Palmerton Place – Buffalo

highly abusive experience. since you are a minor, you cannot just leave. they become your guardians and if police pick you up after you run away then they will return you. they would wake us up in the middle of the… night and make us sit on hard chairs in a circle ( only the edge) and sit there for as long as it took for someone to “confess” to something. you weren’t allowed to eat, go to the bathroom, or talk during this activity. sometimes we would sit there for hours upon hours until someone eventually confessed to something. Usually some thing that was made up to get us out of it. Also, there was an activity called “hot seat” where one resident would sit in a chair at the front of the group and the other residents would tell you everything that is wrong with you. we weren’t allowing to say anything good. this led to yelling, crying and traumatic experiences for the resident who was focused on. the meaner you are, the more favor you incurred with staff. if you were found to have done anything wrong, which could be anything at all including made up rules, you had to be in “blackout”. which is where you had to sit in a dark room away from everyone else, in front of the wall. you could not talk, eat and could only use the bathroom when they said. this punishment could last for weeks if they said so. you would sit there with your AA book in the dark and stare at the wall from morning until bed time. there was one time where they discovered one resident allowed another to use her hair brush. the staff went around to every room with a large garbage bag and took away all makeup, hair brushes, combs, shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, perfume, tampons, soap and everything else you use on a daily basis to get yourself ready for the day. these items were gone for almost two months. during this time, the staff would laugh and make fun of us because we smelled and looked awful. this was one of the most traumatizing experiences i had there. i will never forget it. i never felt so low. also, the food that they served was discarded food brought in from the food bank. everything was old and expired. if you wanted to eat an apple, you had to cut off the rotten parts first. each parent was paying an astronomical amount each month in tuition and they were feeding us rotten food. parents never saw the living areas or daily activities, they were weren’t allowed to. the counselors and staff put on a facade. if you tried to tell your parents about anything that happened there, they would tell your parents the kid is lying to be able to go back to the streets and get high. all correspondence to the outside was monitored. the only telephone was at the front desk and staff would sit there waiting to hit the hang up button if you said anything they didn’t like or tried to tell your parents what was going on. correspondence with the outside was not allowed until you had been there around four months and they could revoke it at any time. the only way to leave the facility was to graduate from it. there was no set time on how long it took to graduate. for some girls it took one and a half years, for others it took four or five…or you never graduated and became an adult and could leave on your own finally. the amount of time you spent there was determined by your counselor and staff. they would hold it over your head and torture you with the fact that they can increase your stay whenever they want. they would add more time to your stay for any reason they wanted. rules were in place so that you couldn’t bond with the other residents. two people were not allowed to talk alone without a third watching. they wanted to keep you from making friends and keep you isolated so that you were more easily influenced and brain washed. you were always encouraged to tell on other residents and would be rewarded for it. i still regard this as the worst experience of my life, i still despise my parents for sending me and not believing me when i begged for help.

Worst rehab I've ever seen. Kids are unsupervised and end up leaving and not getting the help. They let my son walk out. No one stopped him. He came back and they kicked him out of the program.

not even able to put what’s wrong with this place into words.

Terrible environment mentally scarred me

I did coke

Exellent staff that are caring and willing to help your child and family during the recovery process.

I put 3 stars because I have not been there but going Thursday as an AA member to lend support. I first went to rehab at 33 in 1985 at Stuzman's and hated it but loved the 28 days of a play to finally stop drinking.… Back then you only got one month not the 3 they give today. I know one girl that stayed 18 months which is not healthy to live in a confined environment that long and think you can deal with the outside world. But they do take the clients to AA which is their biggest help with hooking up with people on the outside to contact when they leave. I have been in recovery for 31 yrs and bring these kids has shocked me how young they start. 8 yrs old is not uncommon. Typical age 14. To get a teenager to listen and learn is a hard job for any rehab so kudos to them and that they are among their peers and meeting people their own age that share a common problem is all part of the recovery so know matter what negative is on this site, there are a hundred more reasons for your child to be there. I was told when i was there that out of 33 of us, 5 would make it for a year, and 2 for more than 2 yrs and one may get it but whatever time you have all helps in the process.

Horrible experience. My daughters counselor is very detached and bored acting. My daughter will need counseling to heal from this place. I am thoroughly disgusted with Stepping Stones. My heart is broken, they really… suck.

The work done here on behalf of children is so important. The education provided is so helpful. The counseling is productive. Hope, education and healing are all available. Any program will have flaws-but the bigger… picture is doing real work with addicted children and their families..can't be easy for staff. Shannon is excellent and is the main contact for me. I'm very impressed and grateful.

I was at the stepping stones girls treatment facility for a little over 3 months. I got NOTHING out of this place besides pissed off. The counselors are fat lazy slobs whose only interest is collecting a paycheck and… they made it obvious. They did not prepare me for a real sober adult life at all. Maybe if I was 12 but I was 18. They shelter the kids so much from situations you will have to face in real life, boys and girls aren't even allowed to speak to each other! The only people who were allowed to visit were mom dad and siblings, so maybe if I was going to live with my parents forever and never get a job or do anything with my life but I don't think most kids plan to do that. Most of the time is spent there sitting around on a couch or in your room. The main focus of groups was girl fights and drama going on between the girls, not sobriety. I relapsed very hard after I awol'd out of there because I couldn't take it anymore. I am now clean and sober with a baby boy, but no thanks to them. I did it on my own. The truth is no rehab or amount of money you spend on yourself or child can force them to change, they need to be ready to do it themselves.

Absolutely horrible. I was there for less than 24 hours and I already felt like I was being brainwashed and developing Stockholm Syndrome so I ran out. Please find your children better rehabilitation centers.