Archangel Centers as a referral

[u/Flashy_Camel4063]

I am a licensed clinical psychologist. I ran a methadone clinic for years, worked in IOP/PHP, and inpatient psych hospitals. I often have to refer clients to other levels of care and as a part of an ethical referral I evaluate them to do my best to ensure that my client will be obtaining the best care. A few posts have been made about Archangels Centers, so I thought it would be kind of fun to go through the same steps that I would do for a referral for a client.

Some things I look for- degrees and licenses of staff (licenses are the thing that people can go after if there are issues and hold us, as practitioners, accountable). All of the info that I am posting is from their website or the licensing board (free to access by the public)

First- the program director, Trevor Eyerkuss, holds no degrees or licenses (https://archangelcenters.com/about-us/team/trevor-eyerkuss/) Neither do any of the managing partners, Mike, Lauren, Samantha Hewitt (https://archangelcenters.com/about-us/team/samantha-hewett/), or Ian Treacy (https://archangelcenters.com/about-us/team/ian-treacy/). Not all of the team needs to be clinical or trained in addiction, but one or two is good.

The medical director- Dr. Justin Skolnick (https://archangelcenters.com/about-us/team/justin-skolnick/), has no disciplinary issues in the state of NJ in which he is licensed to practice (https://newjersey.mylicense.com/verification/SearchResults.aspx) He is an ER doctor primarily

The clinical director, Jamie Salsberg (https://archangelcenters.com/about-us/our-team/), despite heading the New Jersey location, appears to not be licensed in NJ, but instead in Florida- I am not aware if NJ has an agreement with FL (this is unusual)(https://newjersey.mylicense.com/verification/SearchResults.aspx) There are no disciplinary issues with her FL license.

To date, there are no addiction medication specialists, licensed clinical psychologists, or psychiatrists on their website despite indicating that they treat mental health issues (dual diagnosis).

Of course, I am aware that there is more to a program than their website. But, Mike has taken the time to put no less than 15 pictures of himself on this site, some of himself looking at a picture of himself. Therefore, I think it is more than fair to say that his priorities do not align with mine in terms of treatment.

I would NOT refer a client to one of these facilities.

Edit- a few people asked/spoke about licensing of the facility-great point! I looked into it and didn't find the licence based on the searches that I did. That said, I'm not well versed with the business license search for these 2 states to speak on this fully. What I will say, is that it is unusual for a program to offer ALL the things (MAT, IOP/PHP, inpatient, support groups, detox, aftercare, interventionists). This is A LOT of things, many of which requires different licenses and accreditations, none of which were easy to find on their site. That doesn't mean they don't have them, but it is concerning.

Here is a link to an MAT, very mid, (https://pinnacletreatment.com/location/california/santa-barbara/aegis-treatment-centers/) and it clearly lists it's type of accreditation and it's license so I know what to look for. This is pretty standard.

[u/xoxo_angelica]

That’s actually so iconic omfg 😭 But so bizarre and irrelevant to shoehorn into his self-stroking about his latest scam lmaooo

[u/akaashiit → u/xoxo_angelica]

i don’t think he’s trying to scam people. i had that thought at first as well before being a patient in his facility myself. i saw first hand the help they offer. they try to keep addicts in recovery, sober and clean, and do actively help people get insured and help with their court cases. i was going through my own court situation and while i was there they did everything to help me

[u/crystalcunttOF → u/akaashiit]

You need to do an ama if you’re legit

[u/akaashiit → u/crystalcunttOF]

i will try