Willowglen Academy

I am a case manager and have placed two students at Willow Glen. Both have made greater than expected improvements in social and mental health domains. The reason I felt compelled to write this review is that these two cases were my success stories for 2011. The staff at WGA are dedicated to helping youth improve and I am glad they are there for the families I serve.

Willow Glen is a terrible place. I know this because I am a former resident. I was appalled by some of the things I witnessed. In one incident, during dinner a young man was seated at the table, and was attacked by another client. He was viciously punched for about 20 seconds(the staff had strangely not even followed us into the room). It took roughly this long for intervention to occur. It is quite probable that this delay was deliberate, as they stayed in the hallway chatting for a short time until even the cafeteria worker had to call for them(there were at least four other adolescents present, myself included). I also had a bottle of urine thrown at me on the night before my discharge. There were a decent number of friendly staff who seemed to be passionate about their jobs, but the few who were not stood out in a negative way and made my stay very difficult. The school is lacking even from an educational standpoint. The English sounded more like psychology (i.e. discussing the manipulation of a person's emotions by various mediums of commercial advertisement), and many students complained loudly about not learning anything. Many staff members acted in an immature manner and, among other illogical, irrational, even shady things, sometimes cursed at the residents they did not like. There were many sports played, however, and I found this to be quite enjoyable. Food served at mealtimes tasted good, and was filling. It was not healthy, but there was a salad bar to remedy this, of which most residents did partake. Conversations with the more educated and intelligent employees were intellectually satisfying and fun, not to mention worthwhile escapes from the almost unbearable chaos of the unit. I found the place to be loud and obnoxious, and sometimes even dangerous. Overall, the sports, temporary friendships with  staff and clients, and the food were all that made the place the least bit tolerable. I was only fond of one of the teachers, I didn't feel that I could trust my clinician, and hardly ever felt safe on the unit. With my Asperger's Syndrome, Willow Glen Academy proved itself an experience I'll recover from for some time.

Willow Glen is not a professional place.  They do not feed the adolescents healthy food, try to get them ready for the real world, nor treat them the way they should be.  Their clinicians are excellent, however the daytime staff, especially after school, do not care for them as they should.  They treat them as annoyance to them, and focus on their social life with the other staff.  They have their favorite clients, and ones that they treat completely different, I would not recommend this place.