THIRA Health

In the residential interview I did I was told they could help treat/manage self harm urges/tendencies. One of the main reasons I was coming here. When I arrived we once again asked about this and they confirmed they had medical staff/nurses on site 24/7 and knew how to handle self harm wounds/urges. With in 2 hours of arriving 911 was called and I was detained by the police and sent to the hospital. no de-escalating happened, they just immediately called 911. They didn’t even give me the option to call my family to get me before calling 911. This has discouraged me from wanting to reach out for help, it was humiliating and frustrating having this experience happen.

Do not recommend (inpatient program). I came here for eating disorder treatment and was genuinely hopeful because DBT sounded like it could be helpful for me. Unfortunately, my experience was extremely negative from the moment I arrived. Right when I walked in, two staff members with smirks on their faces took all of my belongings on a cart and brought them to the back to search through everything. I was never informed ahead of time that they would be going through my personal items, and I would have appreciated basic communication and consent about that process. During intake, they ripped the screen protector off my phone (which I had literally just bought the day before). I didn’t even have access to my phone while I was there, so I don’t understand why it needed to be removed. Multiple personal items also went missing, including my computer stylus, two books, and a sweatshirt. It has been two months and I still have not gotten any of those items back. I also had to spend another $30 to replace the screen protector. After that, I was brought into a room and pressured into signing multiple contracts while I was visibly upset and crying. I felt cornered and forced to sign everything without being allowed a moment to speak privately with my mom. The staff showed very little empathy and essentially sat there staring at me for a long time until I signed. My assigned therapist was not helpful and made the experience even worse. She did not prompt conversation, was extremely awkward to talk to, and left for a four-day vacation the day after I arrived. Before leaving, she also failed to approve my level change from “level 0,” which meant I could not participate in most activities or go outside. I felt like I was being punished for something I didn’t do. The mental health technicians were the people we interacted with most of the day, and many of them were unprofessional, rude, and seemed to be on a power trip. One technician (I believe her name was Hannah) made fun of me for a medication i was taking. I ended up putting in my 72-hour notice just two hours after arriving, so I was there for only three days, but those three days felt like a prison. There was an extreme lack of therapeutic programming. We couldn’t watch TV, had all devices taken away completely, and they even took my origami book during intake for no clear reason. A lot of the time was spent just sitting around doing nothing. I was also told I would meet with my therapist, meet with a dietician, and have bloodwork done. None of that happened. I did not speak with my assigned therapist during my stay at all. It felt like I was simply being housed and fed, not treated. Another major issue was how locked down the facility is. Staff had to follow you everywhere, including standing in the bathroom while you used it. This was extremely uncomfortable and unnecessary for me, especially because I was not there for self-harm concerns. I was there for an eating disorder. To be fair, the registered nurses were kind and supportive, and I didn’t mind the food. But overall, inpatient was a horrible experience and absolutely not worth it. I left feeling more depressed than when I arrived. This was a waste of $1,600 for three days of misery, and I do not recommend the inpatient program.

Thira refused to take me on as a client by calling me an alcoholic. Shame on them.

I tried to find the words to write this review in a manner that wouldn’t seem like I was shaming this program, but they’ve honestly lost me. The residential program has depleted so much of my hope in getting better that I felt compelled to share. If this is the best mental health care that Washington has to offer, I’d rather not try. PARENTS PLEASE READ: The most important part of this review is definitely the safety. If you expect your teenage daughter to be away from full-grown adults (that are sometimes male-presenting/man-aligned) as they advertise, please stay away. The teen and adult area (and sleeping area as well) are separated by an unlocked door that is wide open at all times. The BHTs and sometimes even nurses allow both teens and adults to walk on either side without redirection. This means that an adult, even at night, could walk straight into the teens section and into their bedrooms because everyone’s door is unlocked while we’re sleeping. Don’t expect the night shift BHTs to protect anyone from that either, because their headphones are always in and I’ve had to wake up staff to be taken to the bathroom. While this is no fault of Thira’s, I feel like they should make it VERY clear that this program is not for severe mental health disorders. I would say this program is for people that need a break from the real world but could manage alone. I do not recommend going to this program if you have anything other than depression and anxiety, or want to keep those diagnoses so that you’re able to get them treated in the future, and I am being serious. I came in with a diagnosis of OCD and psychosis and walked out without either with NO further testing and with “MDD and generalized anxiety disorder” (that I haven’t had since I was 14) because they didn’t want anything on records that this program couldn’t treat—no, I’m not gathering that, that’s what I was told by one of my providers that wasn’t even primarily a psychiatrist. You’ll be lucky to get a psychiatric provider that isn’t a nurse, a surgeon, or a student. The ED program needs SO much work, and I’m glad that it’s changing even though it doesn’t seem like much of a choice since all of their dietitians left and they have to pause the track. They shame you and punish you by leveling you down or sending you to the hospital like a crazy person if you don’t eat all of your meals, and they get agitated with you if you comply but don’t recover at the speed they want you to. They also have this weird super-woke thing going on where they will try to convince you that obesity is not a real concept and restore you to a weight they made up that puts you at equally as much health risk of having an eating disorder. Then, when you have questions, they call you anti-fat and “ED-brained”. The BHTs are definitely the most confusing part of this all. Most of the BHTs don’t have anything further than a bachelor’s degree in psychology (no fault to them) and are expected to be mini therapists when the therapists that have a total of 4-5 years training combined can’t be bothered to do their job. They’re not very well trained to handle people in a crisis, and almost every question you ask will be answered with an “I don’t know” and nowhere else to find the answer. Please do not spend $60K a month thinking you’re getting anything more than a DBT sleep-away camp. Look elsewhere if you actually need intensive care.

I’m the main support person for someone who recently went through this program, and I wanted to share our experience because there were several concerning issues. When my friend was discharged after she had completed the program the first time, staff told me I didn’t need to hide any sharp objects at home. They did not mention that they had concerns about her possibly self-harming, which she did after returning home. Later, staff told me they were “shocked” that I had “allowed” her to have access to items that could be used to self harm, and then to leave the program early the second time that she had gone through it after 8.5 weeks, even though it was her decision as she decided to go to a different program. She decided to leave because the environment felt unsafe. Although the program advertises that it’s only for women and gender nonconforming people, there was a man around 40 years old in the group who openly said he was “falling in love with some of the residents.” Staff did not address this. It was especially worrying because the teenage residents are just in another unlocked room and would often wander into the adult area without anyone noticing for a while. They also told us they could properly treat her long term OCD diagnosis, but instead they removed her diagnosis and focused almost entirely on nutrition. She barely had access to a medical provider, and the dietitians had minimal previous experience.

The program is really more aimed at stabilizing people with nutrition disorders and secondarily improving mental health. The DBT approach is great but I’ve seen much better applications of it in other programs. The food is the best I’ve seen by a margin. The nursing staff cares so much more than you’d think but are under supported. Bedrooms are singles for adults and the beds are pretty comfortable. The biggest downside is that any concerns I’ve raised just get gaslit in response. The clinical director and I did not see eye to eye on much of anything.

This place was awful in my opinion, here for 6 weeks when I was 14, and wow do they do a bad job, unorganized, if anything, made me more depressed.

My daughter was struggling with severe mental health issues and over the past two years has been to several different programs and this was by FAR the absolute worst. It was the only program we did not complete. This program is basically plopping your teen in a chair ALL DAY to listen to a teacher talk. NO group therapy, no outside activity, no activities at all and a lot of down time (reading and whatnot). I will tell you teen group therapy is the one thing out of all these programs that my teen says helped the most. But the worst thing about this program was the CONSTANT threat of financial retribution if your teen is late, or god forbid SICK. This is just criminal to do to an incredibly stressed out parent trying to save their childs life. One day my daughter was in such a bad mental health state we needed to stay home but after threat of being charged $400 I got her in the car and drove her the hour there. I was able to get my daughter to the program but couldn't get her out of the car. I called her therapist and they refused to come down to help. But still threatened to charge me. Another day she was vomiting. Again, threatened to charge me. A year later, I am getting harassing emails trying to charge me $700 for 2 missed days. I am filing a complain with the Department of Health, BBB and emailing local news organizations. We have a teen mental health crises in this country and Org's like this are taking advantage of families in crises. Please help me in shutting this practice down.

I was in Thira's Partial Hospitalization Program for 8 weeks, followed by 7 weeks in their Intensive Outpatient Program. While I experienced some pretty significant problems (their therapist called me a liar in my first session, and their process for getting switched to a different therapist was appalling; medications were not always dispensed on time; etc.), overall my experience was positive. The other patients and most of the staff increased my success in the programs. I continue to use the DBT skills I learned on a daily basis. The most important measure is that my depression and anxiety are dramatically improved from when I started there. Thira was a big part of that.