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Southwood Psychiatric Hospital

2575 Boyce Plaza Road Pittsburgh, PA 15241
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Southwood Psychiatric Hospital PA 15241

About Southwood Psychiatric Hospital

Southwood Psychiatric Hospital is a bright, colorful and modern facility located on Boyce Plaza in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They primarily focus on providing mental health services, through education, health care and residential services for children with mental health disorders. However, they provide assessment services if your child is seeking additional care for substance use disorder treatment and mental health issues.

Supports Wellness for Youth and Their Families

If your child is struggling with behavioral issues at school, home or in their community, Southwood provides clients with professional care to recognize their actions and teach them coping skills to control their behavior.

Medication is also featured to assist in this process in order to help in stabilizing their behavior patterns that may be negatively impacting both their lives and their health.

Thirty Years of Services in Behavioral Health

With over 30 years of treatment experience, a big part of their program is focused on education. They teach children and their families how to change their patterns of behavior as they relate to relationships in their lives, whether it be fellow classmates, teachers, caregivers or immediate family members. By receiving the right tools to families, you and your child can safely work towards healing.

Provides Advanced Therapy for Unique Conditions

Some of the conditions they treat are based on behavioral issues that involve your child acting out, managing their anger and making compulsive and impulsive decisions that can harm them and those around them. Their approach to therapy provides lasting results and utilizes reality theories that promote emotional growth and healing within your child.

When it comes to children, they recognize the immense need for family involvement in their healing process and encourage full participation from their families.

Recreation is also vital for youths suffering from instability; therefore, Southwood offers many programs that provide inner healing through yoga, music and art therapy, as well as physical activity both indoors and outside with sports and competitive games. Mayview Park also isn’t that far away.

Facility Overview

Bed icon 32
Number of Available Beds

Similar Rehab Centers

Latest Reviews

Caroline
2 weeks ago on Google
1
this place is actually a joke. i was only there for a week or something in girls B for suicidal ideation back in march, but staff was rude, and there was no help at all. there were several verbal and physical fights, between patients as well as staff. staff would curse and treat us HORRIBLY, “yall piss me off”. do not even say you strive to provide the best care like that’s actually BS. saying you provide group therapy on ur website and then not providing any is crazy work. the doctor gave me remeron which i should not have been given because i told him i did NOT have insomnia and started yapping about elon musk and autism like bru what are you talking about rn. literally ur staff sucks like oh my god that’s a prison, how many bad reviews is it gonna take before u fix it. i personally think the policy that if one person does something wrong everyone else has to suffer because having to sit in silence for an hour doing nothing for something i did not do isn’t okay. again its not a prison it’s a mental hospital. another policy i think should be amended is no cell phones. there should be supervised phone time instead of sitting in a room watching tv all day. that was all we did. the food was really good though.
Amiya Mayfield
3 weeks ago on Google
1
they had no menstrual products and forced girls to lay in their own blood and didn't clean the sheets even when patients left. the staff were rude and made fun of patients and there was a lot of hazards in the building that made the place incredibly unsafe. i was denied phone calls with my parents and there was constant violence all around me, i left the place more traumatized than I was when I went in. they treated us like criminals, not patients. not CHILDREN.
Danell Reges
1 month ago on Google
1
I had to pick one Star otherwise I would’ve gave this place zero stars. The place is extremely unprofessional they will not answer the phone no matter what … My daughter is in the adolescent girls unit and they refused to answer phone calls there. The doctors never call an update you I only got one update from a weekend doctor on a Sunday. It is now Wednesday and the doctor still hasn’t called. they’ve already traumatized, my child trying to force her to take medication’s at 16 years old, which is her own decision and threatened her that they would make her stay longer if she didn’t take the medicine. The staff swear at each other and complain. They make the kids sit in a room all day and watch TV and provide no therapeutic structured activities. I’ve dealt with Western psychiatric before, and they update the families of the patients every single day, and they answer the phones when you called to speak to your children. This place should be out of business and I’ve read the other reviews everything that I read my daughter told me the exact same thing. Do not send your child here. This place is a despicable hellhole.
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Rehab Score

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Scoring is assigned by a proprietary system which helps surface key metrics that determine quality. The 10-point scale factors in categories such as operations, customer satisfaction, and trust metrics. Read Full MethodologyCaret icon
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5.9 / 10

Other Forms of Payment

Private insurance refers to any kind of healthcare coverage that isn't from the state or federal government. This includes individual and family plans offered by an employer or purchased from the Insurance Marketplace. Every plan will have different requirements and out of pocket costs so be sure to get the full details before you start treatment.

Self-pay involves paying for treatment out of your own pocket. You can use savings or credit, get a personal loan, or receive help from family and friends to fund your treatment. If you don't have insurance or your insurance plan doesn't cover a specific program, self-pay can help ensure you still get the care you need.

Financial aid can take many forms. Centers may have grants or scholarships available to clients who meet eligibility requirements. Programs that receive SAMHSA grants may have financial aid available for those who need treatment as well. Grants and scholarships can help you pai for treatment without having to repay.

Military members, veterans, and eligible dependents have access to specific insurance programs that help them get the care they need. TRICARE and VA insurance can help you access low cost or no cost addiction and mental health treatment. Programs that accept military insurance often have targeted treatment focused on the unique challenges military members, veterans, and their families face.

Medicaid is a state based program that helps lower-income individuals and families pay for healthcare. Medicaid covers addiction treatment so those enrolled can use their coverage to pay for rehab. When a program accepts Medicaid the client often pays very little or nothing out of their own pocket.

Addiction Treatments

Levels of Care

inpatient iconInpatient

Residential treatment programs are those that offer housing and meals in addition to substance abuse treatment. Rehab facilities that offer residential treatment allow patients to focus solely on recovery, in an environment totally separate from their lives. Some rehab centers specialize in short-term residential treatment (a few days to a week or two), while others solely provide treatment on a long-term basis (several weeks to months). Some offer both, and tailor treatment to the patient's individual requirements.

24-hour icon24-Hour Clinical Care

Because the severity of withdrawal symptoms can fluctuate, constant monitoring under 24-hour clinical care in Pennsylvania is recommended for early recovery. As you undergo detox, medical staff will supervise your health and ensure severe symptoms do not develop or threaten your life. Professional counselors will also be available to treat mental and emotional health needs.

aftercare iconAftercare Support

Clients receiving services from a rehab aftercare program are usually stable and in the maintenance phase of recovery, having completed detox and/or intensive inpatient treatment. Rehab aftercare services can vary widely based on clients' individual and evolving needs, but often include peer coaching, relapse prevention support, 12 step program induction, and medical, mental health, and social service referrals. Individual care plans are typically developed by the client in partnership with their case manager and care team.

Treatments

Many of those suffering from addiction also suffer from mental or emotional illnesses like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, or anxiety disorders. Rehab and other substance abuse facilities treating those with a dual diagnosis or co-occurring disorder administer psychiatric treatment to address the person's mental health issue in addition to drug and alcohol rehabilitation.

Mental health rehabs focus on helping individuals recover from mental illnesses like bipolar disorder, clinical depression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, and more. Mental health professionals at these facilities are trained to understand and treat mental health issues, both in individual and group settings.

Clinical Services

Creativity is inherently healing, and can help those in recovery express thoughts or feelings they might not otherwise be able to. Creative arts therapy can include music, poetry/writing, painting, sculpting, dance, theater, sandplay, and more. Unlike traditional art, the final product matters far less than the experience of creation and expression itself.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is a modified form of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), a treatment designed to help people understand and ultimately affect the relationship between their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. DBT is often used for individuals who struggle with self-harm behaviors, such as self-mutilation (cutting) and suicidal thoughts, urges, or attempts. It has been proven clinically effective for those who struggle with out-of-control emotions and mental health illnesses like Borderline Personality Disorder.

Research clearly demonstrates that recovery is far more successful and sustainable when loved ones like family members participate in rehab and substance abuse treatment. Genetic factors may be at play when it comes to drug and alcohol addiction, as well as mental health issues. Family dynamics often play a critical role in addiction triggers, and if properly educated, family members can be a strong source of support when it comes to rehabilitation.

Group therapy is any therapeutic work that happens in a group (not one-on-one). There are a number of different group therapy modalities, including support groups, experiential therapy, psycho-education, and more. Group therapy involves treatment as well as processing interaction between group members.

In individual therapy, a patient meets one-on-one with a trained psychologist or counselor. Therapy is a pivotal part of effective substance abuse treatment, as it often covers root causes of addiction, including challenges faced by the patient in their social, family, and work/school life.

Trauma therapy addresses traumatic incidents from a client's past that are likely affecting their present-day experience. Trauma is often one of the primary triggers and potential causes of addiction, and can stem from child sexual abuse, domestic violence, having a parent with a mental illness, losing one or both parents at a young age, teenage or adult sexual assault, or any number of other factors. The purpose of trauma therapy is to allow a patient to process trauma and move through and past it, with the help of trained and compassionate mental health professionals.

Amenities

  • private iconPrivate Setting
  • spa2 iconYoga Studio
  • weight iconGym

Staff & Accreditations

Staff

Kim Lira, MS

CEO

Dominic Granito, BSN

Director of Nursing

Michelle Auer, BS

Director of Business Development, Marketing & RTF Coordinator

Thera Gallaway, MA

Director of Admissions

Michele Marian Kuhn, LCSW

Director of Clinical Services

Brittany Boehm, MS, RHIA

Director of Quality Management

Accreditations

The Joint Commission, formerly known as JCAHO, is a nonprofit organization that accredits rehab organizations and programs. Founded in 1951, the Joint Commision's mission is to improve the quality of patient care and demonstrating the quality of patient care.

Joint Commission Accreditation: Yes
Accreditation Number: 1048

Contact Information

Building icon

2575 Boyce Plaza Road
Pittsburgh PA, 15241

Fact checked and written by:
Camille Sylvain
Edited by:
Peter Lee, PhD

Rehab in Cities Near Pittsburgh

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Reviews of Southwood Psychiatric Hospital

1.8/5 (256 reviews)
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Reviews

Overall Experience
Date Submitted
Reviewer

Google Reviews

1.8 (256 reviews)
Caroline
2 weeks ago
1

this place is actually a joke. i was only there for a week or something in girls B for suicidal ideation back in march, but staff was rude, and there was no help at all. there were several verbal and physical fights, between patients as well as staff. staff would curse and treat us HORRIBLY, “yall piss me off”. do not even say you strive to provide the best care like that’s actually BS. saying you provide group therapy on ur website and then not providing any is crazy work. the doctor gave me remeron which i should not have been given because i told him i did NOT have insomnia and started yapping about elon musk and autism like bru what are you talking about rn. literally ur staff sucks like oh my god that’s a prison, how many bad reviews is it gonna take before u fix it. i personally think the policy that if one person does something wrong everyone else has to suffer because having to sit in silence for an hour doing nothing for something i did not do isn’t okay. again its not a prison it’s a mental hospital. another policy i think should be amended is no cell phones. there should be supervised phone time instead of sitting in a room watching tv all day. that was all we did. the food was really good though.

Amiya Mayfield
3 weeks ago
1

they had no menstrual products and forced girls to lay in their own blood and didn't clean the sheets even when patients left. the staff were rude and made fun of patients and there was a lot of hazards in the building that made the place incredibly unsafe. i was denied phone calls with my parents and there was constant violence all around me, i left the place more traumatized than I was when I went in. they treated us like criminals, not patients. not CHILDREN.

Danell Reges
1 month ago
1

I had to pick one Star otherwise I would’ve gave this place zero stars. The place is extremely unprofessional they will not answer the phone no matter what … My daughter is in the adolescent girls unit and they refused to answer phone calls there. The doctors never call an update you I only got one update from a weekend doctor on a Sunday. It is now Wednesday and the doctor still hasn’t called. they’ve already traumatized, my child trying to force her to take medication’s at 16 years old, which is her own decision and threatened her that they would make her stay longer if she didn’t take the medicine. The staff swear at each other and complain. They make the kids sit in a room all day and watch TV and provide no therapeutic structured activities. I’ve dealt with Western psychiatric before, and they update the families of the patients every single day, and they answer the phones when you called to speak to your children. This place should be out of business and I’ve read the other reviews everything that I read my daughter told me the exact same thing. Do not send your child here. This place is a despicable hellhole.

abbi
1 month ago
1

I thought i would take time to edit and revise my review that I originally made back in 2022. This place is Awful. I never leave reviews anywhere. But here I just have to. I was a patient at southwood for around 10 days a few months ago and it was the worst hospital experience and quite frankly some of the most traumatic days ive lived. The nurses and staff treat you like you are garbage and the dirt beneath their feet. We were emotionally abused, and some of us (including myself) were even physically abused at one point and time during our stay. The doctors do not communicate with the family's very well in letting you know what's going on with your child. I was told that i wasnt allowed to call my family and they told me that my family never even called me. This was completely false as my mom confirmed she would call the facility several times a day. hey would always tell her that i was "unable" to speak at that moment. Without going into too much graffic detail the staff handle situations wrong in so many ways for myself and the other kids I have been with. For me personally I was there for some issues that involved SI and all they did was scream in my face, and restrain and sedate me. I was sedated, from what I can remember, 4 days in a row once and it ended up hurting my stomach really bad to the point where I threw up. The nurses were so ANNOYED that I threw up and gave me a hard time for it. Unbelievable. Also when I was on my period and I asked for pads, this male staff member literally CHUCKED feminine products at me because he was mad I made him get up out of his chair. I was also forcefully picked up, shaken, and yelled at in my face and thrown onto a bed by a staff member because I was laying down crying. Yes ONLY because I was crying. I was laying in bed that night, crying and minding my own buisness when this happened. They give out sedatives like they are candy in order to "calm you down" after they mistreat you. Its a shameful place and shame on anybody who works for or associates themself with that facility. Update: Google all the new cases of abuse and neglect that people have reported and come forward about. It speaks for itself!

Brodie Swanson
1 month ago
1

I was admitted to Southwood voluntarily on February 24th 2023 until March 12, 2023 when I was 15 for suicidality with adderall/vyvanse abuse, I'll come back to that. Definitely not the usual misbehaving autistic kids they're used to tackling. Whole place REEKED of piss the second I arrived, floors and phones were sticky and broken... and on one of my first days I admitted suicidal ideation to one of the staff in private (they ask you every morning "do you have any thoughts, plans or intent to commit suicide" you learn to just say no to everything) I was seriously asked "Why would you say that?" and he disciplined me for being honest, which to me just reinforced that I should stay silent about it and from then on I didn't say a word unless spoken to, just to get out of there. They treated me like the model child of that group because I never spoke out of turn. Guess what they actually treated me for though? ADHD LOL. Their "best doctor" heard my suicidal thoughts and amphetamine abuse, and wrote me an Adderall script after a week there and sent me home after a week of testing it. They add time to your stay for speaking out of turn or too loud, without telling anyone, not even you yourself. I believe I had a day added because I was playing cards with the "bad" kid of the group, which is when I got the warning that interacting with specific kids would add time to my 'sentence'. If they added one more day I would've spent my 16th birthday there, It seriously felt like a prison, I know it's a mental health institution "ur just crazy" but seriously, everything I experienced reminded me of a prison. My curly hair suffered here lol they barely give you hygiene products and they're garbage, I got a tiny bottle of shampoo and just threw it in my caddy thing. They also threw a nonverbal kid in the white room, (I heard was covered in human waste) for charging the door cause he missed lunch or his phone call time or something, I get charging the door isnt cool but he literally cant talk and he essentially lived there afaik. The non-regular staff were cool, there was an ex-marine who told stories of the gas chamber test and his experiences in the marines, which was pretty cool. Other guys like that, they were pretty funny. Ultimately they did help by releasing me and setting me up with an amazing therapist closer to home who diagnosed me with MDD and offered me incredible support that Southwood could never give you. If you really want to help your child get them in good therapy, would've never thought a literal strip mall could offer the kind of support I got but they did and I'm very grateful for that, and the whole being silent for 2 weeks made me really think twice before speaking but i'm not sure if that's a good thing? and it has since been reversed. I pray everyday that the young children and people in similar situations to mine are treated better than me and my group were and get the help that they deserve.

Ernesto Carmona
2 months ago
1

Went here in 2024 hated it the people watching us yelled at us for no reason some of the staff were chill chairs were uncomfortable and when I got released I celebrated oh and when kids get in fights staff don't do nothing

Melissa Henry (Shadowz)
2 months ago
2

Truly heartbreaking to see these reviews about this place. I was 3-4 times in the late 1980s and early 1990s and back then the staff and doctors were great. I remember one staff by the name of Mick and he use to help me a lot with my mental health and would read my journal entries daily. Sad to hear this place is like a prison now instead of a place of healing.

Carina Gaggiani
3 months ago
1

My son was admitted a couple yrs ago and he came back worse, meds never changed either, now I needed him admitted again and they put him right back in there. I will fight to have him there longer than 2 weeks cause he needs longer care than that to get to the root of his issues and why he does what he does. I tried clarion but they said his behaviors are to severe, he's 11, well may ether wouldntbe if the health system and Dr's would of listened to me yrs ago and gave him the help that I demanded, now he cant get help anywhere cause I know Southwood aint gonna do nothing for him this time around either!!!!

Aveline
4 months ago
3

I went here in 2023 I think but all these reviews are from the parents, older kids, or younger kids, but as a trans (ftm) kid (12-13 at the time) it really wasn't that bad and the people there were awesome, some staff were really cool, others were okay except the main staff member in my unit would regularly vape in the closet with our under garments and hair stuff. My biggest issue was the meds schedule since I have trouble sleeping I would get a lot of melatonin at around seven and have to stay up until nine also the cdr still kinda scares me sometimes its the calm down room where bad kids would go (kids who yelled tried to hit or really do anything bad it) (it was like seven year olds) and when we walked past to go to dinner at like 4 you could see inside and it was regularly covered in shit. The food schedule also sucked breakfast at seven, lunch at eleven, dinner at four, and snack at six. There was no like real clocks so it was hard to tell what time it was. The unit I slept in was amazing though the two other people were really funny but one was gonna go to juvie after she got out so I was scared sometimes but they had sensors at the bottom of the doorframe to tell when we left our rooms. Near the end of my stay I started asking for my mom's hoodie because she gave it to me before I left and I live like 2 hours away from pittsburgh so she didn't want me getting homesick which I definitely did but they flat out refused to give me it even though it was allowed it didn't have strings it was a pullover and they said I could but they refused. Over all it was okay I wouldn't recommend but if it's your only option it would be fine

Response from the owner
Thank you for writing this review. We highly value your input.
Bee
4 months ago
1

i hate this place i was sent here june 8th got out the 28th it’s just horrible i wasn’t listened to very much it’s like a prison like most people have said. they weren’t very good at handling situations either i don’t recommend this place💔

Becca
4 months ago
1

I was sent here in November of 2022 when I was 17 and all I can say this that southwood is LITERALLY a prison. Every single minuscule action is scheduled and scrutinized by the staff (whom most of which were high or just didn’t care) and when conflict actually happens they turn a blind eye or just yell instead actually trying to fix the problem. Although my visit was brief I still had to lie my way out. I was kept in longer than I was promised. Some of the things I saw on there were straight up inhumane, especially for deeply troubled girls. Things like being threatened with “booty juice” as they called it which I’m assuming is sedation. You sit in a chair for 60% of the day with nothing to do, and when you’re not you have mandated unfun activities. I’ve blocked out a lot of the experience but one thing for sure is that I would NEVER recommend

Naomi Suty
4 months ago
1

I was there not to long ago staff would yell at kids for asking questions refusing to do showere untill they were ready normally took hours they didnt do groups we watched tv ALL DAY and i learned nothing at all! And we would be yelled at to be quiet if we were too loud while they were watching tv and they didnt always do my chart i hated it here so much!

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