Any updates or current reviews? Please post in comments below. You can check out the FAQ and Guidelines for suggested questions. Thank you!
Any updates or current reviews? Please post in comments below. You can check out the FAQ and Guidelines for suggested questions. Thank you!
• When were you there? December 27th – January 7th 2024
• What level(s) of care did you do (e.g., inpatient, residential, PHP, IOP)?Inpatient
• If applicable: Is it wheelchair accessible?not sure
• How many patients are there on average? in my unit there was around probably 15.
• What genders does it treat? Male and Female.
• If applicable: Do they support the gender identities of transgender and nonbinary people? Yes
• How often do you see a medical doctor, psychiatrist, psychologist (therapist), nutritionist, nurse, etc? Groups at least once a day, but barely 1 to 1.
• What is the staff-to-patient ratio? 1:6
• What sort of therapies are used (e.g., DBT, CBT, EMDR, ACT, exposure therapy, somatic experiencing, etc.)? LOTS of DBT and talk therapy.
• Describe the average day:
7am Wake up and take meds
8-10 school
11-12 gym/ arcade
12-12:15- Phone calls for level 4
1-1:30 Lunch
1:30-1:45 Room clean
1:45-2:30 group (substance abuse, nutrition, levels, medications)
2:30-3 Phone calls for level 3
3-4 Art therapy
4-5 Activity (karaoke, painting nails, etc.)
5-5:30 phone call levels 1and2 and meds
5:30-6 dinner
6-6:30 activity
6:30-7 DBT Homework
7-8 Wrap up group
8-9 meds and doing nothing
9 curfew
• What were meals like? I think they were balanced, but some didn’t taste the best.
• What sorts of food were available or served? breakfast: toast, fruit or oatmeal.
lunch: quesadillas, burritos, pizza, etc.
dinner: chicken fingers, pasta, pizza, salad, fruit.
• Did they supplement? How did that system work? n/a
• What is the policy of not complying with meals?n/a
• Are you able to eat vegetarian? Vegan? yes
• What privileges are allowed? basically if you behaved and participated, you would be able to stay up longer or make more phone calls.
• Does it work on a level system? yes 1-4
• How do you earn privileges? participating in groups, following the schedule.
• What sort of groups do they have? nutrition, healthy relationships, DBT, team building groups, talk, medication, art, recreation, and activity.
• What was your favorite group? probably dbt/talk
• If applicable: Is the program trauma-informed? depends
• What did you like the most? some of the girls and one mental health worker.
• What did you like the least? [**TW**] I hateddddd how they kept me there way longer than I was supposed to be. I was in there for SI and aborted attempt due to me gaining weight on abilify (that was the only reason) and they told me that they didn’t care if I gained weight on it, and they put me on another med that is KNOWN for severe weight gain. [**END TW**] This place didn’t help at all, all the therapists and NPPs made me feel horrible. I was in panic mode. They lied about my parents to me!!! What type of place does that??
• Would you recommend this program? Absolutely not.
• What level of activity or exercise was allowed? n/a but depended on the person. Max would be playing basketball for a few mins or going on a walk.
• What did people do on weekends? Absolutely nothing, it was so boring.
• Do you get to know your weight? No, blind weight.
• If applicable: How fast is the weight gain process? n/a
• What was the average length of stay? 7 but I stayed for 13 days.
• What was the average age range? There’s units for all ages. Mine was 13/14-17
• How do visits/phone calls work? Phone calls are extremely messy. Some people don’t get to make them because there “wasn’t enough time” Visits, are on the unit and once a week after the first 8 days.
• What is the electronics policy (e.g., cell phones, iPods, Kindles, laptops, tablets)? Nothing is allowed, no sharps or anything. Shampoo and everything is locked up in a closet. They let me keep my jewelry in tho (only nose and ears).
• For inpatient/residential: Are you able to go on outings/passes? Sort of, walking to the dining hall or school/ gym.
• For PHP/IOP: What support do they provide outside of programming hours? n/a
• What kind of aftercare do they provide? Do they help you set up an outpatient treatment team? No I already had a psychiatrist but they didn’t help set up anything.
• Are there any resources for people who come from out of state/country? idk!
• If applicable: How is the program responding to COVID? (Less patients, virtual programming, no visitors, masks, social distancing, etc) n/a
• Other? I really don’t recommend it, its family run with its own rules. Not a good environment at all.
Looking for recent reviewed or any info !
i was planned to admit there a few months ago but they said they couldn’t take ed patients. i was actually relieved about that though because i’ve heard really bad things
2007 FW assumed I had an eating disorder and put me on meds that made me gain weight and eat a lot. I didn’t have an eating disorder and I shouldn’t have even been there in the first place. FW messes with you real bad. Some people got assaulted by other patients and ofc that went un-punished by the staff. A group of girls in 2008 sat in front of a camera and took turns piercing their lips with some other girls lip ring. What did FW do? Nothing. Everyone got pierced except me, (I hate needles).
Basically don’t even bother with that place.
They will do more damage than help and no, they don’t help.
Man, you can’t even high five another patient without the staff yelling NO PC (personal contact).
anyone been to four winds westchester or saratoga in the past few years?
I was there at four winds westchester, december 2015
ellie would you mind doing a review? did you find it helpful?
I would greatly appreciate a review! I’m looking into DBT based ED treatment programs.
DO NOT GO TO THE KATONAH PROGRAM FOR AN EATING DISORDER. They have absolutely no oversight there. My daughter lost a dangerous amount of weight there. We were told she would see a psychiatrist and never did. She figured out how to manipulate the staff and came home worse than ever.
I was in Four Winds Katonah, NY the staff was okay. I was there for depression. I stayed for 2 weeks. It just stabilized you. The food was horrible in my opinion and I lost weight there.
any recent reviews?
wondering if all the reviews so far have been at Four winds Saratoga OR the four winds in Westchester? do they both have an ED unit? thank you!
Four Winds is for the one in Westchester. If there is one in Oregon I can add it but have not heard of it.
not oregon… Saratoga Springs is also in NY.. four winds has 2 different locations in ny, sorry!
Old Reviews
I went to inpatient treatment at four winds and can honestly say that everyone there was more miserable in treatment than they’s ever been in their regular lives. It’s very restricted. No cell phones, no laptops, and basically everything is considered a “sharp.” Most of the staff are very harsh and insensitive. I don’t understnad why people like that are even allowed to be around kids and teens who have PTSD, anxiety, and depression. They force anorexic/bulimic patients to eat and don’t let them use the bathroom unsupervised. They take anything that you could hurt yourself with away from you. But they don’t actually help you. Also they can be very rude, tenf to overmedicate patients, don’t tell you when friends or family call, and yell at eating disordered patients when they don’t eat fast enough. I don’t want to name names or get into personal anger at them, but suffice to say, I’m a very gentle loving person for the most part, and I still hope half the staff there goes to hell.
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(2010)
They have more two-person rooms than one-person rooms, and whether or not you get a room to yourself really depends on when you’re admitted and that room is open or not. Each bedroom does have their own private bathroom.You don’t necessarily get to choose what you eat in each meal, but when you first start you sit down with a nutritionist there and she asks you questions about your diet and tries to make it as comfortable for you as possible. For example, she’d ask what foods you’d prefer for breakfast. Like if you’d rather have cereal instead of a bagel, if you’d rather drink skim, 1%, 2% or whole milk, etc. From that conversation, she plans out meals for you each day. You eat all meals with the rest of the people in your milieu at the dining hall and a staff member usually watches you from afar. Or sometimes they eat with you. They only time you don’t is for lunch on weekdays. Instead of going to the public dining hall, you are escorted to the outpatient building (along with any other person who is doing E.D. inpatient treatment) where you eat lunch with all people in the E.D program. Not only inpatient, but in the outpatient program as well. It’s a much smaller group and more uncomfortable but I can see how it is supposed to be more helpful. After that lunch, there is a group specifically for E.D treatment. For meals you’re expected to finish a certain percentage of your meal (85% or 95%?) and if you fail to do so, you do have to have an Ensure supplement.
When it comes to weight gain, they seem to be understanding. It seems like they only make you gain weight if you are in danger, or close to getting there. Also when you do your weigh in every morning, you can choose to do a blind weight, which is very helpful.
How many groups you do a day really depends on the actual day, but I think it’s around 5. They last an hour long and usually there are two groups going on at once and which group you go to depends on your evaluation when you’re first admitted. Weekends are a lot lighter. Unfortunately the only group specifically for E.D’s is the one you have after lunch on the weekdays. There are other activities they do in between groups like crafts on at the outpatient building, going for walks, etc. They even have Karaoke night, haha.
The average length of stay is usually 1-2 weeks. FW is more for when you’re in crisis and to be stabilized, and then from there you are usually recommended to do the outpatient program which you do for a longer period of time. I can’t say that it was all that helpful for me personally when it came to my E.D, and I believe that is mostly because of how short term it is.
You can make phone calls home, or to anyone for that matter. There are two phones. One pay phone, and one regular phone. You can also have visitors. If I remember correctly there are two times each day that they have visiting hours. It might actually be one, but I don’t remember.
Any item that you bring that is not allowed they will take out when you first arrive and they go through your things. I’m sure some things are obvious. Anything you bring that is not allowed, they keep in a bin with your name on it and have locked up, but if you ask for something from it they let you sign it out but you have to return it before the end of the day. It was a pain to have to have to go to ask for things like my tweezers, eyelash curler, belts, or other things that they believe could be used as a weapon to harm yourself or someone else, but at least they take precaution. You can’t use cellphones or laptops. If you bring them, they put them in that bin. The same goes for the iPod, but they will let you at least sign that out during the day to listen to it.
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I’ve been to Four Winds multiple times – IP on the adolescent and adult units, Adolescent IOP and PHP and IOP for adults. The shortest I’ve stayed IP was 10 days and the longest was for 3 months, which is really unusual.
They do have an ED track in all of the programs. There is more specific support for lunch and an ED group after lunch, but for the other meals, you eat with your unit and a staff watches you, but you don’t process the meal afterward.
Four Winds is more geared toward psychiatric stabilization. It’s very DBT-focused and some of the therapists are really good. I think it’s a good program overall, but not really for eating disorders.