CRC REPLY TO 2012 SALON ARTICLE/LEVINE RESPONSE

MONDAY, JUL 23, 2012 03:45 PM EDT

CRC: Our treatment works

The health-treatment chain responds to a Salon story
by citing tens of thousands of success stories
DR. PHILIP L. HERSCHMAN
Art Levines article, Dark Side of a Bain Success, is inaccurate, unbalanced and
disheartening.

Mr. Levine makes treatment seem as though its about money. In fact, we believe its
about helping people the work- and life-changing treatment to help afflicted
children, spouses, individuals and families. The 30,000 individuals we serve each
day are just the tip of the iceberg. According to the U.S. Substance Abuse and
Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), there are 23 million Americans
who need but do not receive alcohol and drug abuse treatment. The failures of non-
intervention are disastrous. According to Department of Justice surveys, two-thirds
of arrestees test positive for illegal drugs. Drug abuse costs the nation tens of
thousands of deaths and according to the Research Triangle, $200 billion a year in
hospitalization, lost productivity and prison terms.

The article lacks journalistic balance. Although there are myriad examples and
success stories, Mr. Levine does not include anything from the thousands of our
clients who, after treatment, have repeatedly cited quality of care, understanding of
their addiction issues, and improved family relationships and trust. He failed to
interview referrals provided by CRC who had positive stories and, in the one
instance where he did, the positive testimonial was buried at the end of a very long
article. Mr. Levine failed to reference any of the extensive staff and top executive
interviews provided to him by CRC. Instead, the article relies extensively on
organizations that exist to criticize youth treatment programs, critics with no first-
hand knowledge of the events they purport to describe, and the selective
republication of erroneous information in earlier media reports. Mr. Levine also fails
to mention that we are prohibited by law from discussing specific cases or patient
care, while the critics and family members making allegations against CRC have
no such restraints. The net result: a sensational, politicized article that attempts to
draw broad conclusions from one-sided accounts of a handful of episodes over the
last 10-15 years.

Mr. Levine clearly began his reporting with a biased perspective, specifically
soliciting survivors of CRC and Aspens treatment programs to be his sources. The
vast majority of our estimated half a million clients served over our companys history
would tell of positive outcomes, as our surveys and numerous testimonials indicate,
yet Mr. Levine paid no attention to those. Instead, the article denigrates the
industrys own audits and surveys, including those bodies that accredit all
institutional health care providers in the country. We are apparently criticized for
having internal policing and criticized for not having it. Would Mr. Levine not have the
industry do everything possible? Would he have the industry not provide self-policing
and standards? The article remarks that there are no studies that show that
residential programs work, when in fact there is a body of research that clearly
shows there is an important place in the continuum of care for residential treatment
and the efficacy of all levels of care.

We work hard to provide the highest quality individual care and best scientific clinical
practices and have actively invested in these areas, as we relayed to Mr. Levine.

Some of what we told to him, but he neglected to include: we are the only provider in
this field to have a team of over 20 people solely dedicated to clinical quality that visit
every facility and conduct comprehensive reviews of clinical practices, delivery of
services, systems, operations, and policies and procedures, and make
enhancements wherever needed; we reinvest in the development of superior clinical
programming by sharing best practices and peer-developed solutions across
facilities; we collaborate with the leading experts in this field, other providers and
therapists to identify the latest evidence-based treatments; we have a Clinical
Advisory Board of established behavioral health industry experts to provide expert
guidance as we develop a cutting-edge treatment delivery system that encompasses
the latest innovations and research, our own CRC Treatment Model; we deployed a
Clinical Supervision System that was personally implemented by the leading expert
in this field; we implemented a Clinical Outcomes Management System and a new
system for administering patient satisfaction surveys that capture timely and candid
feedback from our most important audience; we have a Vice President of Quality
who conducts weekly quality meetings with the field to disseminate best practices.
 CRC is a recognized leader in this field and has ranked in the top three for overall
best practices by the MHCA (Mental Health Corporations of America). All of the
aforementioned efforts are above and beyond any state, federal or industry
mandated standards. And all of this was shared with Mr. Levine.

The bottom line is that as the nations largest behavioral health and substance abuse
treatment provider, CRC and its programs have long-been helping individuals and
families, addressing the enormous national drug crisis and helping people to lead
better, more productive lives. The only Dark Side to our work is that there is not
enough treatment provided in America to save every troubled soul with a behavioral
or substance abuse problem.

Dr. Philip L. Herschman is the chief clinical officer of CRC Health Group

***

http://www.theinvestigativefund.org/blog/1669/crc_cries_foul_and_art_levine_respon
ds/

CRC Cries Foul and Art Levine Responds

POSTED BY ART LEVINE
JULY 26, 2012
Dr. Philip Herschman, CRC's clinical director, responded to our July 18
investigation into Bain Capital's investment in the troubled chain of residential treatment
facilities by calling the investigation "inaccurate, unbalanced and disheartening." Here is
reporter Art Levine's response:

I wish that CRC had provided me access to top executives at the chain.
Unfortunately, CRC did not allow me to speak any of the firms decision-makers,
including current and former CEOs and facility executives, despite repeated
requests. I was allowed access only to clinical director Dr. Phil Herschman,
spokesperson Kristen Hayes, and two leaders of SUWS of the Carolinas, including
executive director Shawn Farrell. But I had to track down on my own former staffers,
some of whom risked their livelihoods in the field to speak with me, and only
managed to speak with many facility officials by going undercover, posing as a
concerned parent or guardian. My reporting was based on these interviews, along
with extensive review of lawsuits, reports by state regulators, and interviews with
former CRC residents not the outside critics Dr. Herschman derides.
Dr. Herschman goes on to repeat CRC claims familiar from the promotional
materials I cited that the vast majority of CRC clients report positive outcomes. He
has no basis for this claim. CRCs much-touted 10,000-parent survey was returned
by less than 15 percent of respondents. And when researchers have looked closely
at their outcome surveys, theyve been found to lack good science. We never
disputed that residential treatment programs for adult addicts can be helpful, when
the facilities are well run by well-trained staff. But Dr. Herschman doesnt cite a
single peer-reviewed study in any reputable journal that makes the case that CRCs
teen residential treatments work, and thats because there are none.

The 20 quality control officials that CRC claims to deploy somehow missed the major
failings later found by state regulators in California, Oregon, Arizona, and
Pennsylvania we cite in the article. And CRCs claims of erroneous media reports
dont appear to have any substance: there have been no retractions and no known
defamation lawsuits by CRC following any reports of alleged wrongful deaths and
abuse mentioned in outlets as varied as Time, Fortune, The Salt Lake Tribune, and
the small web magazine Momlogic.