Paradigm TreatmentReviews of paradigmmalibu.com

Facility Really nice, no complaints. Even from the defiant child that did not want to be there! Therapists We thought highly of our two therapists (group and individual). They clearly cared, although communication was guarded. Lots of flowery talk and positivity (during updates), but in the end we realized they were minimizing issues to not worry us. Which made the shock of how they abruptly chose to kick our child out that much worse. Also, they did call CPS on us because we restrained our child prior to treatment (when throwing things through windows , etc). Turned out to be an inconvenience only. CPS lady was really annoyed her time was being wasted by the report, but I’m sure that is the right protocol. Once you get over the embarrassment, not a big deal, so don’t worry even if your kid likes to make stuff up too. Site Program Director – Tim H If I can fault Paradigm for anything on the treatment side, it is with Tim. He’s a younger guy (or I am old!) and I think he oversold his “experience”. Short version is Paradigm got sick of my explosive child threatening to self harm and they planned to kick our child out. (Fine, trust me, used to it by now and I get it, they can’t continue to assume the words are for shock value) Tim calls me one Friday evening (I’m east coast) and tells me I need to be there (west coast) the NEXT morning. I find someone to take my other kids and somehow make it on a plane 8 hours from Tim's first call. I begged Tim to wait until I got there to tell my kid about being expelled. He tells me they will separate my child from the group and wait for me to come, but he will help explain because he’s an “expert” at this kind of thing. Well, I was literally on the LA tarmac taxiing to the gate and for some reason they decided to just go ahead and break the news WITHOUT ME PRESENT. I guess to Tim I am no expert in with my own child (**heavy sarcasm**), but predictably, said child went nuclear, threatened self harm so they called cops who tackled and cuffed my 120lb tween. They stuffed my child in an ambulance and put on a 3 day “hold” at the local small hospital. I was driving in the rental car to them in Malibu when I got the call. I was that close!! Grrr. They did have someone stay with my child at the hospital until I got there 30 minutes later, but then all the belongings were dumped in the hospital lobby and at that point they go full corporate mode (say nothing, don’t get involved, cya bye!!) We spent 3 days in a cinderblock empty hospital room until the hold lifted. Then I guess it is some sort of law (policy?) where they would not discharge my child to me, but had to send my child on another ambulance ride to a place to determine my child was indeed NOT likely to self harm. All said and done, Tim’s mismanagement / bad “expert” decision making cost us: • 3 days confinement • 2 x 20 minute hospital rides @ $4000 EACH out of pocket. NOT a typo. (Out of network on the other side of the country…who knew?) For my child, FAFO I guess, but it was 1000% unnecessary and that is ALL on Tim. I TOLD him, but “trust me, I’m an expert” he says. Looks like someone from Paradigm is now reading / responding to reviews so maybe they can get the feedback to Tim. He needs to know the consequences of his choices and this is my only way to share that, since Paradigm is the only medical place I’ve ever used that does NOT want to get feedback on their service. I go get for to my doc for an annual physical and I get 10 surveys. Send my kid into someone else’s care across the country and nope, no need to improve apparently. Financials Can’t say I was shocked because when we were on here researching for my child, another reviewer had complained AT LENGTH (but professionally) about how shady the Paradigm (Altior) Finance team was and our experience was every bit the same in the end. Really odd that I don’t see that post here anymore…. Anyway, if your house is in crisis, you probably don’t care about $$$, and I get it. But you should be aware: 1) They do a really good job getting insurance submittals and handling all that. Nestor was great. Admissions person was good too (name slips my mind now) 2) If you need to pay them up front (because you are in crisis and need an option) expecting to get reimbursed from them later when insurance pays, you WILL experience MAJOR headaches as a parting gift. It took over 9 months to get a check back for an overpayment of < $5k. After 3 months I have in writing that they agree they owe it. But, again, consistent with what the other father had written, I must have written and called 100 times. It wasn’t until I had to threaten lawyers, CC them on emails to the regulator (DHCS) that they started to respond. Then it was always some excuse to delay it, delay it, delay it. Recommendation If you read this far, check out Evolve up in nearby Augora Hills. Sadly, same outcome, but treated us really, really well.

One of the worst things about the facility is they make you pre-pay the entire stay upfront before insurance will pay. At $2000 a day this is no small amount When you consider a 6 week stay. When they want to be paid they are very attentive and will return all phone calls and emails. Now picture after you’ve gone through two years of insurance wrangling especially during Covid and they get paid with US treasury checks for more than the full amount of the stay. Two months later you don’t have a refund! And you know those US treasury checks did not bounce!! And during the whole insurance review process they are not helpful at all. They do not return most emails. They will not let you know the claim number. It takes at least five tries to get them to even cooperate. Honestly it ruins the whole experience— no one has money to play games like this. 2 months after they were paid they have not returned the money. Go read the better business bureau complaints- this is a common paradigm practice. We will continue to step through the process- complaints with bb, attorney general- but this should not be necessary if the business would act in good faith

It is a difficult decision to admit yourself or a loved one into residential treatment. There are so many factors to consider. We admitted our 15-year-old to Paradigm in Malibu in May of 2021 and our teenager was discharged in June. I will break my review into three parts: treatment, facility, financial experience. The most difficult part was wondering if Paradigm was capable of helping our child. There were two benefits our child received while at Paradigm; containment from self-harming and getting on the right medicine that has helped. It remains to be determined if another program would have helped in the same way. The therapists that worked with our kid were just ok. The primary therapist was better at talking than listening. Our family therapist was very sweet but not strong enough to manage our teenager. Our teenager benefited from the group therapy at Paradigm. One thing I would like to caution parents about is the whole “troubled teen” industry that Paradigm is a part of. Many of the teens that go through Paradigm do not come home. Many discharge to therapeutic boarding schools or wilderness programs. Sometimes this happens after hours and they come to Paradigm to take unknowing kids away to their next program. This was very traumatic for our child to witness. Indeed, Paradigm very strongly recommended that our teenager go to a therapeutic boarding school. We listened to our instincts, though, and brought our kid home and did a few weeks at PHP. This was six months ago. Our child is happy, back at in-person public school, playing competitive sports, getting excellent grades, spending time with friends, and thriving with individual and group therapy sessions. Next, the property/facilities. I did not personally visit Paradigm since my husband admitted and discharged our child. And he was not allowed into the building due to Covid protocol. Our teenager seemed to be comfortable at the facility, enjoyed many of the activities, and liked the food that was provided. Finally, I would like to address the horrific financial and accounting practices at Paradigm. As if having a child in residential treatment isn’t hard enough, the shoddy financial methods at Paradigm will absolutely bring you to your knees. Paradigm required us to pre-pay for services and insisted they would submit claims to both of our insurance companies. Paradigm promised to refund our money based on insurance reimbursement. Prior to admitting our child, we had read a few reviews complaining about the financial process at Paradigm. When we brought this up before admitting our teenager, the financial manager, Debora Garcia, swore up and down that these complaints had been addressed, there was a new owner of the company, and she “gave us her word” that all financial matters would be above board and dealt with in a timely manner. Let me say, that this was a complete and utter lie. Once Paradigm collected our money, we never heard from them. If we had a question about insurance claims or payments, we would have to call and email a minimum of 3 times to get a response. Most of the times we received a response, it was because we begged, pleaded, and sometimes even threatened in an effort to get them to respond to our calls or emails. Getting our refund has been a miserable process. Paradigm has come up with constant smoke and mirrors as to why they can not provide the correct refund. We have received only a partial refund and are in an ugly disagreement with Paradigm regarding the remainder of the refund that is due. The bottom line: if you are concerned about the money and cost of Paradigm, and I mean A LOT of money, do not choose Paradigm. There are plenty of other residential programs to choose from.