Director defends rehab clients

“Going to Disneyland or fishing can be therapeutic,” Peloquin said. “They’re learning how to have fun without drugs and alcohol.”

Recovering addicts do relapse, Bill said, but all of Sober Living’s clients are tested for drugs and alcohol use every 72 hours. Clients who get caught using are immediately removed from the program until they sober up, Bill said.

The program, which has been headquartered in Newport Beach for the past 21 years, was featured in the A&E reality television show “Intervention,” which profiles people battling addiction and sends them to some of the country’s best rehab centers.

The show followed an alcoholic, middle-aged, interior decorator named Sylvia to treatment at Sober Living by the Sea.

The last few shots of the episode show a sober Sylvia walking across the sand in Newport Beach outside of one of Sober Living’s houses.

She’s still sober and doing well after completing treatment at Sober Living a year ago in September, said Jen Sneider, an associate producer for the show.

“We reach out to treatment centers we hear good things about from one of our interventionists, and we do a lot of research on where we send people,” Sneider said. “We were very lucky to get Sober Living by the Sea on board.”

Balboa Peninsula resident Bill Spitalnick has lived next door to a duplex Sober Living by the Sea, has rented to house male clients for the past 10 years and says the residents are quiet for the most part.

He says he has more problems with people who rent summer vacation homes on his block and throw loud parties.

“They’re quiet, because they’re sober,” Spitalnick said. “People are afraid of the unknown and what they don’t understand. There’s a certain stigma to people living in a rehab home.”

BRIANNA BAILEY may be reached at (714) 966-4625 or at brianna.bailey@latimes.com.