• When were you there? September 2024.
• What level(s) of care did you do (e.g., inpatient, residential, PHP, IOP)? Residential.
• If applicable: Is it wheelchair accessible? Absolutely not. It’s in a huge 2 story ranch setting house.
• How many patients are there on average? It’s so hard to answer this. They have residential, PHP with housing, and IOP with housing as well. The maximum amount of clients is I believe 26. We had about 20, 21 people all together.
• What genders does it treat? Male and female.
• If applicable: Do they support the gender identities of transgender and nonbinary people? Yes. Clients and peers were great at acknowledging each other’s pronouns.
• How often do you see a medical doctor, psychiatrist, psychologist (therapist), nutritionist, nurse, etc? You meet with your therapist 1x a week, dietitian 1x a week, MD your first day and it depends after that, and the psychiatrist 1x a week,
• What is the staff-to-patient ratio? Goodness, there would be about 1-2 RC’s (recovery coaches) for a group of 21/22 clients.
• What sort of therapies are used (e.g., DBT, CBT, EMDR, ACT, exposure therapy, somatic experiencing, etc.)? They would call the meals/snacks an exposure therapy, some DBT, ACT, and maybe some CBT. Most of the groups were psychoeducational (actually all of the theraist led groups.) It consisted of a 15-minute Ted Talk and basically the clients leading the group.

Describe the average day:

• What were meals like? There was a chef on site every day. They follow a “My Healthy Plate” approach. When you arrive, you are on entree + 1 side and A snack. After a week, the dietitian might move you to entree + 2-3 sides and B snacks. It all depends. There was a client fridge/pantry and you would prepare your own snacks. I really liked that because you can mix and choose.
• What sorts of food were available or served? Breakfast items (cereal w/ milk, toast and scrambled eggs, yogurt, smoothie bowls, fruit, breakfast quesadillas, etc.) Lunch/dinner items (soup, salads, ramen, baked potato, side salads, sandwiches, etc.) The snack pantry/fridge would be filled with chips, granola, granola bars, wheat thins, ice cream, fruit bars, fruit, juices/milk, candy, pretzels, veggies, etc.
• Did they supplement? How did that system work? Yes. They used Kate Farms, Boost, or Walmart brand Boost. I’m not sure if the dietitian gives everyone a percentage of supplements. Some of the meal plans were a completion rate of either 75% or 100%. Most of the PHP clients were at 75%. If you completed less than 100% or 75%, they would supplement you. You have 10 minutes for supplement time. Oh, 30 minutes for meals and 15 minutes for snacks.
• What is the policy of not complying with meals? They would try and see how to best support you (mainly the RC’s,) but if not, they would either administratively discharge you or refer to a higher level of care.
• Are you able to eat vegetarian? Vegan? Vegetarian.
• What privileges are allowed? You have to ask permission to stretch and go on walks. The property is so beautiful.
• Does it work on a level system? Yes. When you arrive, you are on level 1. The only thing really is the flush checks. Once you move to level 2, you can pick a cheap fidget from the clinical director’s office, go on approved walks, and get off flush checks. Level 3, you can become an admission buddy for a new admit, use the Xbox, and run a community group Same with level 4. You receive an application from your therapist and they go over it in their clinical meetings on Wednesday morning and announce who moved up a level during Community group that same day.
• What sort of groups do they have? Psychoeducation, process every day, some skill-based group, nutrition 1x a week, cooking group, and Saturday outings.
• What was your favorite group? Probably process because it’s ran by your therapist and it’s a lot smaller.
• If applicable: Is the program trauma-informed? This is so hard to answer. Yes and no. I think it depends on the therapist (there are 2,) but if you get easily startled by yelling and gunshots, this is not the place. It’s in the country so the neighbors would sometimes shoot guns and it can get pretty loud.
• What did you like the most? Honestly, how open you can be about ED struggles and urges. I connected with my peers the most. I learned more from them than from my own therapy sessions. You really get to know your peers. I also liked how they did a restaurant outing every Thursday for dinner and an outing somewhere fun (farmers market, bowling, movies, etc) on Saturday from 1p-4p. I liked how you can choose your own snacks and if you’re feeling hungry not during meals/snacks, they had that open pantry/fridge policy. They’re in the country and the scene is so beautiful. They had a cat named Tuna and the neighbor’s dog would also come over every day or so. The RC’s are the ones basically running the show and all of them were amazing. Even the nurses.
• What did you like the least? I can go on a tangent about what I liked least. I will go more into detail at the bottom.
• Would you recommend this program? Yes and no. Yes if you are ABSOLUTELY committed to getting better and also if you are younger and have no responsibilities. No due to so many reasons which I will explain more at the bottom.
• What level of activity or exercise was allowed? Walking and stretching if approved.
• What did people do on weekends? A lot of the clients were PHPx5 so they would go home on the weekends. I liked it because it just left the residential clients and the group was a lot smaller. The RC’s would run a group and on Saturdays, you would go on an outing from 1p-4p. On Sundays, there was a therapist working and they would do a process group.
• Do you get to know your weight? No. Blind weights only.
• If applicable: How fast is the weight gain process? Not sure.
• What was the average length of stay? They are STRICT about 30 days of residential. Not sure about the PHP but I will emphasize that they are against anything less than 30 days. They look down on those who sign out AMA and you will get the cold shoulder from your entire team. They won’t even meet with you or set up a discharge plan.
• What was the average age range? During my time there, the youngest was 18 and I believe the oldest was somewhere in their 40’s-50’s.
• How do visits/phone calls work? For the first 3 days, you don’t have access to your cell phone. You can use the nurse’s phone to make a 15-minute call during phone time. You don’t have visitation your first weekend but after that, you can have visitation on either Saturday OR Sunday from 4p-5:30p. You just have to let your therapist know ahead of time.
• What is the electronics policy (e.g., cell phones, iPods, Kindles, laptops, tablets)? For cell phones, the phone time was awful. It used to be from 6:30p-7:30p but someone ruined that so now it’s from 6:30-7:00p. It’s so bad. If you have work/school to do, you might be able to use it from 4:00p-5:30p since that is free time. You just need approval from your therapist to use your laptop.
• For inpatient/residential: Are you able to go on outings/passes? Just the outings part like I mentioned above. No passes whatsoever unless approved by your therapist. It has to be something major, though.
• For PHP/IOP: What support do they provide outside of programming hours? A lot of them were PHP/IOP with housing which meant they could stay in the house and sleep. You link up with the dietitian on Recovery Record so any meals you do outside of program will be logged.
• What kind of aftercare do they provide? Do they help you set up an outpatient treatment team? They really recommend doing a proper step-down. If you sign an AMA, no help whatsoever helping you coordinate care. If you successfully complete the program, they help you set it up.
• Are there any resources for people who come from out of state/country? I like that if you flew into the airport, they provide an Uber to come and pick you up.

• Other?

*I will say, this program has potential. Personally, I would not recommend this program to a loved one but if you are willing to stay the 30 days for residential and work on your recovery, then yes, I would recommend it in a heartbeat. It has the potential because I know the staff have a heart for this field but this program is lacking so much. With such a high census, the client/clinician ratio is awful. I know there are 2 therapists but they have a caseload of 10-13 clients each. There’s only one dietitian and poor thing. She has to see allll clients. My sessions would be 5-10 minutes. I’m used to ERC as I’ve been there before. I preferred ERC’s program over this and that takes a lot for me to say. I regret coming here and should’ve known from the beginning. This place was so unstable for me and I had to leave early to protect my own recovery. I learned more from my peers than from my own therapist/dietitian and that should explain it all.
Come to EDS if:
-You are absolutely committed 100% to recovering from your ED.
-Can handle crappy therapy/dietitian sessions.
-Can stay the whole length of stay.
-Need medication adjustments.
Don’t come to EDS if:
-Not committed to recovery.
-Need a structured environment.
-Have obligations to go back home to (work, school, kids, etc) and can stay less than 30 days.
-Need medical stability.
-Prefer to receive more therapy (most inpatient/residential and even PHP’s have 2-3 sessions a week with a therapist and dietitian.)
-Don’t like to hear drama about staff.
-Hate change (especially with staff quitting and/or not showing up for a shift.)
-You know yourself and if you struggle with hiding food, flush checks, not following rules, not good with water intake, etc.)
-You hate high census (the house is huge but man, when you cram 20 individuals in one room for group, it gets hectic.)

Looking for a recent review of the residential program in Weatherford/Dallas! Some specific questions I have:

How effective/helpful would you say the program was overall for you?

How accepting were the staff in terms of gender and sexual identity? Did group / therapy explore queer identity / LGBTQ+ topics much?

What were groups like/what types of activities do you do? I’m looking for a varied approach and am a little worried that the only reviews I can find don’t mention much other than CBT and DBT.

Do you ever have to cook your own food?

What was your experience with the medical team?

What are current COVID restrictions? Are there outings/visitors allowed?

Any other things you think someone going to this facility should be aware of?

Thank you in advance! 🙂