Shalom House is an unaccredited men-only Christian faith-based drug rehabilitation facility located in the Swan Valley about 23 kilometres north of Perth in Western Australia. Operating since 2012, it claims to be the strictest rehabilitation centre in Australia and utilises an ineffectual tough love model to treat residents. While they have stated they are the most successful rehabilitation centre in Australia, they do not track statistics relating to the success rate of the program and rely on anecdotal evidence to support their claim. Publicly available information indicates the success rate of the program is less than 5 per cent. Drug and alcohol experts have stated that the drug treatment field moved away from tough love treatments over 30 years ago due to the lack of evidence supporting them in favour of more successful, evidence-based practices. Residents are required to attend three church services a week and the founder, Peter Lyndon-James, has stated that he converts all residents to Christianity within two days of entering the program.
History
Shalom House was established in 2012 by former drug addict-turned-preacher Peter Lyndon-James who purchased a large house in the outer rural suburb of Henley Brook to use as a residential rehabilitation centre for men. A psychiatrist and a GP offered their services one day a week and volunteers were used to run the house. By 2017 Shalom House had expanded to ten locations housing 120 residents and had over fifty staff and volunteers. In 2018, the facility had increased to 140 residents across 14 properties. In 2019 Shalom House filed a development application with the City of Swan for a 600-seat auditorium, administration hub, cafe, and indoor recreation centre with the primary purpose of the facility being for church services and other Shalom House activities. Local residents raised a number of concerns, including the possibility that rehab residents may be housed at the new facility. Shalom House responded by saying that it had no immediate plans to do so. The application was withdrawn later in the same year.
Costs
As an unaccredited facility, Shalom House is not eligible for government funding. Caitlin Shea, a journalist writing for ABC News, noted in a 2019 article that all costs for the program are met by the residents who pay $300 per week for the duration of their stay. An advance payment of $700 is required from anyone on Centrelink payments. Anyone not receiving Centrelink payments must make an advance payment of $1400 if he or she has 100 points of identification and $2800 if he or she does not.
On top of the $300 per week, residents are charged an extra $200 per week in the form of a loan. According to the Shalom House contract, residents who graduate the program have this debt waived but anyone leaving the program for any other reason is required to pay this debt in full.
Shalom House is registered as a charity under West Australian Shalom Group Inc. with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission.
Rules
Prior to entering the facility, all residents are required to sign an enduring power of attorney, handing control of their finances to Shalom House. They must sign up for a minimum 12-month stay during which they must agree not to swear, smoke or have visitors. Discipline is so strict that even picking up a cigarette butt will result in immediate removal from the program. All residents are expected to work full-time while detoxing, beginning with community service jobs before moving into paid employment.
Methods
Peter Lyndon-James has no formal qualifications in alcohol and drug rehabilitation but instead operates from his personal experience as a former meth addict and drug dealer. He has created a 5-stage program for rehabilitation.
Stage 1: A 3-month period of cold-turkey detox that involves the loss of autonomy. Residents are not permitted to have access to phones, audio and visual media, books or magazines, nor can they leave the property unaccompanied. Residents work full-time at Shalom House as well as volunteering for local charities. With the exception of residents who are suffering extreme withdrawal symptoms (determined pre-entry by a medical practitioner), no medications are allowed. Although a doctor and a psychiatrist visit Shalom House once per week, detoxing residents do not have professional medical assistance on-site and residents rely on untrained support from fellow residents.
Stage 2: The facility works with the residents to create a plan for their future. They begin working two days per week with an employer aligned with Shalom House who will disciple them.