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When you run a business, image has a big role in whether you succeed or not. You spend money for building goodwill among your existing clients. You spend money for marketing in the aim of getting new customers and most of all you build a business that is designed to help people. But sometimes, one wrong move might prove to be disastrous, especially if word of false complaints by sick people spread virally online. These may be in the form of bad reviews, bad client actions or even rants pointed toward your direction by sick people that otherwise only do this to deflect their own failure or inadequacies.
“We at Pickerel Lake Recovery Center provide the very best in care and attention to very sick people suffering from a seemingly hopeless disease, the disease of addiction”, say John Haines Founder and Executive Director of Pickerel Lake Recovery Center. We try to do what we can to save lives and we employ some of the very best therapists and professionals in the country and when one of them turn out to be the opposite of what you had envisioned or hope for in their professional conduct or just don’t quite fit in, the outcome may be to let them go and they don’t like to take this sitting down and go online and make up slanderous lies to hurt the very company that gave them an opportunity to prove themselves in a very tough industry and be well compensated for that work. “I just don’t get it sometimes”, says Haines,“Its where myself as a business owner and facilitator have even come under fire for my past prior to turning my life around and starting this business”, Haines further states,“I never profess to have been an angel or good person before I decided to go to treatment for my addiction and turn my life around”,“I now dedicate my life to helping those that need the very same help I sought to live a good quality of life”. John himself has been in recovery from both drugs and alcohol for 12 years. Haines further states that before he got clean and sober he did many bad things some that landed him in jail and some that almost landed him in the morgue. “I have been publicly ridiculed and slandered on these online complaint boards and forums but they decide to stretch it and make me out to be that bad person today when in fact I have completely changed my life and make it my life calling now to change lives of others”, says Haines “I will not stand by and let people out and out lie online about this great business and those that are employed by our center that suffer the same ridicule”.
Haines was asked if what was printed in these forums about his 3 treatment programs is true, such as the opening and closing of a couple centers in the past 6 months to which he replied,“I have the Vita Novus Foundation which I started some 7 yrs ago, with my first location in Toronto named “Vita Novus treatment center”, which means “new life” in Latin, which had an 8 client capacity and with growth moved up to our 22 client facility in Stouffville, and eventually up here at Pickerel Lake to our current 35 client capacity”,“The only change was the name and that was because of the location, the program has been upgraded and some of the faces have changed, but that’s because I went out and hired some very experienced people which all are certified, educated and most in recovery themselves to make an ideal situation and give the most we can to the individual or family member seeking help for addiction”. “I can actually say that we have bettered out program and facility listening and reading between the lines to some minor criticism and complaints and have always responded by making corrections and remedies accordingly whenever and wherever we can”.
As for the unfounded complaints and defamatory slander on these online complaint forums Haines is having a prominent Toronto Law firm look into removing them and suing those involved as well as identifying their IP addresses in doing so. Haines says “Every single post made online by any of these individuals is never signed by them nor do they ever identify themselves and I suspect its because they don’t want to be found out who they really are in posting these illegal slanderous posts, I call them all cowards, and I invite them to call or see me personally and I would address and remedy any valid concern they may have”. To this date Haines says none that have posted have ever come forward, however some individuals that had valid concerns or complaints and did come to speak with Haines have all been addressed and dealt with accordingly. “I just wish that people paid more attention to the majority of positive being done and not right away listen and believe these lies, but I guess with what they say like having many positive attributes and praise for these qualities all it takes is one or 2 negative remarks and everyone shifts to the negative”, says John,“It is equally as sad that there is a forum that does not monitor nor verify any of these postings as we have asked these companies time and time again how they can allow such things to happen, that is really what is sad”. “I bet if ours was a free service no one would complain but since it costs something and the people who fail to recover or their loved ones they blame us when in fact it was there all the time for the taking, I always want what is best for people and wish I could save or successfully treat 100% of people but the sad fact is that while our success rate is one of the highest in the industry its still a 40% failure rate, a rate I will never get used to”.
Pickerel Lake Recovery (pickerellakerecovery.com) and Haines are moving forward with providing the very best in care and amenities to those in need and will continue to make their center available to all those in need. Haines says,“we will help those that are seeking recovery for themselves or loved ones but if they believe everything they read rather than ask themselves and actually find out the truth they may never get to recover”. And he further states,“Every life is worth saving”, this is John’s trade mark when addressing those that are in dire straits with the disease of addiction.
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john[.]pickerellakerecovery.com 
