Passages Ventura

Passages Ventura Addiction Treatment Center, known as Passages Ventura, is a for-profit addiction treatment facility founded by Pax Prentiss and Chris Prentiss in 2009<ref name="singular"/> in Port Hueneme, California. Passages Ventura focuses on healing underlying conditions, and does not operate on the principle that drug or alcohol addiction is a disease.<ref name="forbes"/>
History
The facility was founded by Pax Prentiss and Chris Prentiss in 2009, in Port Hueneme, California (a beach town just north of Los Angeles). As of 2011, Passages Ventura costs either $32,500<ref name="singular"/> or $16,500 a month, depending on the amount of individual therapy that a client wants. According to Pax Prentiss, there are a number of insurance companies that can cover most of the cost. It is a less expensive facility in comparison to Passages Malibu, a separate facility opened in Malibu, California in 2001.<ref name="topten"/>
As of March 2011, Passages Ventura was in the process of receiving Joint Commission Behavioral Health Accreditation.<ref name="vcstar"/> It is JCAHO accredited. Passages Ventura is a 90 bed facility<ref name="vcstar"/> and currently licensed to perform a full medical detox. According to a March 2011 newspaper article, Passages Ventura reports an annual payroll of $3 million, with over 70 employees. According to city officials, the business "keeps a low profile", and the facility is located on the ocean-front.<ref name="vcstar"/>
Treatment method
Passages operates on the principle that people become addicted to drugs and alcohol due to underlying and unresolved problems in their lives. This is in contrast to the disease model of addiction, and according to Forbes, Passages "does not employ the 12-step program favored by the vast majority of centers."<ref name="forbes"/> According to Prentiss, the most common addictions treated at the centers are alcohol, followed by prescription pills. Common causes for addiction are quoted as "stress, depression, and insomnia."<ref name="vcstar"/>
As of March 2011, there are group sessions in the mornings and evenings, and weekdays are spent in one-on-one sessions with approximately nine different therapists, which included a psychologist, a hypnotherapist, substance abuse counselor, medical doctor, physical trainer, life-purpose coach and after-care planner.<ref name="vcstar"/>
The facility has been described as having the feeling of a college dormitory, with shared recreation rooms and a 10pm curfew. There is a nurses station in the center of the hallways. Clients go on weekend excursions to restaurants and local malls.<ref name="vcstar"/> Unlike many other centers, clients are allowed to use their cell phones and have computer access. Pax Prentiss has argued that it is beneficial for clients to be in contact with their families and to be able to run their businesses,<ref name="vcstar"/> and that the method employed by a number of other treatment facilities, such as The Betty Ford Center and Hazelden Foundation in Minnesota, demean patients by assigning them tasks such as cleaning toilets and other manual labor.<ref name="forbes"/>

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu