From the Parents:
"It is neither an exaggeration nor melodramatic when I say that Pathway Family Center saved the life of my son. He had attempted suicide, shot himself accidentally when high, and was constantly exposing himself to extreme high-risk behaviors. I am forever thankful not only for what it did for him, but also what it gave to me personally. Pathway gave me skills to cope with my addicted son, awareness, openness, and other gifts too numerous to mention." ~ Tim Y.
"Pathway Family Center has been the best thing to happen to our family. Before my son went to Pathway, he had no desire to do anything except hang out with his friends and get high. He was not involved in the family in any way. He failed school and stopped going all together. He is now looking forward to being part of our family again and going back to school." ~ Amy K.
My daughter has learned how to be open and talk honestly about her feelings and her past while she was using drugs. This is something she has never done before. She is learning discipline, responsibility, and how to follow rules. Most importantly, she is learning how to take care of herself. For myself, I have made significant changes in my life. I have a new sense of peace that I've not had in a long time. I wish every teenager using drugs right now would have the opportunity to experience the change that happens here at Pathway." ~ Diane M.
"I am very pleased with the work that they do with my child and recommend the program to other parents who have children with drug and alcohol problems as it is well structured and totally committed to the well being of both child and family. These people truly love and care about the problems our children are having. I cannot say enough about the level of commitment that I have seen toward helping the clients to break from their dependency to better and healthier lives."
~ Virginia C.
"Pathway is a long-term drug treatment program that heals the recovering client as well as the family." ~ Charles A.
"I was looking for a drug facility that would take a hostile seventeen year old with a drug problem. I wasn't sure how bad it was, but he was out of control. No other center would even consider taking him." ~ Aaron M.
"We knew we needed a long-term place because the short-term programs did not work for our child. Brighton Hospital (Outpatient and short-term provider) said it was the best place to go." ~ Bob W.
"Other programs did not provide the necessary foundation for our resistant child. We were desperate for a program that dealt with the deeper issues of an addicted adolescent who was in need of structure, guidance, and understanding." ~ Steve C.
See Also ~
Parent Comments
From a Michigan Client Family:
Dear Pathway Team,
We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for the wonderful work and dedication you have shown in the past 6 months. Somewhere about half way through the Pathway program you have not only returned our child to us as the loving sincere, kind, caring person he was before he became addicted to drugs and alcohol, but you have strengthened our entire family. We personally know many adolescents that have been through out patient, short term, and mid term treatment centers, only to go back to their prior level of addiction, or a worse level in a very short time. Pathway's philosophy of involving the whole family in the treatment plan has proved to have outstanding results, for the children, as well as the parents and siblings.
The "Drop your kids off to be repaired" style treatment centers have a very low success rate because families do not learn how to support the child without enabling them to practice their addiction. With Pathway, siblings are also involved, which draws the whole family closer, and promotes healthy communication and interaction between all. I have been in recovery for 16 years, and I am very impressed with this programs' 'no nonsense' approach, where firm, yet loving and understanding care is given to our children by not only staff, but also by the community of clients and client families.
It has come to our attention that people somehow connected to an organization that existed several years ago, has been attacking Pathway. That program was based on a similar concept, but was phased out because their model of the concept was incomplete, flawed, or somehow got off track. Pathway has honed the concept to a level of healthy, caring, proficiency with proven results over the last 12+ years. We have heard of terms such as "cult" and "Brainwashing" being thrown around by this organization, which apparently believes that because their experience was negative, all long-term treatment centers must be bad. This group will not even take a look at how Pathway works. Yet they continue to make unsubstantiated claims.
To them we say, we are sincerely sorry that the program with which you were a part of may have harmed or damaged you in some way, but please at least see what is going on at Pathway before trying to ruin the one thing we have found that is giving us back our child, our family, and our lives. However, since your position seems to be one of trying to soften drug laws, and lower consequences, in effect making it easier for our society to spiral downward into an abyss of mindless soul-less unproductive criminals, leeches on society and dead children, we may not agree on what is good and bad. It doesn't appear that recovery is your priority as much as perhaps misguided revenge, and some kind of effort to build our societies' tolerance for practicing adolescent alcoholics and addicts instead of helping them recover and lead healthy, happy and productive lives.
It's funny how 16 years ago when I started my recovery, addicts that I associated (used) with, that did not want to face truth and reality, said the same things about Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous. What is a cult, and what is brainwashing? In our way of thinking these are negative words placed on organizations or behavior modifications that alter someone's behaviors and/or way of thinking to their own benefit, and that generally have a negative outcome (Branch Davidians, Jim Jones) which some define as:
A radical/fanatical or unethical religious sect generally considered to be extremist or false, with its followers often living in an unconventional manner.
Brainwashing would be defined as:
Intensive, forcible indoctrination, usually political or religious, aimed at destroying a person's basic convictions and attitudes and replacing them with an alternative set of fixed beliefs.
Again, we would add, this is usually associated with motives that would benefit the persons doing the brainwashing, not the person being brainwashed, their family or society as a whole.
Pathway does not brainwash our kids, but since the word washing has been brought up, we can list the top 10 things that have been "cleaned" from our lives because of Pathway...
1. Our sons’ body of drugs, alcohol and nicotine.
2. Our sons’ self-destructiveness.
3. Our sons’ disrespectful, ungrateful, delinquent, selfish, aggressive, contemptuous, and uncaring attitude.
4. Our sons’ resentments for our attempts to be caring parents.
5. Our resentments towards our sons’ behaviors and treatment of the household and family.
6. Our sons’ inability to tell or face the truth.
7. Our lack of communication.
8. Our constant disruption of the household (physical and financial) and subsequent stress.
9. Our fear of the phone ringing any time our son is not in sight, would be "The call" from a jail or hospital or morgue.
10. Our lack of hope.
Now that these things have been removed from our lives, let us list some of the things that have replaced them...
1. A better family relationship with all members of the family.
2. A certain level of mutual trust that continues to grow.
3. Mutually respectful relationships.
4. A strong support system for not only our son, but for the entire family.
5. Healthier attitudes in all areas of our lives (I have quit smoking and returned to the gym).
6. Smiles and Hugs.
7. Our son now believes in a higher power again.
8. A strong family bond.
9. Greater understanding of ourselves and the family dynamic.
10. The light in our sons? eyes, and the soul we thought was lost.
We could go on and on, but will end by saying only that this testimonial, due to our lack of the ability to articulate our degree of happiness and satisfaction with this program, does not do justice to what Pathway Family Center has done for us, and that we believe Pathway is saving not only our kids, but our entire families!
Thank you Pathway!
James and Carol D.
Sterling Heights MI
