The Southern California News Group has been investigating fraud, abuse and death<\/a> in California\u2019s private-pay addiction treatment system for nearly a decade. Numerous laws have changed in the wake of this reporting, but a low bar for expertise in opening a home, poor oversight and a lack of basic medical support have led to fatal overdoses in licensed and unlicensed facilities alike.<\/p>\nTurner\u2019s complaint peppered state officials with questions about Resolutions Living that she said need investigating.<\/p>\n
For one thing, she asked whether Gerber required a higher level of care and was accepted into a facility not authorized to provide detoxification, withdrawal management, residential substance-use treatment or other clinical services.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy concern is that the activities taking place at this location may have crossed the legal boundary between sober housing and licensed residential treatment,\u201d Turner wrote.<\/p>\n
She also urged the state to investigate Resolutions Living\u2019s marketing campaign and whether it pitched itself as providing residential addiction recovery or treatment services beyond what is permitted at an unlicensed sober living residence.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe company\u2019s own website uses terms including \u2018mental health recovery residence,\u2019 \u2018recovery program,\u2019 \u2018individual recovery plans,\u2019 \u2018three-phase recovery program,\u2019 \u2018addiction and mental health support, \u2018 \u201d the complaint said, adding that it also describes \u201c24\/7 onsite staff.\u201d<\/p>\n
Angela McMahon, a licensing and accreditation consultant, said the treatment arm of the Resolutions operation, Resolutions Therapeutic Services, also \u201csits in a gray area\u201d with its advertising. McMahon said the businesses appears to primarily operate as a mental health center, which would not likely require a DHCS license.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt presents itself as a mental health program \u2026 but its website headline is \u2018Mental Health, Trauma, and Addiction Treatment,\u2019 \u201d McMahon said. \u201cIt has a dedicated Substance Use Disorder page and advertises relapse prevention. The way SUD treatment is promoted could be argued as treating it as a primary diagnosis,\u201d which could require a DHCS license.<\/p>\n
Turner\u2019s complaint argues that if group sessions are being held at Resolutions Living, then the sober home would be subject to regulation.<\/p>\n
The complaint also questioned why Gerber would be accepted at Resolutions Living if he was visibly intoxicated or under the influence when he arrived, rather than being referred to an appropriately licensed withdrawal-management, detoxification, emergency medical or residential treatment setting.<\/p>\n
Turner asked DHCS to find out what assessment was conducted, who made the decision to admit Gerber, what that person\u2019s qualifications were and what procedures were followed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Mr. Gerber required withdrawal management or detoxification, I ask DHCS to determine whether (Resolutions) was authorized to provide that service and, if not, why he remained there,\u201d Turner wrote.<\/p>\n
She also questioned whether staff was monitoring Gerber\u2019s medical condition, monitoring withdrawal, supervising or managing medications, conducting detox-related observations, administering or overseeing medications, or performing any other medical services requiring DHCS approval.<\/p>\n
\u201cWas an individual reportedly under the influence admitted to a sober living residence that was not authorized to provide the level of care he required, and was Resolutions Living actually providing regulated addiction treatment, detoxification, clinical monitoring, or recovery services beyond the lawful scope of sober housing?\u201d the complaint asked.<\/p>\n
Staff Writer Teri Sforza contributed to this article.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"State regulators have launched an inquiry into the Santa Monica sober living home where Presley Gerber died Sept.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":476188,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,179,100,1492,91333,24836,136],"class_list":["post-476187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-community","tag-news","tag-public-safety","tag-rehab","tag-socal-watchdog","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=476187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}