We build our facility list and research each facility beginning with data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), accrediting bodies including The Joint Commission and CARF, government licensing agencies, and other trusted sources. We may also identify facilities through direct outreach to providers that appear to meet our inclusion criteria.
Beyond publicly available information, our team conducts significant original research. Across the site, we have conducted over 1,000 pre-admissions calls to better understand the patient experience, interviewed facility clinical leaders, performed facility background checks, and compared our information against trusted public data sources.
Research varies by facility. Each facility profile shows which research steps we completed and when each step was last performed. We also continually review and update facility information as new information becomes available. Learn more about our background checks.
Our goal is to make it easier for you to find treatment options that meet your unique needs. To help you review and evaluate treatment options, our research enables us to develop a Trust Score for each facility—a simple letter grade that helps you assess how much confidence to place in a facility based on the information available to us.
The Trust Score for a facility considers accreditation, operating history, notable recognition, and concerns identified during our background check. Our Trust Score is an objective rating that is never influenced by advertiser payment.
Learn more about our Trust Score methodology.
The most important factor in our ranking algorithm is the Trust Score. We also consider a facility’s proximity to you, availability status, and profile completeness when determining sort order. When certain filters are selected—or on pages specifically tailored to a particular audience, treatment type, or insurance—we also heavily weigh a facility’s relevance to your stated needs. Some availability information comes from facilities with which we have a direct relationship, including paid relationships, but payment never affects a facility's Trust Score.
Learn more about how we rank our results.
We continually review data sources and our original research to ensure the information we present is accurate and as up to date as possible.
Members of our editorial team have clinical experience, and we regularly consult with leading addiction medicine specialists and other experts from nonprofit, academic, and government institutions to ensure the information we publish is accurate, unbiased, and useful.
Since 2016, Start Your Recovery has worked closely with leading experts in treatment and public health to help more than 3 million people connect to care. We began as a pro-bono public health project and became an independent LLC in 2021. We are not owned or operated by any treatment facility and we have never raised outside capital.
We cannot guarantee the safety or quality of treatment at any facility. We cannot independently confirm the accuracy of every data point, and some information may become outdated or change over time. A Trust Score is a starting point, not a guarantee of treatment quality or outcomes. Please contact us if you would like to update or correct facility information.