Behavioral Services Center

If you plan on going to behavioral services avoid Sabrina, Andrew, & the representative. They are unethical and uneducated about life. Also don’t be fooled by their fake clinician, his name is Ugen, he will talk to you once and disappear.

This is the absolute WORST PLACE EVER!!!! Upon starting my classes for SA, I was asked for my insurance information to confirm if it would cover the classes. I have Aetna PPO, & was confirmed by Harold Maglente that my insurance WOULD COVER my classes. I begin the classes and was unable to complete due to a surgery and medical illness. A couple of months later when I contacted them to continue, I was told by Yahna in billing and Rufsa the receptionist that the class I completed would not count because of the few months that had passed and also that I would now have to pay 585$ out of pocket for the classes and complete an entire new evaluation. They also do not let you speak with any one in charge nor provide you with any information besides asking you for money and claiming that they can’t talk to you regarding your case without speaking with director. They don’t let you know who the director is so it’s impossible to really get clarity and complete understanding regarding your case. They have no managers or supervisors only a “director” who apparently refuses to speak with patients. If I was able to give this place 0 starts, I WOULD. Please choose another place because they don’t recognize these our people livelihoods on the line. Also, if you scroll down under the clinicians review you see how poorly they address these types of issues by stating all the poor reviews have to do with untreated substance abuse. Not everyone who has to take these classes have a “problem”. It’s sad that a person cannot state facts that may or may not be tasteful to the company without being called an abuser as a rebuttal or response to these matters. I’m even more disgusted at this place now then before.

This place is an absolute scam. Whatever you do do not go here. As it appears with a lot of their reviews they scam people for money every way they can. They refused to give me my medical records repeatedly because they'll "lose their license". Then as soon I mention getting subpoena for them, they try and say fine you can have them but it will cost 100 bucks! This place is full of the worst scum of the earth. Avoid at all costs

Edited to inform that less than 24 hours after this was published, Mr. Applebaum found it appropriate to drive several miles to show up at my place of business, at open, and attempt to either confront me on my review or express grievance to my employer. Staff had to ask him leave repeatedly.
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I've worked in social services for 6 years and used to connect clients to this agency all the time. Unfortunately I've seen their consistency evaporate to nill. Therapists are turning over in less than a month for a reason, and it isn't that Covid has made so much of this work difficult, this is beyond that. The lead, Mr. Applebaum, is unprofessional and disrespectful, I tried to work with him to help a client with barriers to treatment and he discharged them prior to attending a pre-scheduled meeting with the client and myself that was aimed to help the client. He showed up to the meeting just to tell the family "sorry not sorry." He made claims the client missed specific meetings to receive a new therapist but could not provide any proof of communication of this to the client, and the client had messages from their former therapist stating the opposite of his claims. The client had several concerns over the teen groups they were asked to be in several hours several times a week and none were addressed. The client showed me several attempts to schedule a sit-down with Mr. Applebaum to discuss their concerns but Mr. Applebaum never responded. How do you expect people to buy into therapy and much needed treatment if you're refusing to even entertain their concerns?

In my experience, Behavioral Services Center is committed to successes of all patients. I did many drug tests and they all were successful. I trust the agency and highly recommend its dedicated clinical stuff.

I thought I could explain some things given the previous review, and while I cannot comment specifically, as we have had no client under that name, there are common themes that arise.

First, there seems to be a fundamental lack of understanding about what the treatment process is. It is a falsity that we "make everyone do 60-70 hours." For instance a common course of treatment for a first DUI is 10 hours of Risk Education, which is like a class, and 20 hours of Substance-Use Disorder Treatment, which are group counseling sessions. We do evaluations and then assign the resultant number of hours, no more, no less.

As for repetition -- one purpose of the sessions is to foster a discussion between the clinician and the clients that creates space so everyone can develop the habits necessary to continue to grow and recover once the sessions end. Recovery concepts such as learning how to practice self-care and cope with stressors don't have easy one time solutions. The group provides a space for deeper exploration on the path of self-knowledge.

And yes, there is a pattern with some of the reviews, and sadly it is a reflection how difficult the disease of Substance-Use Disorder is to treat, not the operating practices of BSC. BSC is licensed and we must follow evidence based practices and abide by the attendant protocols. It is understandable that there would be some anger present when we require an extra drug test, but we must follow protocol, especially when DCFS requests it, as was the situation in a unsatisfied review below. And when it comes time to transition into the next stage of the program, it makes sense that someone may feel animosity when asked to do another drug screening. But in the vast majority of cases, especially when people have been actually remaining abstinent, they simply do the test and obtain their completion papers. Also to address another review - The drug screening in question was simply much less sensitive from the hospital than from a lab that specializes only in drug screenings. The client was informed and decided to leave treatment when offered the option to continue after 2 failed tests.

Many of the other accusations are simply illogical for a company whose purpose is to promote recovery. People are looked at on an individual basis, with their past actions taken into account, given the benefit of the doubt, and given second chances when warranted all of the time.

One of the major things people in recovery struggle with is taking responsibility for their own actions. This does not make them bad people, or hopeless in recovery. But it does require hard work and honesty, which can be a difficult journey.

If you have any questions, please get in contact. We strive to operate with transparency, so you know both your responsibilities, and your rights.

THIS PLACE IS A SCAM - THEY WILL HAVE YOU COMPLETE ALL YOUR TREATMENT, TO GET PAID, THEN IGNORE YOU AND UNSUCCESSFULLY DISCHARGE YOU. I completed 60 hours of substance abuse treatment and parenting classes. They make everyone do 60-75 hours to maximize profits, despite most of the classes being repetitive and the same subjects discussed over and over again. I reached out to Skokie behavioral health several times to follow up on completing my hours, I never heard back from them. A few weeks later, my social worker got an email from “doctor” Eugene Isyanov saying I was unsuccessfully discharged for not completing a drug test. I was never asked to do a drug test. When I called and asked to discuss the situation and see if they wanted me to complete a drug test so I can get credit for completed services, they kept telling me I would receive a call back. No one called me back despite multiple attempts to reach out to them. They literally ignored and “ghosted” me after I completed all of my hours. I got screwed over just like the dozens of other patients that have left reviews, notice a pattern with the reviews? This seems to happen often. I had to find another treatment center and do everything all over again. I talked to another patient and they did something similar - they asked him to complete a drug test while he was getting treatment, he said he gets routine weekly drug tests with DCFS and asked if they would accept those results from his case worker instead of going to another facility, Eugene (who apparently is in charge) specifically said yes and that they will accept the DCFS drug tests he takes and he doesn’t have to go to the other facility. He continued going to classes then all of a sudden his case worker got a message from Eugene saying he was discharged for not completing a drug test while he was still taking classes daily. How can someone be discharged if they’re still taking classes? “Doctor” Eugene Isyanov should be ashamed of himself for lying and setting patients up for failure. Avoid this place at all costs. You will waste your time, money, patience and you will NOT get credit for the hours and services you completed.