Story and Photos by Theresa-Marie Wilson ~
The first residential drug and alcohol treatment center of its kind on the Central Coast has opened its doors. The Haven at Pismo offers people battling addiction a safe place to start their path to recovery.
The Haven is owned by investor Ari Hirt of Tikva Treatment but is operated under the Ken Starr Wellness Group with Dr. Starr serving as Medical Director. It offers a detox facility as well as separate male and female residential treatment homes, outpatient care and services for co-occurring disorders.
“There is a dying desperate need of individuals in our community that are fighting addiction all over,” said Clinical Director Julianna Bachitt. “Alcohol is prevalent, always has been, but opiates are such a rise right now, that it is an epidemic.”
The residential treatment facilities look like a luxury hotel or spa rather than what might come to mind when most think of a drug and/or alcohol addiction treatment center.
At one of the residential homes on the Mesa, two decks with plush outdoor furniture overlook miles of agriculture land in Arroyo Grande and Oceano that extends all the way to the dunes, and on a clear day, perhaps provides a glimpse of the ocean. Rooms are available with walk-in closets and Jacuzzi tubs while the open area of the home has two welcoming sitting rooms and a full-service kitchen complete with an in-house chef.
The amenities are only a small part of what The Haven offers clients looking to renew their lives free of addiction. From acupressure, massage, and adventure therapy, which includes surfing and skydiving, to art therapy, equine assisted and hypnotherapy, they provide evidence-based treatments, such as behavioral therapy, and customized holistic therapies for complete healing.
“We are incorporating full holistic therapies along with evidence-based therapies,” said Bachitt, who has been sober for the past 11 years. “This level of care you can’t get unless you go to passages in Malibu (which runs about $80,000 a month). It is luxury treatments at affordable prices. They have three-to-four groups a day that they are doing plus the holistic therapy, exercise, and meditation. That is what brings it a whole new perspective; it’s not just a one model type of recovery. Everybody recovers differently. We want to bring a buffet of therapies.”
The Haven offers the standard 30-, 60-, or 90- day programs and takes insurance to help cover the cost of $30,000 a month, which Bachitt said is often covered by affordable healthcare insurance.
“It is kind of for the blue-collar worker,” Bachitt said. “Addiction doesn’t have discrepancies on who it affects. It can affect me and you, an officer, or the guy under a bridge; it doesn’t care. When people come to us that are broken, hurt and shattered, it is imperative for us to care for that individual and meet them person to person, rather than as a meal that is run through the same routine. We want it to be personalized and for them to feel good for the first time in maybe a long, long time.”
Bachitt said locally, opiate use and addiction are on the rise in 18 to 35-year-olds. Over the age of 50, alcohol is more prevalent.
The Haven staff includes certified drug and alcohol councilors, a marriage family therapist a social worker, a psychiatrist and Dr. Starr, who specialized in the medical treatment of substance abuse and dependence and is an ER physician and Sierra Vista in San Luis Obispo. They treat people over 18 years of age.
“The Wellness Center has a great reputation in general and so now The Haven is coming on, and the patients will receive that same kind of care,” Bachitt said.
The Haven can treat up to 22 people at a time, but they will turn down clients that don’t appear to be good candidates.
“Everyone is screened even if they are court ordered,” Bachitt said. “If I interview them and pick up that they don’t want to be here, and I’m going to be able to tell, then I am not going to take them. They have to want it. You have to meet certain standards, and nobody is going to get well if they are made to get well. The bottom line is, you want it or you don’t. I tell people, ‘If you want the cake, follow the recipe’ There are so many people fighting this.”
Asked if the luxury of the surroundings could be a potential problem for a person who might not be returning to similar surrounding after treatment, Bachitt said, no.
“Our clinicians and councilors incorporate a really balanced exit plan,” Bachitt said. “Though it is luxurious, they have chores to do. So they have a chef, they have to clean up after themselves. The reason it is luxurious, the reason we want something that is nice, is to show people what they are worth. It is going to be nice, but they will be held accountable.”
At the end of the day, Bachitt said the most important part of any treatment program is to change how the addict sees their self-worth.
“They have lived in so much shame and guilt by the destruction of their own doings, that they have no self-esteem, they have no worth,” Bachitt said. “To be able to put them in a healing place that makes them feel safe where they can be honest without judgment and pamper them a little bit, kind of love them back to wellness, but still with that personal responsibility and accountability, is number one.”
For more information, visit thehavenatpismo.org or call the office at 202-3440. The Haven’s office is located inside Ken Starr’s Arroyo Grande office at 107 Nelson St., suite 102.
