FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Once the individual has agreed to admission, admission forms must be completed with basic information for the client’s safety. We’ll require the transfer of a deposit to secure their room and their bed, and we’ll need their flight or travel itinerary, so we can have a team to meet them at their point of entry into Malaysia, or onsite when they arrive.

They should bring anything that makes them feel at home and makes them feel safe and comfortable. We suggest sports clothes, trainers, light and casual clothes, pyjamas, their favourite dressing gown (although we provide these), their favourite slippers (we provide these as well), toiletries (we provide the basics and do weekly shopping trips to stock up), and any comforting objects like a favourite pillow or plants. Women might want to bring a couple of shawls for visiting religious or government buildings, although, again, we can provide these also!

They should not bring anything that would be a danger to others, such sharp objects, knives, medications aside from what’s prescribed to them, alcohol, illicit street drugs, and objects that have a high alcohol content or are highly flammable. And formal wear is not needed at The Wave!

All exclusions on what to bring are discussed at the admission stage, and also listed in the admission pack.

Since everyone is affected by mental health and addiction, this is a great healing time for the whole family. We like to give both the family and the individual so space to reflect on and process what’s going on.

When the family and the young person staying with us are all ready to engage with this type of therapy and get the most out of it, we encourage visits in the form of family therapy. This generally happens at around the 6-week mark, but possibly later.

As part of our transitioning care plan, we also offer weekly home visits via video so clients can spend time with their family.

It’s normal for a teen or young adult to experience homesickness for the first few weeks. We’re a secure unit, located in one of the most luxurious areas of Kuala Lumpur, and our staff-to-client ratio is clients 1:2 (1:1 for high risk clients), so it is difficult (although not impossible) for a client to run away.

Generally, like when starting a new school, our clients make friends after a few days and don’t want to leave - because they’ve found the peace they’ve been looking for.

We report weekly to our clinical partners, i.e. any professionals who referred and/or have been working with your loved one. We will report to parents subject to the client signing a release of information. Otherwise, we only report on a duty-of-care basis, if your loved one is at risk in any way.

Yes, we do. The criteria is simply that your insurance company will accept your claim. In some cases, they will give a guarantee of payment in advance; in others, you’ll need to settle with them directly. But we will work with your insurance provider to try and provide settlement or partial settlement on your or your loved one’s stay with us.

We do understand that treatment is not an expense that most families are prepared for. Subject to assessment and criteria, as well as specific agreements with the family, there are times when we can assist families to spread the cost of treatment. We’ll work with you to make the financial arrangements as simple as possible.

We start planning their end of our clients’ treatment from the day they arrive at The Wave.

We begin by organizing step-down levels of care, either at home or with us or with another treatment provider.  One example of this is would be to move into supported living, which means living in a recovery community, but with independence to work, study, travel, make friends, cook, budget, and learn life skills. This also describes our secondary or transitional care programme, and is available to all clients who complete a minimum of 12 weeks of primary care with us.

For those who wish to return home or want to have a robust discharge plan ready to meet them at the other end, post-treatment care will include a support network of mental health professionals, treatment providers, holistic providers and whatever other resources needed to keep them well and on track.

Clients can also return to us for short stays, subject to availability. We welcome - and love! - having discharged client return in 4 or 6 weeks time to spend a few days with us.

Yes. While we consider ourselves to be a medium secure facility (rather than a lockdown facility), if a young person appears to be at risk of harming themselves or others, or has a high risk of absconding during early treatment, we can use the services of a high care secure facility nearby.

When young people begin to get physically well, which normally happens before they become psychologically well, they sometimes feel the urge to get out of the clinic. Whilst we do everything we can to retain them, that feeling is completely normal, and we’ll work with it and with them to keep them as secure as possible. Our location is a secure building within a secure area, manned by security guards and an electronic entrance and entry system.

Just about everything included in the client’s stay is included in the price: detox, psychiatric care, medical care, counseling, psychotherapy, food, accommodations, excursions, and most activities.

Flights and family accommodations are not included, nor are small personal expenses like toiletries, clothing or a new swimming costume, which would come out of your deposit. The same goes for any particular foods, self-care treatments, or the cost of taking trips or excursions that are not part of our programme.

If there are any complex medications that are not part of the admission criteria, for example, certain HIV medications, blood clotting medications, or anything else that’s outside of the primary reason for admission, these may be charged as an extra, depending on the availability and location of the drugs. So, will any extra medical care that requires an outside provider, i.e. x-rays, MRI scans, blood tests, etc. Fortunately, medical care in Kuala Lumpur is of high quality and very reasonable, and we will always get consent before expenditure.

If your loved one is in treatment and we have a good understanding of the case, we can help explain their situation to the court and give a predicted length of treatment.