Huron Oaks is a mental health treatment facility in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Since 2012 they have had an eating disorder PHP program that started as a partnership between Center for Eating Disorders and St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor Hospital (now called Trinity Health). They used to have both adolescent ED PHP and adult ED PHP, but as of 2023 may only have adolescent ED PHP.
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I’ve been in Huron Oak’s program three times; once as an adolescent and twice as an adult. As the adolescent program is the only ED specific one currently running, that’s what this review is about. But I want to add that my experience in the adult program was overall a traumatic one, so I’m glad they no longer offer the adult ED support. As much as it sucks that we lost another treatment option here in Michigan, they didn’t run the adult program the same way as for adolescent. You’d see an ED therapist once or twice a week, I think still speak to the dietitian, but that was it. No meal supports, no meal plans. It wasn’t good at all.
Also note that while they offer ED specific help, the program is not just ED based. It’s a general mental health PHP that has an ED track. Depending on the time of the year and group size, you might be the only one there for ED help, which means you don’t exactly get the best meal support during lunchtime.
November 2014 to March 2015, with a lapse of two weeks.
Describe the average day:
The program ran from Monday to Friday, from 8:30AM to 3:30 PM. Throughout the day you will be pulled by multiple people, and ED patients are pulled together for snacks. There were specific days the ED team came in, so whatever that day was, you’d see your ED therapist, dietitian, etc.
A typical schedule would look like-
8:30-Weigh in and assessment with nurse
8:45-Breakfast unless you ate before coming to the program. I always ate there
9:10-First group
10-Free / study period + snack
11AM- Group therapy
12PM- Lunch
1PM-Another group
2PM-Recreational group
3PM-Snack + free period again
Breakfast there was optional but they preferred if you ate it at program. Daily was a group lunch, plus two snacks while in program. During breakfast you would usually sit with your dietitian, or sometimes one of the nurses, and be monitored one on one. For lunch, everyone would sit at a large dining table together, and usually the ED patients would be kept together so they could watch, but they don’t offer traditional meal support (like someone sitting with you, asking how you feel before/ after meals). Because they were only watching from afar, there was a lot of sneaky behavior that went on. Hopefully they run their meals a bit better now.
Though honestly, if you were overwhelmed sitting with everyone else, you could sit inside the kitchen space. The dining room and kitchen were separate. So sometimes it’d be me, one other person and a nurse in the kitchen for lunch.
We liked to play games and start a group conversation when people were struggling. You’d get 45 minutes for lunch, usually half an hour for breakfast as well as snacks but they weren’t strict about the time. If you took longer, someone would sit with you until you’d finished and walk you back to group.
For lunch you’d pick your meal off of a rotating schedule, and there’d be maybe like three or four options. You could always request something different if you were vegetarian, or plate something from the kitchen. They have a full scale kitchen and dining room. Occasionally they would bring us to the main hospital’s cafeteria and we could have meals there.
Lunches were always things like pasta (either with red sauce or macaroni), salads with protein, pizza, burgers, ham and cheese sandwiches. Breakfast was something like cereal, bagels with cream cheese or peanut butter, waffles, oatmeal, toast with butter. Typical breakfast foods.
Snacks were pretzels with more peanut butter, typical hospital ice creams, pudding, yogurt, chips, chocolate, muffins, sandwiches, cheese sticks, fruit.
Yes. Less than 100% was one Boost, less than 50% was two Boosts. Depending on your meal plan, you usually had to drink a Boost with your meal regardless of if you needed to supplement extra.
If you are still refusing to finish all your meals or losing weight, your team will talk to your parents about hospitalization and tubing, and ask to transfer you to a higher level of care. If you absolutely won’t comply, you’ll be kicked out.
Vegetarian yes but not vegan.
Not sure if this exactly counts as a privilege, but they take you on weekly outings to somewhere in the area. For example, we went on field trips to the humane society, the mall, movie theater, etc.
Not really. If you’re struggling with finishing meals you might be asked to use a wheelchair for the day.
Participate in the groups.
All of the groups were for general mental health and not ED focused, though they would bring up nutrition and body issues, in the general sense. The ED stuff was only one on one. So for groups you’d have workshops on things like managing anxiety, coping with self harm thoughts, general DBT and CBT things, assertiveness, medication management, sleep hygiene. You have group therapy daily. For art groups, we’d do something like mandalas, collages, etc and use it as a means for describing our feelings. We wouldn’t do coloring pages or suncatchers unless it was free time. Music class was usually sharing a favorite song and talking about why we like it, occasionally we’d play instruments. Sometimes we’d have drama class. We’d also have cooking every now and then, usually around the holidays to bake cookies. Also yoga, but it wasn’t often.
There was also a study period daily where you could bring in school work. Most people spent their time knitting or reading, though. We’d also have relaxation groups where we were able to do a free activity and watch a movie.
I really liked music and found group therapy to be helpful.
I felt like my ED therapist truly understood what I was going through and helped me consistently set goals that I could use as a way to look forward to the future. I absolutely loved my nurse too, she was awesome and treated me like a human being, not just another patient. She would listen to me and offer me sound advice.
The group outings were really fun and made me feel like a regular teenager, not just a sick kid. I liked when they’d take us to 7-11 or the main hospital and let us get a few treats.
A couple of things, and a lot of these things outweighed the pros.
You don’t get to know your meal plan. They don’t work off exchanges, or at least didn’t when I was there. So for snacks you’re just told to grab this and that, or they’ll grab it for you. I was always having random food items put down in front of me. I believe your parents are told what you need to eat outside of the program, but I really don’t know if they ever gave my mom a printed out meal plan or just said “make sure he eats enough” because I know at times she was completely unaware how much I was eating during the day.
The dietitian at the time was downright awful. She was constantly suspicious of me and always accusing me of pretending to be full, throwing food away, even though I never did that and always complied. She was harsh in our meetings, and not in a tough love way, but treating you like you were scum for having an ED. She was the one I usually had breakfast with, and sometimes I’d zone out while eating. She’d yell at me for reading the labels, which I wasn’t, and wouldn’t let me leave for group until I completed 100%.
She put me on such a massive meal plan right off the bat when my body wasn’t used to it and when I complained that I was in a ton of physical pain, she rolled her eyes and said I was being dramatic. No gradual increase at all. At one point my meal plan consisted of THREE Boosts daily with an additional two fluids per meal, all on top of the pre-portioned meals I was eating. Three snacks as well, just there, not at home. It was awful, both physically and mentally. I’d feel so sick by the end of the day. I could never finish my meals because of how much she stacked on. It got to the point the staff complained to her about the amount she was making me eat.
Last thing: they used meds for additional weight gain. They prescribed me a certain med that’s commonly used for weight gain in anorexia and refused to take me off of it, even though it was causing very rapid weight gain, extreme hunger, and worsening my mental symptoms. That was a very traumatic experience and had they not put me on that med, I don’t think I would’ve relapsed after the program. They felt much more weight focused than treating the anorexia as a mental illness.
If you or your child needs ED help and have Medicaid, then yes, I would recommend this program because it’s better than nothing. It’s not that it’s run poorly, but their use of medication and having everything fall in your parent’s hands was very frustrating. It was like you weren’t even involved in your own care. You just came, ate a bunch, did some therapy, and that was that. You don’t work on the deeper rooted issues of your disorder, you don’t get to understand why nutrition is important, you don’t try to retrain your mind to think in exchanges instead of calories.
I think New Oakland’s CERV is a better program compared to Huron Oaks, but it’s also an hour from Ann Arbor. There’s also Beaumont, which I’ve heard really good things about.
Very little. They don’t want you exercising outside of the program, and we’d go for walks maybe weekly? Yoga was the most exercise you’d get, really.
Program was M-F, so we were monitored by parents outside of the program.
No. They won’t even let you know if you’re going down. Blind weigh-in daily.
It’s different for everyone. I was really struggling with gaining in the beginning. But I’d say something like 2lbs weekly would be average, guessing.
A month or more was average for ED patients while others there for SH spent maybe two weeks.
16-17. You’d have a few people who were 14 or 13, but most people were older teens.
Allowed, but everyone’s phone had to be placed in a basket which was locked up during groups. You were allowed to use electronics during meal times and during study hall period.
Not entirely sure, but I think there was a number my parent could call if she needed help. They work with the local crisis team as well.
Yes, they make sure you have an ED specific team before leaving the program. So outpatient therapist, PHP, dietitian. I think they prefer you still see the same people at Center4ED, but they’re out of network, so that didn’t work out.
Because they’re part of the main St. Joe’s, I’m pretty sure they offer discounted rates for nearby hotels, but that’s about it for out of state. I think they’ll help with transportation if you’re from a different city, but I’m not sure.