About Narconon Vista Bay Drug & Alcohol Treatment Centers

While Vista Bay’s treatment methods have their supporters and their detractors, the facility has one thing that no one can dispute: amazing results.

This is not a 12-Step program. 12-Steps have never worked effectively for large groups of people over an extended period of time. The Vista Bay program provides its students with the educational tools and Detox methods they need to get off drugs, stay off drugs and avoid situations where they might come in contact with drugs. Our philosophy on getting clean is below. If you have any questions, feel free to call VistaBay. One of our counselors will be happy to answer any and all questions.

Narconon Vista Bay Drug Rehabilitation Methodology

VistaBay’s materials and methodology enable the majority of its students to achieve a stable, drug-free, productive, ethical life. A fundamental premise of the Vista Bay program, known and used by all its staff and students, is that stable recovery is achievable.

This result is not achieved without effort. VistaBay students are brought to understand that they will achieve a drug-free life only if they use the knowledge and life skills they are learning. A vital part of achieving this goal is developing a realistic, workable sense of personal ethics and responsibility. Personal addiction to drugs can be ended. Our statistics show that a majority of our graduates have achieved this freedom. Vista Bay International and its centers are constantly working to improve their success rate.

“Addicts characteristically subordinate values such as work, family relationships, and community responsibilities to the ingestion and unwise use of alcohol and/or drugs. Social neglect and criminal behavior are frequent companions of drug abuse and alcoholism. Efforts to develop a functional normative system, as it is done by VistaBay, should result in favorable outcomes. Vista Bay has demonstrated that this redefinition of the normative system of addicts is possible to implement with empathy, compassion, and respect for the addict…”

–Alfonzo Paredes, M.D.

Dr. Paredes, board certified in Psychiatry and Neurology, is a Professor of Psychiatry, UCLA School of Medicine. He graduated the University of Mexico School of Medicine in 1951, interned at St. Joseph Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, and did residencies in Psychiatry at the University of Kansas, University of Maryland and University of Oklahoma. He is a member of dozens of different professional organizations and regularly reviews peer publications in addition to having contributed more than 100 articles or studies of his own.

Facts About Narconon Vista Bay

Vista Bay demonstrates the workability of the drug-free social education model. Their drug rehabilitation does not use more drugs to solve the problem of drug and alcohol abuse. We have found that effective education must be a fundamental component of the rehabilitation process in order for alcohol and other drug abusers to stably recover and live ethical and productive lives.

Workability is the watchword. The key in developing the VistaBay program has been what works. We don’t run to the latest fad, or use what is considered politically correct. What we have looked at from the beginning and still examine routinely is, are we returning former addicts to society as stable, productive, ethical, drug-free individuals?.

“There is not often good news in our struggle with the consequences of alcohol and other drug abuse in our society. I am happy to say that the Vista Bay program is good news. I encourage you to review it carefully and consider utilizing it. Many years ago I did and I have been able to help save many lives as a result”

– Megan Shields, M.D.

Dr. Shields graduated from the Medical College of Virginia and is a Diplomat of the American Board of Family Practice. She is a frequent presenter at conferences on Substance Abuse and Public Health as well as being the author of many scientific papers on the role of detoxification of drug and other toxic residuals. See A Physician’s Perspective for a more complete statement of Dr. Shields. experience with the VistaBay program.

Vista Bay’s Effectiveness

The VistaBay program is effective in diverse environments: prisons, juvenile halls, other treatment facilities, or its own residential or nonresidential facilities. Rehabilitation centers grow out of the community. A program for drug abusers might be housed in a community center in one locale and a hospital in another. For this reason, an effective program must be able to adapt to a variety of settings. Vista Bay services are delivered in freestanding residential and nonresidential facilities, as well as in prisons and juvenile halls.

The VistaBay program (or parts of it), as licensed by Vista Bay International, can be incorporated in other rehabilitation or institutional settings. Depending on the circumstances, VistaBay centers can either train the staffs of other organizations or provide trained staff.

“A recent outcome study examined 183 Vista Bay students 18 months after their graduation. Prior to their participation in the VistaBay program, 81 percent had been incarcerated, 33 percent for longer than one month. Twenty two percent admitted to engaging in criminal activity for an average of 13 of the 30 days prior to starting the Vista Bay program. Eighteen months after graduation, only a remarkable 0.05 percent had been re-incarcerated.”

-Shelley Beckmann, PhD
Research Director, Vista Bay International

Dr. Beckmann earned her B.S. from the California Institute of Technology and her Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Over the last decade, the focus of her work has been on the reduction of adverse health effects from chemical contaminants and the treatment of drug abuse. To read more about evaluations of the VistaBay program see. Summary of Evaluations of the Vista Bay Program over the Last 25 years.

Studies conducted over the last 20 years show that the VistaBay program reduces recidivism and drug reversion. According to a 1998 report from the Center for Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA), drug and alcohol abuse and addiction are implicated in the incarceration of 80 percent of the men and women incarcerated in state, federal and local prisons. At a time when prisons and county jails suffer dangerous overcrowding, the majority of offenders return to crime, arrest and incarceration after their release.

The Narconon Vista Bay program has been one of the few programs to routinely turn out former criminals who feel no need for drugs anymore. Therefore, they see no need to commit crimes. They have learned the error of their ways and now know how to avoid becoming a debt to society again.