Princeton Healthcare System (Princeton House) Reviews

DO NOT GO HERE! The staff violated a lot of my patient rights as an inpatient
1. Barging in on me in my private bathroom when I was not in distress. Patients have right to privacy so long as they aren't conveying distress.)After the nurse did this she constantly misgendered me, which endangered me as a trans person. When I mentioned this to another patient, he was shocked as a staff member had knocked on his bathroom and when he said he was okay they left him.
2. Staff in general constantly misgendered me and referred to me by my deadname, which is a violation of my patient right to healthcare respectful of my individuality and identity.
3. Staff lied in both my file and other patients' pertaining to subjects on self harm and suicidal thoughts. It was clear that the staff was trying to commit some of us to involuntary care or hold us longer than we needed to be there.
4. In a crisis situation I had (staff and patients were misgendering me and it was sending me to a bad place), the night time nurse refused to allow me to call my mom or speak to any doctor/nurse/supervisor in house. Instead, he threatened to put me in involuntary isolation if I didn't be quiet and said "what is wrong with you?" Another patient witnessed the entire situation and told me he was shocked by staff's NONEFFORTS to de escalate the situation. It had the potential to be very dangerous.
5. They weaned me off of my antidepressant too fast there, and now I have been experiencing INTENSE brain zap since leaving. They also did not write me a script or provide any doses for the medication I was SUPPOSED to be on that they had started me on at the facility. THIS IS SO DANGEROUS!!!
6. A trans/non binary social worker staff member was CONSTANTLY misgendered by their own staff. It's obvious that this institution needs to do a lot better in weeding out bad nurses/doctors, or at least do better diversity training.

Princeton House should rip down the pride flag hanging it its hallway. Don't go here if you're queer.

There were a number of other things that went wrong in this place. Princeton House (or rather Princeton Prison) clearly does not care about its patients. We were simply boxes to tick.
Also, don't expect group therapy. We had one hour a day of "art therapy" that usually was very unhelpful. The rest of the day you spend watching friends re runs and staring at the wall. All they want to do is pump you full of medication and make sure you don't kill yourself in their building.

My personal experience with Princeton House Behavioral Health has been horrible. If I could give them less than one star I would.

I was a client in the teen program on the emotional eating track. It's a DBT program (php/iop), and it definitely does teach you the skills (albeit in a mechanical way that doesn't allow for any group processing.) I had a long list of issues in this program, and I would advise any parents looking for care for their child to NOT GO HERE.

Right from the start it was a mess. The psychiatrist deemed me appropriate for the program and then my therapist immediately told me that she didn't think I was appropriate for the level of care and that I needed to be in a higher one. She wasn't willing to work with me at all. Eventually they started saying that the program doesn't actually treat eating disorders (which raises the question of how it was ethical to accept a patient who's primary issue was one they didn't treat?) and tried to kick me out for an essentially nonexistent medical issue (two outside doctors gave me medical clearance and they still wouldn't let me come back until a higher up got involved).

Apparently Princeton House generally is not supposed to prescribe stimulants (perhaps an exception is made for current students, but I was told in their inpatient unit that stimulants aren't allowed throughout the whole system). I came in to the program on vyvanse at the max dose, and the psychiatrist offered to raise it past the FDA approved dosage (even though they were claiming to be worried about my heart). I declined the offer, but the question of raising the dose of a medication with appetite reducing effects beyond FDA approved standards should never have been up to someone with an eating disorder--it shouldn't have been a possibility.

My last few weeks I didn't even get full sessions. I mentioned increased depression in a session and the rest of my sessions were half sessions and then there was no time to actually deal with the depression. My therapist actually had the audacity to lament the fact we were doing half sessions even though none of her other clients were and if it was a time thing I shouldn't have been the only one not getting therapy.

The reality of the situation was that I was not in a place where I was ready or safe to discharge, so instead of giving me more time/stepping me up to php/referring me out, they decided to not give me the amount of therapy that level of care would usually have, and then when I spiraled as a result of several weeks of not doing any therapy beyond going over the weekly diary card, I got sent to inpatient and they wouldn't accept me back in the program when I discharged.

I think that cutting back someone's care because they are struggling and you don't want to extend their treatment borders on negligence. I also don't think they billed my insurance less for giving me less therapy than they were paying for.

The people from this program on the EET path who I'm still in contact with and even people I know who were there years before me have all relapsed or needed higher levels of care or generally didn't see much improvement with their eating disorder synptomology and thoughts with this program.

I think that DBT can be very helpful in recovery, however, recovery is more than DEAR MANs and TIPP and meal plan compliance. Having skills to utilize can make the basics of recovery (cessation of ED behaviors) easier, but it's impossible to truly recover without doing deeper work, and at least for me, the program was unwilling to do deeper work and wasn't even willing to give me the amount of care that was being paid for.

I personally would talk anyone I know out of going to any of their php/iop services, because they were okay depriving me of care so that they had plausible deniability as to why discharging me was okay. They literally told me that it would be unethical for providers to see me in outpatient because I was "too sick" for that level of care, and then denied me care so that I couldn't tell them the extent of how unwell I was before I discharged and it ended up leaving me in an unsafe situation.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don't trust these people with your loved ones.

I was in inpatient here for a little over 4 weeks, and I understand and acknowledge I wasn't always the "easiest" patient. Dr. Yanovskiy was my psychiatrist, and he was incredible. He was always a very kind man and good at what he does. Lauren was a great social worker, too. I received 11 ECT treatments while I was here, and Dr. Stuebben and the ECT nurses were amazing and very hospitable. The facility itself was clean and well-maintained and the food was good, especially in terms of hospital food.

The reason for 2 stars is mainly because of a social work intern that still works here. He led several groups and was incredibly inexperienced and harmful in the way he led group. Specifically, during one group, he said that he couldn't give us pens with worksheets he was providing because "we would use them to kill ourselves". In another group, he targeted me specifically and proceeded to single me out despite me saying how uncomfortable I was about the subject manner and how I preferred to continue it outside of group privately with him. He would still not stop, and I had to walk out of group. Another patient informed me that he talked to her about his marijuana usage and told her not to tell anyone. Although I don't think it is a big deal for staff to smoke marijuana, it's completely out of line for a staff to tell a patient not to tell certain information, especially when he was telling her on his own free-will. He is not qualified and seems to have his own personal agenda he pursues during his groups that appears to only be for the sole purpose of stroking his fragile ego. I also witnessed another staff tell a patient who was on special observation for suicide-watch that people who killed themselves go to Hell. I don't even need to explain how harmful this is, especially when so many patients at these facilities have family/friends who have committed suicide and should not throw their religious beliefs on patients, especially when it isn't asked for.

I do want to acknowledge some of the staff that excelled at their jobs. It was always a pleasure to be in their groups, and they always brought thought-provoking and helpful information to the table. It's a shame that only a few staff can leave such a bad taste in patient's mouths.

Both inpatient and outpatient were immensely incompetent. The most staff clearly didn t care about the patients at all. The facilities in person and their adaptation to online were outdated and sub-par. The doctors are possible some of the most callous and dismissive professionals I ve ever worked with. Please safe yourself the mental breakdown and stay away

great people here. Sincerely.. Above and beyond. All of them in this place. I actually really never been to a place with such caring and sensitive people. I feel bad because it's been a while and I don't remember everyone's name but all of them top notch

I was depressed and called Princeton House for help. After a phone assessment they said that they would have a bed for me in two days. I asked about their policies (clothing, smoking etc.) and she said said that she would call me back with all of the information I needed. Two days later she had still never called back so I called them. They made me go to an ER first where I spent over 5 hours and then the ER told me no vaping allowed, no visitors allowed and my husband who sat outside the ER for hours couldn't even take me. Why didn't Princeton House tell us this when we called for help?

Absolutely horrendous experience. I did the partial day program at Moorestown for almost 2 months in the fall of 2016 following a serious mental health crisis, and my time at Princeton House was far more traumatic than what put me there. I spent hours a day doing useless programs and participating in group therapy, which they refused to acknowledge was unhelpful for me. They put me on lithium, which made me feel like I had dementia. I could barely function. One of my worst experiences with a medication. At one point, my entire care team left at the same time for vacation, directly after the psychiatrist had me stop my antidepressant cold turkey. I had a terrible manic episode and didn't sleep for 48 hours. The admins were caddy and nasty to me when I told them I needed to go home so I wouldn't have an emotional breakdown due to no sleep, and tried to stop me from leaving even though they had no jurisdiction to do so. They kept pushing my discharge date back because I didn't want to stop smoking weed. Eventually I left without being discharged. It took at least 6 months for me to emotionally recover from what they put me through. DO NOT LET YOUR DOCTOR SEND YOU HERE.

i was bored in school so i decided to search up this place i have never been here but based off the reviews i am reading doesn't sound like the most pleasent place to stay. so dont go here. i might need to but well see what happened in my future.

Terrible place, do not recommend. Would rate it less if I could.