5 Top New Things to Know About Residential Treatment at The Emily Program

At The Emily Program, our residential treatment is available for individuals of all ages, genders, and diagnoses. Our residential service’s purpose is simple: to care for clients when they come in, and give them enough tools so that when they step down to a lower level of care they can continue their recovery process.

Over the years we’ve grown, expanded programs, and transitioned our focus to stay current with evidence-based eating disorder treatment and insurance regulations. All while continuing to maintain and improve the personal experience individuals have while being treated within residential.

There are five pieces of information that anyone considering residential care at The Emily Program should know.

1. Our adult programs at Anna Westin House have evolved. We continue to treat all eating disorder diagnoses and dual diagnoses such as substance use disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder/trauma, and other co-occurring mental health and body image issues. And we continue to offer holistic therapies such as yoga and art. However, we’ve increased emphasis on evidence-based treatment such as Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), which provide residents with transferable skills into lower levels of care. Additionally, there are now more evening and weekend programming options, including goal setting, recovery stories, supervised outings, and Friends and Family group. All this combined, each resident is provided with tools and skills that will give them a solid foundation to move to lower levels of care and continue toward recovery.

2. At Anna Westin House-Adolescent and Young Adult, we treat young people ages 10-23. The Emily Program staff at AWHAYA have educated professionals who are dedicated and passionate about working with this young population. We offer ongoing training to ensure staff is confident and competent to provide age-appropriate care that addresses the development needs of each client. Gaining trust and understanding a young person’s needs is vital in helping them cope and build healthy relationships with food and their body.

Our care extends beyond treating each client — we work to individualize treatment for our clients’ families and support people too. We know that incorporating family is crucial to recovery. That’s why we provide the education, skills, and knowledge needed to continue to support their loved ones during and after their residential stay. Some ways we do this is to offer a parent night every week and family programming on two Saturdays a month. Additionally, our therapists and dietitians provide individual family meals where families can work specifically with their loved ones and a TEP staff person to practice supporting and coaching during meals.

3. This spring (2015) we will open The Emily Program – Residential in Cleveland Heights, OH, and Mercer Island, WA.

The Emily Program – Residential in Cleveland Heights, OH is a 16-bed facility in a renovated historic home on Overlook Drive. We’ll provide 24/7/365 care to adult men and women. Jean Doak and Kelly Bhatnagar will lead this residential team. Click here to see some of the before pictures and how construction is coming along on this historic property.

The Emily Program – Residential in Mercer Island, WA will be led by the site director, Monique DesChane. This will be a 6-bed facility and also provide around-the-clock treatment to adult males and females.

Programming for both will be mirrored after the treatment provided at our Minnesota facilities. And to ensure consistency of care in our residential treatment across the nation, all of the residential site directors, including Monique Silver at Anna Westin House and Dawn Boettcher at Anna Westin House-Adolescent and Young Adult, meet regularly to discuss trends, program updates and improvements, and how they are maintaining an overall consistent ‘Emily Program feeling’ regardless of the location.

We are excited about opening our OH and WA residential programs. And we’re proud of the evolved programming in MN. We’ll post updates about progress in WA and OH on Facebook, our blog, and in our e-newsletters – so stay tuned.

4. Transitioning from residential to outpatient treatment is much smoother. We’ve modified our procedures and now offer more communication with residents/clients and their outpatient treatment team. Streamlining processes and procedures has helped make sure everyone involved knows what is happening throughout the transition of levels of care. Our goal is to offer a seamless level of care transitions to all clients.

5. Tours and questions are always welcome. If you are thinking about residential treatment, or are a provider who wants to refer a client to residential treatment, please know we are available to answer your questions and give you a tour if you’d like. We understand that you need to feel comfortable and get as many ‘unknowns’ out of the way before starting on the path the recovery.

Questions about residential programming can be directed to our program support coordinators. Call them at (888) EMILY-77. Their extensions are below.

Questions about insurance for residential treatment can be directed to our utilization reviewers. They can be reached at (888) EMILY-77.

If you’d like to learn a little more about residential services, you can watch this video about our adult residential treatment and this video about our adolescent treatment (residential/outpatient). Interested in getting started at our program or referring a client? Call our residential admissions team at (888) EMILY-77 ext. 1111.

We believe that the changes and overall evolution of residential care at The Emily Program have improved greatly during the past year and a half. Our staff enjoys what they do and that shows in the personalized, compassionate care they provide to anyone who enters our doors. And, of course, we are beyond thrilled to begin offering this level of treatment in OH and WA!