El Rancho De La Vida

About El Rancho De La Vida

El Rancho De La Vida is a nonprofit recovery residence organization in Fairfield, Maine, in Somerset County. It describes itself as a six-month coed residential substance use disorder treatment facility and a MARR-certified Level IV recovery residence located in Hinckley, and the Maine Association of Recovery Residences lists a second house under the organization's name, Shiller Ranch, certified at Level 3. Under one nonprofit, then, this corner of central Maine has both licensed residential treatment and certified recovery housing.

About El Rancho De La Vida

El Rancho De La Vida is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people with substance use disorder. Its stated belief is that every individual is a human being who has value, and that success in recovery is best achieved by treating the whole person. That is not a throwaway line in this case. The organization builds its work around the idea that someone arriving out of active addiction needs more than a diagnosis and a discharge date, and it says as much in its own description of itself. It is led by a founder who also serves as its executive director.

The two sides of the organization are connected rather than separate. Shiller Ranch, the certified recovery residence, points residents toward the organization's own substance use disorder treatment intake, which means a person can move between treatment and recovery housing without leaving the community they have already built.

Recovery for Couples

El Rancho De La Vida states that it is Maine's only substance use recovery treatment program where couples can be in rehabilitation together. That is an unusual offer. Residential treatment and recovery housing are very often organized by gender, which means partners who want to get well at the same time are usually sent to separate programs. Keeping a couple in one place removes one of the reasons people give for putting the decision off.

Certification, Licensing and Levels

Two houses appear under El Rancho De La Vida in the Maine Association of Recovery Residences certified-residence directory: Anderson Ranch at Level 4 and Shiller Ranch at Level 3. MARR is the body that certifies recovery residences in Maine, and its directory records a level house by house rather than operator by operator, which is why two houses run by the same nonprofit carry different levels.

Separately, the State of Maine substance use disorder residential bed overview records El Rancho de La Vida at 62 Page Terrace in Hinckley, Somerset County, under the category Residential Treatment Low Intensity, with stays of up to 180 days and all beds open to MaineCare. Licensed residential treatment and certified recovery housing are governed differently and do different jobs, and this organization appears in both systems at once.

Homes Operated by El Rancho De La Vida

Shiller Ranch, in Fairfield, is the organization's MARR-certified Level III recovery housing program for adult men and women aged 21 and older. It is a zero-tolerance house that expects residents to arrive already detoxed and with substance-free time behind them, and it is listed separately in this directory.

Anderson Ranch is the second house recorded under the organization in the MARR directory, carrying the Level 4 certification. The Hinckley site at 62 Page Terrace is where the organization's licensed residential treatment program is delivered, and it too has its own listing.

Sober Living in Somerset County

Somerset County is a largely rural part of central Maine, and people looking for a substance-free place to live here are usually choosing between a small number of options rather than a long list. That makes an organization running several distinct programs locally worth knowing about, because it can meet a person at more than one point.

Recovery residences are substance-free homes where people live together while they rebuild the ordinary parts of life: work, family contact, routine, a place to sleep that is not a risk. Certification through MARR is the signal that a house has agreed to be measured against a published standard rather than simply calling itself sober housing. For anyone searching for recovery housing around Fairfield, Hinckley and the wider Somerset County area, El Rancho De La Vida is one of the organizations whose houses carry that certification.