Be very wary of this program. It is not at all as advertised. They seem to spend more time on advertising then helping the actual kids. Dr. Rubin is a consistent liar to parents and seems to be more interested in money than your child's safety. He puts kids with Autism and other mental handicaps in significant danger, by putting them with drug addicts and gambles, by not being selective and specializing in what they treat. This leads to many of the lower functioning kids to be abused verbally and peer pressured into crime, I saw multiple shop lifting first hand that led to an arrest of a student there who was doing it on behalf of another person.
Dr. Rubin realized on the unfortunate mental disabilities these kids are given to lie and manipulate them because they do not understand social cues, and when they are being lied too. In the new directions building the phone number that is required to be posted in all mental health facilities in Florida, is hid behind a do, and also has the number partially worn off, so that no one will see it. If they do take the time to look close enough and this hidden mental health abuse number they would be seen by staff and I'm sure degraded.
Confidentially is a major issue at this program. Considering it is mental health, you can hear and are told by the stay about everyones business and also there personal information. I was in there building and literally heard a whole therapy session in the room next door. They do not have the facilities to support this program. My information was revealed to other patients as well, leading to significant damage, when i would express issued with another patient that patient was told, and some of the patients don't like ""snitches"" so you are effectively then treated poorly by people you could be in group therapy with because they do not want to do the right thing. When I raised concerns about certain participants in the program abusing people without the mental capacity to deal with it they told me, they were going to kick those individuals out, and then go on to tell me there whole story and mental diagnosis in some cases unsolicited.
The programs services, are not at all as advertised. They significantly exaggerate the extent of services to which they are able to provide. For example, I was told I would have regular meetings with a therapist. This did not happen. They were frequently cancelled due to the unorganized nature of the program."
I agree totally with the other report that was written on this terrible program! Dr. Rubin turned out to be a liar and scam artist.
He did not deliver on any of the things we were told by him that were offered at this program. First of all he pretends in his brochures and websites that he has a ""campus"". There is no campus. He is houses in a small office building that is shared with attorneys. The attorneys do not allow any of the personnel or kids from New Directions to go into the lobby area. Therefore they have to enter a side door.
The housing which is a gated community is not located near to the offices. Therefore these kids have to walk a great distance through the back of the large gated community, through a small opening in a brick wall in the back, through the back of a large super Target store (very unsafe) and over a highway. This was not shown to us. We were told our child would be at all times transported by a van everywhere.
Dr. Rubin acts like that post-secondary lifeskills program is for kids that are high-functioning and going to college and up to age 20. We get there and find out that he takes anyone so he can make money!!! He also advertises to people that have gambling addictions, drinking problems and drug problems. This was a frightening scenario. There were older people in there and which we observed and when we ""called"" him on this he lied to our face about it.
My child had only been there a couple weeks - and I stayed down there to keep tabs on what they were doing, and they not only expected her right away to walk long distances (this is after explaining we had sent her there because she was not independent!) but didn't have a roommate for her and stuck her with an incompetent female employee in her 20's, who was awful, she ignored my daughter and didn't show her how to do anything. This employee was there to teach the students how to cook and clean. From what I observed from this individual, she needed serious training herself. And when I questioned her on why she had dishes in the sink - her answer to me was she didn't know how to work the dishwasher!!!!
Not only did I feel this program was a complete scam run by Dr. Rubin, but he loves to brag to everyone that he is a world class poker player who earned the money for the program from gambling. That should have been an immediate red flag. As mentioned by the previous poster James, he hires family members and his girlfriend. They seemed to be taking a lot of trips and like James mentioned Dr. Rubin would not be around that much.
In every respect this is a big warning to anyone that is considering this program, to run as far as you can away from it. There are plenty of reputable honest programs that are geared for kids that are high - functioning autism or nonverbal learning disabilities.
There are many many negative reviews on Yelp about this man. Just check the filtered reviews. He has managed to try and remove some of them, but you can find them if you hunt. We are not through with Dr. Rubin!
New Directions for Young Adults Reviews
Be very wary of this program. It is not at all as advertised. They seem to spend more time on advertising then helping the actual kids. Dr. Rubin is a consistent liar to parents and seems to be more interested in money than your child's safety. He puts kids with Autism and other mental handicaps in significant danger, by putting them with drug addicts and gambles, by not being selective and specializing in what they treat. This leads to many of the lower functioning kids to be abused verbally and peer pressured into crime, I saw multiple shop lifting first hand that led to an arrest of a student there who was doing it on behalf of another person.
Dr. Rubin realized on the unfortunate mental disabilities these kids are given to lie and manipulate them because they do not understand social cues, and when they are being lied too. In the new directions building the phone number that is required to be posted in all mental health facilities in Florida, is hid behind a do, and also has the number partially worn off, so that no one will see it. If they do take the time to look close enough and this hidden mental health abuse number they would be seen by staff and I'm sure degraded.
Confidentially is a major issue at this program. Considering it is mental health, you can hear and are told by the stay about everyones business and also there personal information. I was in there building and literally heard a whole therapy session in the room next door. They do not have the facilities to support this program. My information was revealed to other patients as well, leading to significant damage, when i would express issued with another patient that patient was told, and some of the patients don't like ""snitches"" so you are effectively then treated poorly by people you could be in group therapy with because they do not want to do the right thing. When I raised concerns about certain participants in the program abusing people without the mental capacity to deal with it they told me, they were going to kick those individuals out, and then go on to tell me there whole story and mental diagnosis in some cases unsolicited.
The programs services, are not at all as advertised. They significantly exaggerate the extent of services to which they are able to provide. For example, I was told I would have regular meetings with a therapist. This did not happen. They were frequently cancelled due to the unorganized nature of the program."
I agree totally with the other report that was written on this terrible program! Dr. Rubin turned out to be a liar and scam artist.
He did not deliver on any of the things we were told by him that were offered at this program. First of all he pretends in his brochures and websites that he has a ""campus"". There is no campus. He is houses in a small office building that is shared with attorneys. The attorneys do not allow any of the personnel or kids from New Directions to go into the lobby area. Therefore they have to enter a side door.
The housing which is a gated community is not located near to the offices. Therefore these kids have to walk a great distance through the back of the large gated community, through a small opening in a brick wall in the back, through the back of a large super Target store (very unsafe) and over a highway. This was not shown to us. We were told our child would be at all times transported by a van everywhere.
Dr. Rubin acts like that post-secondary lifeskills program is for kids that are high-functioning and going to college and up to age 20. We get there and find out that he takes anyone so he can make money!!! He also advertises to people that have gambling addictions, drinking problems and drug problems. This was a frightening scenario. There were older people in there and which we observed and when we ""called"" him on this he lied to our face about it.
My child had only been there a couple weeks - and I stayed down there to keep tabs on what they were doing, and they not only expected her right away to walk long distances (this is after explaining we had sent her there because she was not independent!) but didn't have a roommate for her and stuck her with an incompetent female employee in her 20's, who was awful, she ignored my daughter and didn't show her how to do anything. This employee was there to teach the students how to cook and clean. From what I observed from this individual, she needed serious training herself. And when I questioned her on why she had dishes in the sink - her answer to me was she didn't know how to work the dishwasher!!!!
Not only did I feel this program was a complete scam run by Dr. Rubin, but he loves to brag to everyone that he is a world class poker player who earned the money for the program from gambling. That should have been an immediate red flag. As mentioned by the previous poster James, he hires family members and his girlfriend. They seemed to be taking a lot of trips and like James mentioned Dr. Rubin would not be around that much.
In every respect this is a big warning to anyone that is considering this program, to run as far as you can away from it. There are plenty of reputable honest programs that are geared for kids that are high - functioning autism or nonverbal learning disabilities.
There are many many negative reviews on Yelp about this man. Just check the filtered reviews. He has managed to try and remove some of them, but you can find them if you hunt. We are not through with Dr. Rubin!