Summit is now part of Eating Recovery Center of California.

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2011

I feel summit was wonderful. The staff are really dedicated and truely care about each person. They were very strict which is what I needed. I loved all group, especially process group. Being monitered the whole time I was there helped too. I had a very caring therapist, she helped me alot. I wish I still had her. I really loved being at summit. I feel my needs were met, and it was time for me to focus on recovery, and not have to stress out over work. The things I didnt like about summit is I think they pushed way too much food on us and didnt take peoples size into consideration. I didnt like being rushed through the program, its not taylored to each person. And I didnt like being so attached to the staff and care that when it was time to leave it was so hard for me. I felt understood and cared about and it was so hard to leave and let go. But summit helped me a ton. I dont regret going.

Day treatment:

1. When were you there: 2005-2006, IOP and Day treatment
   Describe the average day: IOP was 9 hours a week- it consisted of an hour or two of nutrition, about 5 hours of group, and 2-3 hours of individual therapy. Depending on what they felt your needs were, they would assign you to different groups and some people would have to do meals there.

   This was the rough day treatment schedule:
   7:30am- vitals with the nurse
   8-9am- breakfast (yes a full hour)
   9-10:30- group
   10:30-11- snack
   11-12:30- group
   12:30-1:30- lunch
   1:30-2:30- individ therapy
   2:30-3- evening planning
   3pm- go home

   What were meals like? Really basic- we’d go grocery shopping on Monday to buy foods for the week’s menu.. it was mostly sandwiches with the occasional frozen chicken bowl type of thing. Everyone had to sit in the kitchen until everyone was done eating.. which was ridiculous because you have an hour so that got old really fast. Also, the staff doesn’t really eat the same foods. A lot of them were on diets so they would pull out lean cuisines or salads and eat those as they fattened the patients up.
   What sorts of food were available or served? see above
   Did they supplement? How did that system work? You could supplement whatever you wanted for the most part. When I was there, there were a few girls who basically lived on Boost. They never ate their food and for some reason, that was ok. not like that’s eating disordered or anything..
   What privelages are allowed? smoke breaks, cell phones.. you can’t go to the bathroom on your own.
   Does it work on a level system? Not really
   What sort of groups do they have? Process groups, art therapy, yoga, food and feelings, meal outings
   What was your favorite group? process group
   What did you like the most? when we would do morning snack at Starbucks
   What did you like the least? The meal planning- it’s on exchanges but they didn’t have a set way of figuring out what an exchange consisted of. Some of the staff would go by calories, others would measure portions, some would eyeball portions, and some would decide based on the grams of carbs/fat/protein. It was very confusing and irritating because something that counted as 2 grain exchanges all week, would suddenly switch to one exchange on Friday because one of the bitchy staff members didn’t get laid the night before. Also, it bugged me that there were staff members that were clearly eating disordered.
   Would you recommend this program? no
   What level of activity or exercise was allowed? it depended on where you were at in your treatment but for the most part, exercise was allowed.
   What did people do on weekends? the program was mon-fri
   Do you get to know your weight? yes, you get weighed every morning.
   How fast is the weight gain process? depends on what you’re at.
   What was the average length of stay? i think people stayed in day treatment for about 6 weeks. I was in IOP for 14 weeks before my insurance kicked me out.
   What was the average age range? mid- 20′s. They have a separate teen program.
   What kind of aftercare do they provide? Do they help you set up an OP treatment team? They’ll give you a list of shrinks but that’s about it. They kicked me out of day treatment (thank god) and that list was all i got.
   How many IP beds? How many patients in PHP or IOP? IOP is huge- like there’s prob about 50 people in it but on 3 different tracks. I think there were about 10-15 people in most groups. I think day treatment was limited to 10 people at the time but there were usually only about 6-7.