Treatment as usual: Alsana, AKA Castlewood Treatment Center

A Letter to Alumni from Dr. Jim Gerber

Note: no mention of their true identity as Castlewood Treatment Center. It's all been erased.

April 17, 2018

To our Alsana Alumni,

Many of you may be surprised that I am responding to communication from social media but it has been brought to my attention that there are significant concerns related to recent changes here. I do want to assure everyone that the mission remains the same, to provide an environment and clinical structure that is directed in helping clients to resolve the underlying issues of their eating disorder. In order to do this Alsana has to remain viable. There are numerous changes in the world and we have to respond in a way that allows us to maintain this mission. In the years I have been with Alsana there has not been any alteration in the way Alsana has been reimbursed by insurance companies. On the other hand costs have risen dramatically. Further, trends in insurance authorization have changed which requires a flexibility to be able to admit and best serve clients.

Given this, the programs have been restructured in order to remain a dynamic treatment center. The program directors were given the opportunity to choose the team of individuals they thought could best serve their program. In addition, this new structure provides the avenue for the client to gain the most benefit out of our program in light of recent trends in insurance authorization. Also, I do believe that this has motivated us to consider other revisions that strengthen the therapy such as joining Stepdown and IOP.

Recently, there have also been significant changes in personnel. A number of these instances are due to the individual’s choice in response to life changes and their own goals. There were then other changes that did result from the restructuring and were done in the best interest of the various programs.

Be confident in knowing all clients at the Residential level of care will still receive 4 individual primary sessions per week. PHP clients will still receive the 3 primary sessions weekly. Clients in the step down level of care will receive 2 sessions along with IOP clients. Be confident in knowing we still offer adjunctive services for Chemical Dependency, Anxiety Disorders and Art Therapy.

Due to the expansion of Day Treatment services we are now charging for transitional living as the vast majority of other programs. We have worked to keep these costs to a minimum and will still offer free of charge transitional living at our Alabama facility.

Lastly, I do want to be clear that I see my primary responsibility as monitoring the therapy and progress of each client. I am involved in the groups, supervision and treatment teams of each program in St Louis as well as consulting with the Highlands and Monarch Cove. In fact, I would say some of these changes have helped to create a greater integration of all the programs and attention to the transitions of clients. As always, I am open to questions and concerns and would be happy to hear from you.

Here is a list of the teams at each St. Louis based program:

Alsana I Program Director- Jada Holmes Lead Therapists- Laura Wood Primary Therapists- Kat Hake, Allie Wilson Dietitian- Kim Schooley

Alsana II Program Director- Deana Wilson Lead Therapists- Christine Schneider Primary Therapists- Angie Lovett, Lolly Williams Dietitians- Rachael Wolf, Chelsea Martin

PHP Program Director- Rebecca Baker Primary Therapists- Elizabeth Irwin, Tracy Tew Dietitian- Aisha Lubinski

Step Down / IOP Program Director- Amanda Walker-Stutz Primary Therapists- Krista Shockley- Jacobs, Courtney Reed, Rachel Hagan Dietitians- Katelyn Frederickson, Deborah Hinds

Monarch Cove is led by Executive Director, Valerie Piacitelli, and Medical Director, Dr. Allen Miller, as well as PHP/IOP Program Director, Noah Bruce.

The Highlands is led by Executive Director, Ronda Cannon and Clinical Director, Nicole Siegfried.

If you do not know these team members, please plan to attend our Alumni Weekend August 15-16, 2015. We are thankful for our current strong client census and we know that many of those admissions have come from you, our alumni who believe in the program and the staff. We hope you will join us in August and I look forward to seeing you then.

Sincerely, Jim Gerber, Ph.D Clinical Director