Background
This Ruling forms part of a wider piece of work on rehab clinic referral companies. The ad was identified for investigation following complaints received from the Ethical Marketing Campaign for Addiction Treatment (EMCAT).
Summary of Council decision:
Two issues were investigated, both of which were Upheld.
Ad description
A website www.uk-rehab.com, for UK Addiction Treatment Ltd, seen on 11 July 2024.
The home page contained information about services provided by the organisation, which included the claims “FREE Advice including NHS & Private Options” and “Access to Hundreds of Drug and Alcohol Rehab Centres”. At the bottom of the page was a contact form, with a headline that stated, “Our trained addiction counsellors are on hand 24 hours a day”.
The “About Us” page referred to the organisation as “UK Rehab helper”. Further down the page, in the "Finding the right clinic" subsection, the ad included the claim, “UK Rehab Helper has no bias for one rehab clinic over another – we help individuals find the best possible treatment for their needs” and “UK Rehab Helper will look at your budget and work with you to find the best UK rehab clinics possible”.
Issue
The complainant, Ethical Marketing Campaign for Addiction Treatment (EMCAT), challenged whether:
- the ad falsely implied that the marketer was acting for purposes outside its business and did not make clear their commercial intent; and
- the claim “Our trained addiction counsellors are on hand 24 hours a day” was misleading.
Response
1. UK Addiction Treatment Ltd (UKAT) t/a UK Rehab said that their business was primarily the operation of eight CQC-regulated facilities. They stated the UK Rehab website was a legacy website directory for information purposes only, and did not generate profit. They explained that it was a directory containing resources for enquirers and had not been updated for many years, as it was no longer relevant to UKAT’s core business, providing treatment in rehabilitation centres.
They said the website homepage contained a question mark which when clicked on explained that an enquirer would be contacting UKAT, upon providing their details to UK Rehab.They said UK Rehab signposted users to support and clinical care, helping enquirers to access free services including national government-funded services and 12-step meetings. If the enquirer required clinical care at a rehabilitation centre and was suitable for one of UKAT's treatment centres, they were referred to one of their facilities. However, when a patient was not suitable for their centres, they were referred to the appropriate service for their needs, including alternative rehabs, hospitals, mental health facilities as well as free options. UK Rehab said they did not receive any income from those referrals.
They said following notice of the complaint, they had updated the wording on their website. “Access to Hundreds of Drug and Alcohol Rehab Centres”, had been changed to "Directory of drug and alcohol rehab centres”, and “UK Rehab Helper will look at your budget and work with you to find the best UK rehab clinics possible” had been changed to "our trained addiction specialists will help you find the ideal rehab programme that fits your budget". They had also amended the general use of the name “UK Rehab Helper” to "UK Rehab". They had also added the wording "Part of UK Addiction Treatment Centres" to the footer of their website.
2. UK Rehab highlighted that there was no legal definition of the term counsellor or an obligation to register with a regulatory body before using the term.
They said that in the context of their ad, "counselling," as defined by most dictionaries, involved listening and offering advice. They said that when an enquiry came in, they provided guidance on matters related to family dynamics, boundaries, treatment options, and potential consequences. They clarified that did not equate to psychotherapy sessions and that enquirers who required in-depth therapeutic sessions were referred to a therapist, who could provide structured weekly sessions tailored to the individual's needs. They said their counselling provided immediate emotional support, directive advice, and basic assistance.
They said all individuals who provided their callback service had undergone thorough training by UKAT and were equipped to deliver the highest quality of services to enquirers. They provided a breakdown of their training structure and guidance for phone operatives. They said new employees typically underwent a training period of three to six months and the training included face-to-face sessions with role-playing exercises.
They stated that the aim of their phone staff was to encourage enquirers to begin their recovery process promptly. They said that when an enquiry was received, a qualified staff member who understood the enquirer’s situation would offer appropriate guidance and an initial consultation which involved an assessment of the enquirer's challenges, a discussion of potential therapies and general support to motivate the individual. They would also conduct further calls to follow up and ensure the enquirer had connected with a suitable program, if appropriate.
They also highlighted the experience in their team and provided a breakdown of seven staff members and their experience in the addiction and rehabilitation industry.
However, to avoid ambiguity, they had updated their website and removed one reference to counsellors and replaced another with "addiction specialists".
Assessment
1. Upheld
The ASA considered that consumers were likely to understand from the claims “FREE Advice including NHS & Private Options”, “Access to Hundreds of Drug and Alcohol Rehab Centres”, “UK Rehab Helper has no bias for one rehab clinic over another – we help individuals find the best possible treatment for their needs” and “UK Rehab Helper will look at your budget and work with you to find the best UK rehab clinics possible”, that UK Rehab was an impartial directory, unaffiliated with any one particular treatment provider and that they did not give primary consideration to any particular provider in the referral processWe noted that the website contained text, which stated, “Who am I contacting? Calls and contact requests are answered by admissions at UK Addiction Treatment Group. We look forward to helping you take your first step”. However, it was not immediately clear to consumers because a yellow question mark, near the bottom of the page, had to be clicked for that text to be displayed. Furthermore, that statement did not explain that the Rehab Guide website was owned by and part of UKAT who were a treatment provider.
We acknowledged that Rehab Guide had made amendments to their website, including changing the references “UK Rehab Helper” to "UK Rehab" and adding the statement "Part of UK Addiction Treatment Centres" to the footer of their website. While the footer was clearer that the website was part of UKAT, we considered it did not change the overall impression of the ad, that UK Rehab was an impartial directory, and did not prominently or explicitly make clear, without contradiction, that the advice would preferentially suggest UKAT facilities for those who could pay for treatment, or that UK Rehab was part of UKAT.
The ad did not make clear that UK Rehab was principally a referral service for UKAT facilities and that it was part of UKAT, and instead suggested they offered an impartial service. We therefore concluded that because the ad implied they were acting for purposes outside their business, and did not make clear their commercial intent, it breached the Code.
On that point, the ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 2.3 (Recognition of Marketing Communications)
2. Upheld
We understood that “counsellor” was not a protected title and, as such, those using the term did not need to be professionally registered. However, we considered that consumers were likely to understand the “Our trained addiction counsellors are on hand 24 hours a day”, especially in the context of an addiction rehabilitation website, to mean that the phone staff could offer professional therapeutic counselling over the phone and that they had a level of external qualification that enabled them to conduct specific addiction counselling. We understood that was not the case from UK Rehab’s description of their internal training programme.
We welcomed UK Rehab’s decision to remove the references to counsellors from their website. However, we considered that consumers were also likely to interpret the term "addiction specialists" to mean the call staff would be able to provide a more thorough and specific level of addiction support on the phone than we understood to be the case.
We concluded that the claim “Our trained addiction counsellors are on hand 24 hours a day” was misleading.
On that point, the ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 3.1 (Misleading Advertising).
Action
The ad must not appear again in the form complained of. We told UK Addiction Treatment Ltd t/a UK Rehab to ensure that their advertising did not falsely imply they were acting for purposes outside their business, not to imply their service was impartial if that was not the case and to avoid claims implying that they offered professional counselling or specialist treatment over the phone, unless they could demonstrate that was the case.
