08/13/2023
The Manchester NH opioid epidemic is profitable for rehabs and sober houses who treat their clients like sources of income.
My name is Nicolas Simons. I am a former meth/op**te/coke/crack/alcohol abuser that moved to Manchester NH from Florida in 2017.
Having left the drug lifestyle behind me, while attending college for Behavioral Science at MCC, I started volunteering at Hope for NH Recovery in February of 2019.
In April 2020, during COVID I founded a nonprofit named Recovery & Well-being NH for fun and to continue volunteering during the pandemic somehow & someway. The nonprofit was an experiment of sorts and was never intended to be anything other than an extension of my newfound love of being a contributing member of society and an outgrowth of my frustration
with being stuck at home without an outlet to serve my community.
I got hired to be an employee of Hope for NH Recovery in July of 2020.
I resigned from Hope in February of 2021 while on paid furlough because I knew I didn't want to return to working there. My reasoning was that my conscience didn't agree with their dedication to collecting and selling their members' data and their lack of concern for ethics or the actual welfare of their members (who didn't and still don't realize that Hope for NH Recovery has no anonymity clause).
In June of 2022, I started doing independent research on Farnum Rehab, Families in Transition IOP & OP, and Richie's Recovery sober house. I went undercover and posed as an active drug abuser and completed a residency at Farnum. I also completed the IOP & OP program at Families in Transition. I tried to live at Richie's Recovery for as long as I could, but it was too easy for me to go home and spend my time there away from the corruption I was witnessing at that business for profit.
After completing a residency at Farnum Rehab I began hosting different types of recovery meetings at Hope for NH Recovery. At one point, I had nine people volunteering to help me. This lasted for seven months as I continued to observe the Manchester Recovery Community from within. I heard dozens of individual accounts of people's experiences in the sober house community. I do not collect funds for my nonprofit services and I was unable to to afford to rent the space required for me to serve my community through Hope for NH Recovery.
My experiences are this: every aspect of these businesses failed to live up to the basic ethical standards associated with the word "reputable." The clients were treated like customers that were filling a bed or a seat and very little effort was made by the employees in this industry to ensure their clients were receiving the quality care required for them to make drastic life changes. It was all a hustle, basically. Farnum rehab's motto might as well have been this: "At Farnum, we'll treat you better than family. In fact, we'll keep your snacks ready, your big fluffy bed warm for you, and even stash a couple of ci******es aside for you to enjoy after your next relapse, all thanks to Medicaid."
Living in Florida for 25 years and being heavily involved in the drug user/abuser and drug dealing lifestyle for 24 years gave me unique insight.
In my opinion, I've seen many street level drug dealers that had better ethics than Hope, Farnum, FiT, and a majority of the sober houses I received feedback on from members of the Manchester Recovery Community.
Completing Behavioral Science classes and Recovery Coach training gave me more unique insight.
During the period of time I was doing research, I did not witness one single clinician from Farnum or FiT attempt to ensure their clients understood the self-applied, evidence-based behavioral therapies being presented to them. Farnum would apologize to their clients for having to present behavioral therapies, but presenting 3 Principles doesn't qualify them to receive state funding. Clients were allowed to sleep at the tables from 9am to 11am Monday through Friday while the behavioral therapies were being presented (not discussed).
It was saddening to see many of the clients attending FiT's OIP program look at their phones the entire time they were present and still graduate having only accomplished filling the seat they sat in while they were there. It was sad because a lot of these people were required to complete the IOP & OP programs so they could gain custody of their children back.
I stayed in close contact with over 20 people that I met during this research and I can report one success story that I'm aware of and even they can't explain what DBT, CBT, or REBT is, much less how to apply it to their lives.
My experience in the rehab/sober house industry in Manchester NH was reminiscent of my experience in the op**te pill mill epidemic in Florida, in that the lack of professional ethics was consistent. However, most pill abusers were paying their pain management doctors and pharmacies with cash from the sales of the drugs they obtained from the doctors and pharmacies. The people flipping the bill for the unethical practices I witnessed in the rehab/sober house industry were NH taxpayers. The entire process was funded with taxpayer's money and the clients were the clinicians and their employer's cash cows.
The people getting hustled were not just the NH taxpayers. The clients were getting hustled because they were receiving less than quality care and the children of the clients receiving the shoddy services are the most innocent victims, in my opinion.
This research went on for nine months. The end result for me personally was a massive depression and a feeling of uselessness to make a difference in my community.
I'm just now getting involved in my community again through volunteering my labor at a local nonprofit that feeds the homeless.
Thank you for your time
