have access to your typical method of coping: alcohol or drugs. Instead, our staff will challenge you to find your inner substance, in way that will propel you to lasting and enriching life of recovery.

Does this review-bombing campaign hurt? Yes. If even one person hesitates to seek help after reading false negativity, that’s a real tragedy. But here’s what won’t change: We will never compromise on integrity and our principles. We will never tolerate a staff member compromising on boundaries with alumni or clients. Not just because it violates our policies, but because our policies are there to protect the sobriety of our alumni and clients. We will protect the recovery of every individual that walks through our doors. Even if it results in getting review-bombed, boycotted, or targeted with fabricated complaints.

To alumni changing reviews from 5 stars to 1; attributing your recovery to a particular staff member or room: We failed you. We failed to deliver a clinical experience that brought to focus the only true factor that determines recovery: You.

We’re investing deeply to make sure the Avenues experience is the strongest it has ever been.

Since July, we’ve:

• Installed new executive leadership to herald in a culture of respect, accountability, and operational excellence • Hired a remarkably experienced Clinical Director to lead our treatment team • Added 2 incredible clinical supervisors • Expanded psychiatric mental health services with 2 new full-time providers • Fortified key positions across residential departments

We’ll continue to seek out and invite real feedback to swiftly identify any issues we need to change. We’re also endeavoring to ensure that all of our holistic offerings are robust, elite, and evidence-based. And we’re reconstructing our alumni programming with renewed vision and increased resources.

If you are struggling and considering treatment, know this:

We will do what is right for you, even when it is not popular.

We’ll invest heart and soul and fight harder than you for your recovery

We'll be there for you in the bleakest moments, and we'll celebrate when you rediscover joy, vitality, and inner substance. You can find...

This facility is blatantly racist. My family member was strategically ejected from this facility for a fight that never happened. A member receiving treatment claimed my family member assaulted her which never happened. My family members counselor sat down to discuss the accusation and informed my family member that assault is not tolerated. My family member agreed and explained that no assault took place and was thoroughly confused as to why someone would say this happened when it didn’t. The woman threatened my family member but nothing physical occurred between either of them. My family member attempted to put a grievance on file to document the threats they received and before it could be submitted, the counselor requested a sit down. During this sit down, it was explained to my family member that the counselor was told that my family member had a full on physical fight with someone else during group therapy at some point over the weekend and that all the group attendees and counselor are witnesses. My family member laughed at the accusation because no such event ever occurred. The accusation itself was laughable because as anyone would know, if such event had occurred, security would’ve been involved, my family member would’ve been ejected immediately, police would’ve been called, etc. My family member asked to see the footage of this altercation because it never occurred and they knew it hadn’t. They were told they would be discharged immediately. They packed all belongings and dropped my family member at the nearest shelter. There was no inquiry into what actually happened. There was no advocacy on behalf of my family member. There was no attempt at discovering the truth. Only false allegations to have my family member removed simply because my family member is not white, which is the majority of the population accepted at this facility. This is beyond low when it comes to human decency. The entire purpose of a counselor is to be your advocate, especially through this process of recovery. To abruptly be ejected from the program based on false allegations of misconduct and false allegations of assault is heart breaking. They deserved better treatment than to be lied on and discharged as a result of those lies. This facility needs to be reported for their behavior. Just looking at the population served, it was an immediate observation that only white people and the very obedient, submissive, servant like black people are accepted. If you don’t fit into either of those boxes, they will have you ejected for any reason they make up and without any evidence.

My family member was able to make it to a near by hospital where they expressed that they were just discarded by this facility and was told by security and staff of the hospital that this facility has been doing this exact thing for awhile. Ejecting mom white people from their program without any just cause and dumping those discarded on...