Questions, answered like an adult asked them.

No, and the name can be misleading, so it is worth being blunt. Aftermath Rehabilitation is transitional recovery housing: a safe, clean, sober home. We are not a treatment center, a detox program, or a clinical facility. We do not provide counseling, therapy, groups or medical care, and we do not diagnose, treat or prescribe.

What we provide is somewhere stable to live while you work your own recovery program with your own providers. More on our role.

Call us anyway and we will spend the time helping you find it. We get nothing for pointing you somewhere else, which is exactly why it is worth asking us. SAMHSA's free confidential helpline is 1-800-662-HELP, 24 hours a day, and findtreatment.gov lists licensed programs.

This is transitional housing, so the honest answer is: long enough to get stable, and not indefinitely. In practice that is usually a matter of months rather than weeks, and it depends on how the work of finding employment, saving, and lining up permanent housing is going. We talk about it openly rather than springing a date on anybody.

To be an adult who is committed to living sober, needs a safe and stable place to live, is working or actively looking for work, is working their own recovery program, is connected with their own supports, and is motivated to move toward self-sufficiency. That is the whole list. The longer version is here.

Residents pay rent. This is an affordable stepping stone rather than a free program, and the rent covers a furnished bed, utilities and the running of the house. The current figure, what it includes, the deposit if any, and what happens if you leave early are all given to you in writing before you move in. Never on the doorstep and never as a surprise.

Call and ask. We will tell you the number on the phone.

Generally no, and you should be careful with anyone who says otherwise. Medi-Cal and private insurance cover treatment, delivered by licensed providers. Room and board in a sober living home is usually not a covered benefit, because housing is not a clinical service.

What insurance may well cover is the outpatient program, counseling or medication you keep working with while you live here, and if you are not connected to any of that we will help you find it. If you have no coverage at all, Kern County funds treatment services for uninsured residents and that is worth a phone call.

It depends entirely on whether a bed is open. Sometimes it is days. If we are full we will say so plainly rather than stringing you along, and we will tell you what we know about when something is likely to free up.

Clothes, photo ID, any prescribed medication in its original labeled bottles, your phone and charger, and contact details for your case manager, sponsor, probation officer or program. The home is fully furnished, so you do not need bedding or furniture. Nothing valuable. Bags are checked on arrival with you present, and we say so in advance rather than at the door.

No. Medication for opioid use disorder is treatment, and refusing somebody housing over it is disability discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act as well as bad practice. Your medication is stored securely and you take it yourself, on the schedule your own prescriber set. We do not administer it, adjust it, or have opinions about it. Psychiatric medication is treated exactly the same way.

Yes, and broadly yes. Being employed or actively seeking employment is one of the expectations, because work is one of the strongest things going for anybody rebuilding a life, and because the rent needs paying. School, training and documented disability are all workable. Talk to us.

You are expected to be working a recovery program. Which one is entirely yours: twelve-step, SMART Recovery, church, outpatient, counseling, a sponsor, or a combination. We do not require any particular belief, or any belief. We do expect there to be something, and to see that it is actually happening.

Yes, at random, and you consent to it in the house agreement. It is not there to catch people out. It is what makes it possible to promise everyone else in the house that this is a sober environment, which is the single thing they are all relying on.

Yes, at the times and in the areas the house sets, and children are welcome at those times. The point of the limits is that six people share this home, and everyone's peace and privacy has to survive everyone else's visitors.

Yes, with a valid license and insurance. Parking is limited, so mention it early.

We cannot house pets, and we know that stops people. Tell us on the first call and we will spend real time on it. Fostering arrangements for people entering housing or treatment exist. A dog is not a reason to stay somewhere unsafe, and it is not a reason to abandon a dog either.

Service animals are a separate question and are handled as a reasonable accommodation. Say so early and we will work it out.

You do. The kitchen is fully equipped and residents cook for themselves, with the shared spaces left as they were found. Dietary needs and allergies are worked around.

There is a conversation the same day, and a serious look at what support is missing. Because this is a sober home rather than a treatment facility, somebody who is actively using cannot stay in it: that is the promise every other resident is relying on. But nobody is put out on the street. We make calls, we help arrange the next place, whether that is detox, treatment or somewhere else, and we get the person there.

Coming back later is not held against anybody either.

Yes. This is voluntary housing and the gate is not locked. If a court has ordered you to be here, leaving has consequences with them rather than with us, and we will tell you exactly what they are before you go.

Then go over our heads, and it will not cost you your place. The complaints page has our internal process and the outside agencies you can contact directly. Retaliating against somebody for complaining is not something that happens here.

Not from us, unless you sign something naming them. We do not confirm to anybody that you live here, including to somebody who calls claiming to be your officer. If you want us to confirm residency or provide attendance letters to a court or agency, we can, and we need that in writing from you first. See the privacy notice.

Type the minimum. A web form is not the right channel for a health record, which is why our forms ask you not to put diagnoses or medication lists into them. Give us a name, a number and a rough picture, and we will take the rest on the phone.