Henry Ohlhoff Skip Byron Primary Program

***update 6/​10/​2016***
As an alumni I recently returned to the campus to visit the MD there for a scheduled appointment, and was met by the aforementioned program director (Andrew K) only to be berated, insulted and removed from campus. He indicated I was unwelcome but would not specify why, and I am unsure as to why he felt it necessary to behave like a petulant, angry child — but I can assure you myself or my family will never return to this facility. Andrew is like the essence of an over-​the-​hill, angry, dry-​drunk, and at every next turn puts his aggressive and angry personality on display for all to see. I would recommend all to stay far away from this individual and be aware that he is a walking contradiction of the tenets of recovery and the principles of sober living. I am far from the only person to have been on the receiving end of him, and have personally been told tales both from staff and clients about his outrageous behaviors. I have now downgraded my review to 1 star and warn all others to stay well away from this fellow. As mentioned, there are alot of of decent and even great facets to this program, however as you know the saying, one bad apple…
***original review***
I just completed a 30 day inpatient treatment program at the Skip Byron Primary Program and while the experience was decent, there were some noteworthy problems there.
I found the daily programming and education to be reasonable, and in addition to 6 – 8 hours a day of group meetings and instruction, we also visited outside AA/​NA meetings. The program is based on the program of AA and the 12 steps are the core of the program.
The house and grounds are very nice having Victorian architecture and some gardens, but the interior is lacking and several rooms show their age, and are not very clean — there are large amounts of dust and dirt embedded in the rugs and carpets (in addition to it looking like there hasnt been any kind of «deep clean» in years), and several people including myself suffered bites all over their bodies which we believe to be bedbugs. Staff dismissed this as mosquitoes, although we are in the wrong time of year for this.
The food is quite decent and there are chefs on premises every day to cook a variety of american, italian and mediterranean dishes in addition to snacks that are always available. You certainly wont starve there and certain dishes are very good, however full of sodium and fat content — you will be subject to weight gain without extended exercise!
The staff is comprised of ex-​addicts and alcoholics who are in recovery. They are a nice lot with some having greater degree of teaching faculty than others. One primary issue I found though was that there is a fair amount of disorganization. Because of poor communication amongst them and a curriculum that is not defined very well, there are inconsistent sets of rules that are basically enforced differently by each staff member. Additionally it happens very often that there is confusion about scheduling and group times. I found that it was often troublesome to find when and where groups were, what the content would be, and also it was difficult to always follow rules because different staff enforced them differently.
And amongst staff there are some more «difficult» personalities than others. One is the onsite R.N., who while nice enough, tends to be very overbearing, presumptuous and downright rude to both clients and families. Several clients and even staff members have had difficulties with her because she can be inappropriate and speaks very much out of turn. The most egregious member I found was (of all people) the Director. He seems to need more 12 step work or perhaps a 30-​day program of his own — he can often be found having temper tantrums and scolding clients while even using profane language. Unfortunately the entire staff seem to be terrified of him so he is somewhat without reproach. I have personally had a few incidents where I was downright lied to and then threatened to be kicked out of the program for questioning this dishonesty. He has also been known to break client confidentiality and report what he perceives as suspicious behavior to employers, family members and other contacts of clients. While he has a difficult job, he does not seem to handle it well and is constantly angry and berating clients and staff members. In my opinion he should be removed. With that aside, other staff are quite friendly and pleasant to be around which can make the program enjoyable.
In the interests of brevity I will cut the review short here, but I think you have started to get a god idea of the SBPP — it is a decent but flawed program, where the primary issues are the cleanliness of the facility, and moreover the disorganization amongst staff and poor attitudes and behavior of some. Overall I would find it a bit hard to whole-​heartedly recommend it because of those shortcomings but would like to point out that it is not all bad.