Any current reviews? Please post in comments below. You can check out the FAQ and Guidelines for suggested questions. Thank you!
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current reviews? please let us know which location, thanks!
CALIFORNIA 2010
I graduated from the CA home in March 2010, but am still in touch with more recent graduates and staff members.
1) Yes, but the 6 months thing isn’t a “hard rule.” It’s typically 6 months, plus or minus. I graduated in 5.5 months, for example. Others might take less time, and some might be there for 8-9 months.
2) Not in the typical sense. Before you graduate, you go through some classes to prepare you, as well as the opportunity to go online in the computer lab to search for a living situation, home church, work, school, etc. Also, sometimes, if you need to start over and stay in the area (around the Mercy home you go to), they can find a host family for you to stay with (typically friends of Mercy or the local church)!
3) Cell phone access and computer access is limited to when you’re on passes with family. However, like I mentioned above, you can use the computer before you graduate to look for schools, living situations, home church, and work.
4) Individual therapy is once a week (sometimes twice), but there’s more staff to talk to throughout the day and week.
5) There is not a medical doctor or psych at the home; however, they will take you to the doctor, hospital, or psychiatrist if you need it. There is a nurse and/or staff member that is trained to give medication while you’re there.
CANADA 2011
Hi! I graduated from the first canadian mercy home on april 1st 2011, and i can tell you it WORKS. It was the most amazing blessed experience of my life, and they really do deal with the root issues. i was there for severe bulimia for 7 months, and I gave my eating disorder completely over to God. Mercy definitely is a Christian-based program, but you certainly don’t have to be a Christian do go. many girls i graduated with actually made a pact that they “wouldn’t get sucked in to the religious crap”, lol!! But even they couldn’t deny the love of Jesus when they experienced Him firsthand in their own ways! Your daughter would be in amazing hands at Mercy, and I would encourage you to help her apply to one of the american homes as Mercy canada doesn’t take girls younger than 17 i think. however, SHE needs to be the one wanting to get help, because they aren’t interested in just sending you off with a mealplan that you’ve learned to follow… they work with you, and position you to recieve from God and experience what it’s like to be loved by the One who brought you into existance simply because he loves you. Its important to realize that secular programs usually accomplish temporary behaviour modification, whearas mercy is interested in complete HEART TRANSFORMATION, and they teach that only God can get inside the human heart and change the nature of it. And from a girl who has lived there for 7 months, I can tell you that it DOES happen, it DOES work, and LIVES ARE CHANGED!! you get a graduation date when they see that you are living your life completely free of unhealthy coping mechanisms for, oh i dunno, at least a month in the program. nobody leaves the mercy with a mealplan as part of their aftercare… by the time you are doing aftercare planning you’ve been off couch and mealplans for a long time and you are now looking at what church you’re going to go to, where you’re gonna live, if you’re gonna go to school, figuring out an accountability partner… they are VERY thorough. please call them and ask them whatever questions you have. they are so willing to help!! and yes the application takes a while, but they are weeding out the girls who actually are willing to put in the effort to do the work that the program demands. Mercy isn’t easy, but it is the most wonderful feeling when, after months of just doing what youre told and not feeling anything different, you all of a sudden start to see the fruits of your labour in what you believe about yourself. and man oh man, it is SO good…. I will be praying for you and your daughter and the rest of your family. eating disorders don’t have to end with just managing symptoms or getting “better”. there IS complete freedom out there, but ONLY through Jesus Christ. and i’m not talking religion that tries to put God in a box, but I’m talking about personally knowing Jesus on a level where you KNOW that you KNOW that you KNOW that He loves you, and that just as there is a place in your heart that only God can fill, there is a place in God’s heart that only YOU can fill. This love is what they try to translate to you at Mercy. Seriously, anything bad you read about Mercy is from girls who left the program in rebellion and are now very bitter and are still being influenced by their issues. Praying for you, and GOD BLESS!!
-A Mercy Graduate