When you want to find treatment for an addiction for yourself or a loved one, you want advice that you know is unbiased and in your best interests. You do not want a sales job.
The Washington State Attorney General’s Office (AGO) has
come to an agreement with a private marketing company that the AGO found to be masquerading
as a neutral source for addiction treatment referrals.
According to the AGO, Recovery Worldwide operates
several websites that contain advertising for substance abuse treatment
facilities. Recovery Worldwide labeled the websites as impartial resources
without disclosing that much of their content was paid advertising.
The AGO found that when people called Recovery
Worldwide, they would be routed to sales representatives for addiction
treatment facilities that had paid Recovery Worldwide to forward calls to them.
The sales representatives did not consider the individual’s treatment needs or
their preferred location. Most locations offered were outside of Washington
State. The AGO could only find a few treatment centers listed for Washington
State, where the treatment web site for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration (SAMHSA) listed dozens of addiction treatment centers in Seattle
alone.
The AGO obtained a consent decree that requires Recovery
Worldwide to clearly disclose online content that is paid advertising and label
paid listings as advertising.
The AGO recommends that if you are looking for
treatment for an addiction, that you use resources that will give you unbiased
alternatives. Two resources that it recommends include:
Washington Recovery Help Line:
Phone- (866) 789-1511
Website- http://www.warecoveryhelpline.org/
Findtreatment.gov (SAMHSA):
Website- https://findtreatment.gov/
Washington State Attorney General’s Office:
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