Four Winds Hospital

Incredibly uncomfortable experience. Untrained staff, patterns of gaslighting, lack of safety measures, shocking displays of homophobia despite claiming to be queer friendly, and terrible treatment of young patients make this a big no from me. While there are worse places out there, if you plan to make a long term recovery, this will set you back by several thousand dollars and a whole lot of trauma. If you’re already awaiting admission and can no longer back out, here are a few things to note.

1. While honesty is the best policy, if you’re asked about nightmares, discomfort, or thoughts of hurting yourself, keep your mouth shut unless you genuinely plan to act on them. They will not help you solve the issue, they will only keep you there longer.

2. Make the most of phone calls, someone you trust on the other end may be able to guide you on ways to keep your nose clean.

3. Don’t get too involved with other patients. You are going to feel lonely, but unfortunately if someone else is looking to take their anger out, it won’t be hard for them to drag you down as well.

4. Once you’re out, work towards getting proper help. You will likely have to work through trauma after the ordeal.

As someone who’s been here 3 times in their life. The hospital is okay. The staff are friendly and the food is good. The thing is in the winter there are lots of bugs and the hot water is limited to at least 1 hour to everyone who showers (For me personally I take longer showers). When I was there the staff were very supportive, helpful and (somewhat) easy to talk too. I felt seen here since there were lots of kids/teens like me either having similar situations, experiences or stories. It was like we all felt the same way abt life, I miss my companionship with them. As like whenever you get discharged from here you can’t really reconnect w/ them after (Since one of the rules was to not share socials). So they are like a warm faded memory.

I recently worked with Dr Sarah Klagsbrun and her team at Four Winds. They were extremely help in communicating with me and were always thoughtful and engaged. Everyone appreciated their work from start to finish and would recommend the team in the future! I do not have any negative remarks from my experience at all.

Four Winds hospital is an exceptional psychiatric hospital. Their staff combine expertise and compassion to care for all of their patients. The psychiatrists and psychiatric nurse practitioners are extremely thoughtful in recommending medications based on each patient's individual and specific needs. Medications is only part of the comprehensive treatment plan. The program provides family sessions to work on interpersonal dynamics as well as specific triggers to help strengthen relationships within the family. Patients are also taught invaluable therapeutic skills that can help them succeed once they are discharged. Four Winds is a special hospital that provides excellent care to its patients.

I was hospitalized at Four Winds Katonah in the adult unit from mid-Jan 2025 to mid-Feb 2025. I admitted myself voluntarily and was told I could leave after a 72-hour psyche hold. That turned out not to be true. Why not just tell the truth? After I was admitted they did an about face and said I was admitted on an involuntary status and could not leave until I was discharged. There was nothing I could do and I spent just under 4 weeks here. I was ready to go home after about 2.5 weeks. The first two weeks were fine. The food was actually good (if a little carb-heavy) but the showers were usually cold. Overall the experience was fine. They do perform a strip search during the admission process and regularly search your belongings during your stay for everyone’s safety and of course there is no expectation of privacy. My psychiatrists were good but ultimately I still have a lot of the same problems so certain things didn’t really get resolved. All of my medications were clearly and openly discussed and I was never medicated against my will which I appreciate. One of the programs they were supposed to have, music therapy, was not available during my stay which was unfortunate since I was playing the piano regularly prior to being hospitalized. Another negative is that all adults 18+ are put together and the 18-20 year old girls were very prone to starting fights/drama/harassment with you over absolutely nothing just because they were bored. Also you were “strongly encouraged” to attend group therapy so it was pretty much impossible to avoid these people even if you wanted to.

The problem I now have to deal with is the hospital bill. After I was discharged I was sent a bill for $3000 which I have been trying to pay off. They did bill the insurance company (I was told I have “good” insurance) and this $3000 remainder is my obligation. I have paid off about $800 of it and have made drastic changes to my lifestyle in order to do so. This has been a very stressful year trying to pay this bill. At this rate it will take me another 16.5 months to pay it off. 22 months total to pay off a stay of 30 days? Come on!