Social Bridges

We called to schedule an introductory meeting with our child. After the interview, the therapist admitted our child might not need their services. A week later we got a bill for almost $400.00 and upon requesting a refund, they indicated that what we signed prior to the interview was a full program. At the very least, we would have just used the "credit" for actual services rendered but they proceeded to tell us we were out of luck. We also got a hard luck story on how business is tough and there are no exceptions. I am sure they are good at what they do but this is really pretty awful.
Mar 14th, 2023

Awesome
Aug 13th, 2022

Jun 5th, 2022

Mar 1st, 2022

We were surprised and dismayed that, after an entire semester sending our child to their therapy group designed for kids who require help with acting appropriately in social situations (groups), that their conclusion is that he could not be helped by said therapy and that he was not welcome to continue being helped by them in future summer or academic year sessions. There are several problems with this situation that I want to point out for the wary (and weary) parent and potential consumer: 1) we were very clear in our intake paperwork and in the initial screening session what our concerns and goals for our son were, and the intake professional was very clear that it sounded like they could help him. 2) we received weekly reports on his progress, which were a mixed bag of he did X, Y and Z well and he struggled with this, so we worked on that. At no time, either in the intake process nor in any of these written reports did anyone imply that he would be kicked out of the therapy for any of these behaviors or that the steps they reported taking to address them were somehow burdensome or problematic for themagain, isnt this the point of their program to help kids who need help? Later, when they told us in a WRITTEN DOCUMENT first rather than having the professional courtesy to tell us in person at a final parent-therapist consultation session that I understood we were to have, that they didnt think he was ready for the group therapy (despite the fact that he has in fact been going to said group therapy every single week all semester), there was no explanation of why this suddenly would be the outcome. I am still scratching my head trying to understand how a child can be determined to have failed therapyisnt the point of trying to get better at a skill to keep practicing that skill? If he doesnt do something well, he needs more opportunities to practice in the very environment where he struggles under the guidance of a skilled professional rather than to be kicked out of the program entirely. This is why we sent him here, so that he could try to practice these skills in an out-of-school environment where there would be less support and more consequences like punishments. They even had a whole parent seminar on the very issue he was struggling with that we attended with great interest and excitement. If this is a known deficit in certain children, and your service is designed to address that deficit, why would that be a reason to kick kids out that struggle with it? It does seem quite cruel, to both parents and children, to run an ostensible social service in this way. 3) We feel that we were misled about nature of the services that were being offered. They implied that they can help our child, that we were in the right place, etc., and then at no time until the end did they tell us that they felt our kid isnt cutting it somehow. We could have used this information much earlier in the semester so we could have considered whether this was a good use of our time or money, or consulted with another professional. We spent dozens of hours and thousands of dollars out-of-pocket for a service that we feel essentially misled us about both what they could do, and what they were willing to do. Now we, like other parents whose kids are struggling, are left out in the cold yet again by the very people who were supposed to help us after we have tried everything else. Not sure what we can do now, but clearly that is our problem. We would like our time and money back. Since that is not possible, and since they did not have the courtesy to tell us about their verdict about our child in person first, I will return the favor and share my concerns here in writing as well.
Jun 3rd, 2023