Bridging The Gaps

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Since Feb 2018 due to the stressful experience with Virginia's flawed mental health system and especially due to the negative experience with Poplar Springs Hospital in Petersburg, VA I had grown extremely skeptical of mental health & substance abuse professionals. Out of all of the options available to us through the CSB Bridging the Gaps (BTG) seemed to be more promising because their program does not hoard a bunch of people into their recovery homes like the program in Alexandria, VA does. Still, I had some reservations about BTG after reading a negative Yelp review in which one reviewer accuses BTG staff of being possibly biased against women of color. My son and I are ourselves persons of color so I did worry about sending my son to a possibly racist rehab after reading the review. My son had signed a Release of Information form for me to be involved in the process at BTG so I have interacted with his counselor, the Executive Director and staff on various occasions. Initially we did have a few hiccups with the program but we worked it out once I involved the CSB. Pam Reiman, their executive director made time to meet me and my sons' father to go over some of my concerns and to help us understand more about their program. I was not expecting to meet anyone like Pam when she came out to greet us. She has a very calming and reassuring presence about her and she listened to us with a level of empathy that we were not accustomed to since our son had first come home from college with a drug addiction that also led to his various suicide attempts. She and the supervisor of my son's counselor together helped us find a better way to communicate with our son in a conjoint session. They showed us how to listen to our son and how to set healthy boundaries with him as a family at the same time without blowing up on each other. BTG has several residential homes based on the Phase your loved one is in. Each home is very nicely decorated and very inviting. The house staff is polite, welcoming and easy to talk to. My son says the food is good. I am happy because my son learned how to cook at BTG and he has come home a much more responsible young man than he was when he first went to BTG. He has learned how to do chores at BTG and his obsession with drugs that were about to take his life is over. They have done a great job at educating my son about drugs, how drugs impact his brain, nutrition, health etc. I highly encourage loved ones of addicts to attend all of the Family Education classes that they offer in the first phase of the program. My husband and I have only missed one class. We found the family classes to be informative, interactive and helpful. BTG genuinely cares about the clients and family members. They offer to pay for 3 of the 4 sessions of Structured Family Recovery (SFR) to us family members. At first we wondered if it is just a ploy to sell us more services but I am so glad we took them up on their offer. I credit the SFR counselor for getting me to start going to Al-Anon which works even if your loved one is a drug addict because the twelve steps work the same way no matter which form of addiction it is. I used to vehemently hate Al-Anon before beginning SFR sessions and now I can see that Al-Anon is really a great tool for me to work on my recovery too because even I need help for myself and not just for my son. I wish I could afford to continue more SFR sessions after our fourth one runs out but even the four sessions helped. Best advice I received from someone I trust in the CSB is to work with the BTG professionals instead of working against them. It is common for addicts to initially hate the program and for them to say negative things about the staff and other clients in the program. My son has successfully completed 90 days at BTG and he is genuinely appreciative of what BTG has done for him and so are we as a family. Few months back we had little hope and we were worried about losing our son to death. Today we have our son and hope! 4/5 stars because I am stingy!

Bridging the Gaps changed my life. They helped me through a very rough place. Excellent food, great staff, and very clean houses! I would highly recommend to anyone seeking recovery from substance abuse. They truly meet you where ever you are and support your growth to a better, sober life.