UNC Center of Excellence for Eating Disorders

"Horrible institution, absolutely deplorable care by the staff with Debbie and Trisha both being belittling and insulting to those they are expected to help and care for, treating them as children, babying them and dehumanizing them in just about every way possible"

"I was in this place for a month. In that time, I gained 30lbs. That is not healthy. They shove 3000 calories in you a day, force you to sit through groups that were designed by people who had never experienced an eating disorder. None of the staff knew what they were doing. They would threaten their unwell patients with a feeding tube because they were hesitant to eat a meal made for a 600lb man. Also, they only accept people as patients if they are severely underweight. What sense does it make to wait until someone is DAYS away from dying to treat them."

"If you need help don’t ask for it here because they will just ignore you even if you are in crisis"

"I am being generous by giving this place 1 star. I was treated with extreme disrespect by staff and received no mental treatment or therapy. When asking the doctors about why they were not addressing my mental health, I was told that my mental state would be addressed once I was transferred to residental facility. Furthermore, the dietion was underqualifed and would forget to send the meal cards to my mom and instead took the liberty to fill them out herself. The dietion also put several individuals on a higher caloric intake than was medically safe. This led to several individuals having to be rushed to see GI doctors within the hospital. The dietion later admitted her mistake to the parents of these families by saying her math was wrong, but no further action was taken. My parents were denied contact with the head of the program. This program is disgraceful. Please do not send anyone struggling with mental health to the unc psych unit."

"My experience at UNC was... different. The experience I'm about to talk about is not covering ALL of UNC, this is just one particular person. Some of my time there was great! I am not going to deny that! Some of the staff members there were so incredibly amazing. A little bit of background about me is that I look very upset and my voice is very monotone when I first meet someone. I am very shy and this is just my reaction to strangers. When i warm up to someone, I am the most bubbly, kind person ever! My face and voice also become more expressive. Settling into the EDU at UNC, I was having a bit of trouble. I did not think I should've been there and I was extremely upset. I felt like some of my rights were taken away from me. I was expressing these concerns to anyone I could get near, I'm sure it was very annoying ;). After being in the EDU for about a week, a nurse who knew about my discomforts came over to me and some of the other girls on the unit. By then, a lot of my social anxiety about being there went away (along with my tone and facial expressions). I was laughing with them and joking, being myself. The nurse told me, "You seem a lot more personable." I had no idea what she meant so I asked her about it. She just explained that I was joking and having fun, I put my guard down. I agreed and explained how I am around people when I meet them. Then she completely disregarded that and insisted I acted that way because I was malnourished. She said it like she knew me, which she did not. When she said it I really wanted to slap her. Of course, I didn't do it. I knew that someone would yell at me. They wouldn't let us stand for more than 30 seconds, of course they wouldn't let me slap her! Too many burned calories!!! (That was a joke). When I told the people at the next place I went to, they said that it was unacceptable for her to say that. It felt good to hear that, I felt like I was overreacting."