Terms of Use

1. Acceptance

Pacific Shores ("we," "us," or "this site") provides editorial content and a directory of addiction-treatment resources at pacific-shores.org. By accessing the site or using any of its features, you agree to these Terms of Use. If you do not agree, please do not use the site. We may revise these terms from time to time; revisions take effect when the updated date at the top of the page changes, and continued use of the site after that date constitutes acceptance of the revision.

2. Nature of the Service — Informational Only

This site publishes information about addiction treatment, insurance coverage, and treatment centers. It is not itself a treatment provider, a clinical service, a licensed healthcare facility, or a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Any content you read here — including clinical descriptions, level-of-care explanations, insurance guidance, and blog articles — is general educational material. It may not apply to your specific situation. Decisions about treatment should be made with a qualified clinician who has access to your medical history.

We are not a medical referral service in the clinical sense; the helpline connects you to licensed admissions staff at treatment-center partners, who then make intake decisions. We do not diagnose, prescribe, or treat any condition.

3. No Medical Advice

Nothing on this site is medical advice. Nothing on this site establishes a clinician-patient relationship between you and us. If you are in crisis, call 911 or 988. If you need a professional assessment, consult a licensed physician, psychiatrist, addiction medicine specialist, or certified addiction counselor. Do not start, stop, or change any medication or treatment plan based on content you read here.

4. Accuracy of Information

We work hard to ensure information is accurate and up-to-date, but we cannot guarantee that every fact, figure, or listing is current at the moment you read it. Treatment centers open and close. Licenses get renewed, suspended, or revoked. Insurance plans change their coverage rules. Federal and state regulations evolve. We publish a last-updated date on every page so you know when the content was last reviewed, and we correct factual errors when they are brought to our attention — but if you are relying on specific information for a consequential decision, verify it with the primary source (the treatment center, your insurance plan, the relevant government agency) before acting.

5. Facility Listings Disclaimer

Our directory of treatment centers is sourced from the SAMHSA Behavioral Health Treatment Services Locator. We display the information SAMHSA makes public about each facility: name, address, phone, services listed, payment types accepted. Listing in our directory does not constitute an endorsement. It means only that a center is registered with the federal treatment locator. Inclusion does not mean we have evaluated clinical quality, staff credentials, patient outcomes, or business practices.

Exclusion from our directory is not an indictment. A facility may be absent because it has not updated its SAMHSA registration, because our data has not yet refreshed since the facility joined, or for administrative reasons.

We do not verify every claim that treatment centers make about themselves — accreditations listed, therapies offered, insurance accepted. If a specific claim is decisive for you, call the center and confirm it in writing.

6. Helpline Disclaimer

The phone number displayed on this site connects you to a licensed admissions network that has partnered with us. The network, not our editorial team, handles calls. The network may make recommendations based on your situation, insurance, and geography, and those recommendations may be limited to facilities within the network's roster. If you want to compare options beyond what the helpline offers, browse the full directory or call centers directly from the SAMHSA treatment locator at findtreatment.gov.

Calls to the helpline are not recorded by us. The partner network's call-handling practices are governed by 42 CFR Part 2 and applicable state law.

7. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, Pacific Shores, its operators, employees, contractors, and affiliates are not liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, special, or exemplary damages arising from your use of the site, your reliance on its information, your communications with any treatment center listed, or any clinical outcome related to the treatment you or someone you know received. This includes — without limitation — damages for injury, emotional distress, loss of data, loss of profits, or missed treatment opportunities.

Some jurisdictions do not permit the exclusion of certain warranties or the limitation of liability for specific damages, so some of these limitations may not apply to you. Nothing in these terms excludes liability that cannot be excluded by law.

8. Intellectual Property

The editorial content, design, and code of this site are owned by the operators of Pacific Shores or its licensors, and are protected by copyright and other intellectual-property laws. You may read, link to, and share individual pages for personal and non-commercial educational purposes. You may not republish substantial portions of our editorial content, reproduce our directory in bulk, or scrape the site for commercial use without written permission. Fair-use quotation with attribution is welcome.

Third-party material — federal agency content, press releases, images licensed from stock providers — remains the property of the respective rights-holders and is used under the applicable license or statutory exception.

9. External Links

We link to external sources (government agencies, peer-reviewed journals, treatment centers, news outlets) to let readers verify our claims and explore topics in greater depth. We do not control those sites, do not endorse their content, and are not responsible for their accuracy, policies, or conduct.

10. User Conduct

When you use the contact form, you agree not to submit content that is unlawful, threatening, abusive, defamatory, fraudulent, or infringes on any third party's rights. Do not submit personal health information about other people without their consent. Do not use the form to solicit business, distribute spam, or attempt to test security controls.

11. Changes to the Site

We may modify, suspend, or discontinue any part of the site at any time, for any reason, without notice. We may remove or update facility listings based on new SAMHSA data. We may archive, update, or delete editorial content. These actions are part of normal site operation and do not require individual notification.

12. Governing Law

These terms are governed by the laws of the United States and the state in which the site's operators are based, without regard to conflict-of-laws principles. Any dispute arising from these terms or your use of the site will be resolved in the state or federal courts located there.

13. Contact

Questions about these terms: [email protected], or via our contact page.