Alsana Birmingham - Residential

I could go on and on about how great the staff at Alsana BHAM was to me whilst in their care. I was always met with pure compassion and understanding. I have always trusted them with my healing journey and would highly recommend this particular facility to anyone who may be struggling!

Horrible. My partner was admitted for a 2 week intensive program that doesn’t actually exist. The assigned housing was a serious problem, alsana assigned someone who had a weapon and was actively causing harm with it to be in the same bedroom as my partner. When the issue was brought up to the team they said they could have essentially a roommate meeting, but other than that, there was nothing they could do. Horrible horrible horrible

I love the staff at alsana and I have gotten way better from my ed every time I have gone here.

I’m giving two stars because the lady who ended up helping me was really nice, but the guy that was originally assisting me was very rude to me and seemed annoyed while I was asking for help to ship a package.

They screwed my wife over completely with false promises and abandoned her at a hospital with no way home. Yet another system in this rotten, backwards state that will ruin your situation to cover their own liability.

Was there in 2023, and ended up getting administratively discharged because “lack of progress”. I was in the worst place I have ever been in mentally and I told the director at the time, Katherine “Kat” Jordan,”I’m really worried about getting kicked out, I just know that I am going to go back to my eating disorder right when I leave here.” And she said,”sometimes that is just what is needed.” I’m sorry…. What???? First of all it was an incredibly unprofessional, rude, and uncaring thing to say, especially to someone that is very clearly in distress. Second of all, my team at Alsana did NOTHING to help me with the transition home so I was sent home with NO treatment team, NO after care plan, they didn’t do a safety assessment before I left, I was having SI and it felt like nobody cared. Long story short, I ended up in the hospital 2 months later and then was told by one of the therapists,”you are always welcome back here!!” Like I would EVER step foot in that building again. There were MANY other things that were significantly wrong with this place however I feel as though this was the most significant. Personally, I would NOT recommend this place to ANYONE. Please save your time and protect your peace by finding somewhere else. Recovery is possible!!!

I went to Alsana in May. I will say, the DCS and nursing was so kind and helpful, especially with my physical health issues. I wasn't treated like a problem, and my physical health was taken more seriously there than anywhere else. My pronouns and preferred name were respected as well. However, several things are flawed. Y'all tried convincing a disabled woman in her 50's to take money out of her money to pay off her house to stay there. A girl who I roomed with was physically assaulted by a staff member (unfortunately, it was not caught on camera, but the staff member was fired), and you pretty much paid for the rest of her stay to keep her quiet. A girl with a certain food intolerance that could send her to the hospital (won't specify the disorder for the sake of confidentiality), was constantly faced with challenges. Cross contamination being one of them, being given something she was allergic to BY THE LEAD DIETICIAN being another. The article is also misleading. This is not a dual diagnosis place. This is strictly for eating disorders. Hell, this place barely handles eating disorders other than Anorexia. Every single group is about restriction. Arfid, bulimia, and binge eating disorder is never, ever brought up. There was mold caked onto the ice scooper where we'd put ice in our water. How in the world do y'all let it get to that point in an eating disorder treatment facility. Yes, it was remedied. It shouldn't have gotten to that point in the first place. I ultimately had to leave because I wasn't receiving my medication, and medication changes couldn't be made "due to my insurance not covering it", even though it should have been communicated from day one that a family member was paying for everything, God bless him. But lo and behold, the night before I left, you miraculously were able to get your hands on my medication. That medication being Prozac. One of the most common anti-depressants out there. And I couldn't even get that for two weeks. There seems to be a very huge problem with communication and education being provided about eating disorders and other health issues for DCS. By the way, if a someone isn't knowledgeable about food allergies, eating disorders, or mental health in general, for God's sake don't hire them. Feeling safe about the food you're eating is an important part of recovery. I appreciate the help that I did receive there, but I'm doing this on my own. One thing this place taught me is that I'm stronger and capable of more than I thought I was. P.s. that place y'all were catering from is below par and made the recovery process 10× worse.

I traveled from NC for residential treatment for orthorexia and am honestly very disappointed. I heard great things about Alsana being good with orthorexia so wanted to try it. It was extremely subpar. There is an immense lack of support, it was almost shocking. For people with eating disorders who NEED encouragement and support and processing with meals, that was not done here. I verbalized that with my dietitian & the clinical director and they were able to individualize my treatment as much as they possibly could because I knew what works for me and what doesn’t from past treatment, but without me verbalizing it, I find it hard to imagine anyone being able to make meaningful and sustainable progress. You hear many things in regards to treatment centers being too punitive, having levels, privileges you can earn and have taken away based on completion etc - Alsana is the complete opposite. They are honestly too careless and laid back in my opinion. They don’t push or encourage you whatsoever. I’m not going to get into the details of that, but in my experience I was feeling so sick and had dangerously low BP, and was told I should drink some water and sit down and I’ll feel better. I had to advocate for any and all support and care I did receive. I will say my dietitian and the clinical director here are wonderful and really do try to work with you and accommodate your needs, unfortunately 90% of the time you are with “direct care staff” who have no credentials or experience with eating disorders and were so rude to me. They also lead most of the therapeutic groups which does not even seem like that should be allowed. I made progress only because I had to STRONGLY advocate for myself and my needs and did it myself, not based on their “adaptive care model”. I do also appreciate that they accommodate vegan and have healthy options. There is a relatively good amount of meal flexibility and autonomy when it comes to choosing your meals and snacks and good variety of options.