The black metal gates open and a short woman swings open the wooden doors of the brightly  painted Cape Town home, smiles warmly and extends her hand.

Welcoming guests comes easily to Inge* and her husband Ben*, a leftover from their previous life as thriving bed and breakfast owners. However, their 21-year- old daughter’€™s drug addiction put an end to their business and their struggle to find help has irrevocably changed their lives.

‘€œWe did not think that our daughter could be taking drugs until we started missing things around the house and saw her health and behaviour deteriorating,’€ recalls Inge.

In May last year, the parents raised their concerns with their family doctor who prescribed sleeping and anti-depressants tablets for Celine.   Matters did not improve and three months later their daughter confessed to using heroin.

Ben and Inge started their distressing search for a rehabilitation facility that would help their daughter.

 ‘€œWe did not know where to get help for her. I sat behind my computer and launched an internet search for rehabilitation facilities in the Western Cape,’€ said Inge.

Finally two long months later, the couple’€™s search led them to Harmony Addictions Clinic in Hout Bay.

‘€œAll we wanted was to get her to a place where she would get help. We were relieved when Harmony House took her in. But this was to be for a short time. Within three weeks of being there, we were told to pick her up immediately,’€ Ben said.

According to Inge, Harmony expelled Celine for breaking a rule not to communicate with males in the facility.

‘€œWhen I complained, we were told that the facility reserved the right to decide who would be kicked out. Both Celine and the boy were kicked out of the facility,’€ said Inge.

The toughest part was that their daughter had only been in the facility for three weeks, but Harmony House declined to give them a refund after the family paid R29 500 for a 28-day in-patient programme.

Negotiations with Harmony House proved fruitless and the family approached both the Departments of Health and Social Development.

‘€œThey told us Harmony House was not registered to perform in-patient detox on patients and there was nothing they could do to help us. They said they could not regulate the facility,’€ said Ben.

‘€œThey offered us the option to take her to one of the government owned facilities but this did not make sense to us because these facilities have only a three -week programme. She was addicted to heroin and needed extended help,’€ said Ben.

Three months passed before they found another facility.

“All our money had been poured into her treatment in Harmony House. But at that time she seemed to be doing better until she was arrested and spent the weekend in the police cell,’€ said Ben

 Early this year Harmony House refunded the family R450, money the facility said was pocket money the family had deposited for Celine.

Communicating via an attorney, Harmony Addictions Clinic said it had acted within the terms of agreement signed by Ben and Inge.

They said Celine was ‘€œfinally expelled’€ from the facility after ‘€œshe had just returned from a 48 hour mini expulsion….for breaching the rules and regulations of the facility. Thereafter she again breached the rules thus resulting in her final expulsion’€.

The attorney confirmed that Harmony House was not registered, but said it had passed all initial inspections by the Department of Social Development.

Darren Francis, spokesperson for the Western Cape Department of Health said that Harmony House received a detoxification licence last month.

However, Western Cape Department of Social Development spokesperson Deidre Foster said the facility was not registered with her department.

She said the facility’€™s licence to provide detoxification was a separate matter. ‘€œIt still needs to be registered with the Department of Social Development as a rehabilitation centre,’€ she said.  

Then Family Outreach Ministries, a Christian based facility in the Eastern Cape offered to help Celine for R26 000. Ben and Inge paid an upfront fee of R13 000 for the six-month programme.

But one month later, Celine’€™s stay at Outreach Ministries came to an end through no fault of her own.

‘€œWe got a call from the police informing us that there had been a fight at the facility. Apparently the family running the facility had an argument that resulted in the husband throttling his wife in front of the patients. We decided to pick her up because this is not an environment to recover,’€ said Inge.

This time they got some of their money refunded when the facility director handed them an R8 000 cheque.  

‘€œCeline was very thin and had bruises on her body when we picked her up from Outreach Ministries.

 ‘€œShe said she was chained to her bed because she had tried escaping with other girls one night because they wanted to report the bad situation at the facility to the police,’€ said Inge.

‘€œWe were asked to approve her being chained to the bed for that one night but she was chained more than once. They also chained her using a ball and chain during the day,’€ said Inge.

Dr Bronwyn Myers, a specialist scientist with the Medicines Control Council said some facilities convinced parents that receiving brutal treatment would help rehabilitate their children.

‘€œWe’€™ve heard of cases about facilities chaining patients to beds and others forcing them to perform hard labour as part of the treatment process,’€ said Myers.

‘€œBecause parents are so desperate to get help for their children they often believe it when they are told their children need to be receive harsh treatment in order for them to be rehabilitated. But we know that this kind of treatment does not work,’€ she said.

Because of their past experiences with rehabilitation facilities, the family checked that their next stop, Serenity Care Centre, a private facility in Knysna, was registered.

‘€œSerenity Care had space and they were offering a 20-week programme. We had to pay them R90  000 but could not afford it and we negotiated a lower price with them,’€ said Ben.

Serenity Care Centre made a deal whereby the couple paid R46 000 in return for Ben helping them to set up a website.

It has been five months since Celine first arrived at Serenity Care Centre and her parents are hoping their child will conquer her addiction.

‘€œWe have been spending some time with her while she has been in the facility and we are hopeful. She seems to be recovering now,’€ they said.

In an effort to recover from the financial setbacks, the family are in the process of selling their assets including their bed and breakfast home.

But the couple maintained that the money they spent to get help for their daughter was nothing compared to the humiliation caused by facilities.

‘€œThese so called ‘€˜professionals’€™ try to manipulate us as much as they do our addicted children. ‘€˜You cannot put a price to your child’s head – surely our children are priceless’€™. It seems like once the facilities receive the money, they no longer value our child ‘€“ she becomes just another number,’€ said Ben.

Inge urged government to intervene in the regulation of facilities: ‘€œOur hope is that the government finds a better way to regulate the facilities so that it is not about their financial gains but more about helping those that desperately need it.’€

*only first names used