I was recently advised that articles about IAEDP and Acadia were getting redundant.
So, why continue ?
Regarding Acadia, the answer is quite simple. Because its systemic corruption continues seemingly unabated and its vapid denials and inane posturing have reached an absurd level.
But before going into the most recent damning New York Times investigative article on Acadia, let’s look into the eyes of some of their victims:
Christopher Gardner
Five year old Christopher was left for 8 hours in a transport van at a West Memphis, Arkansas daycare facility owned by Acadia. Workers tried to cover up their gross negligence by signing documents showing that Christopher was taken inside the West Memphis day care center, even though he remained on the van. At least one media outlet reported the temperature in that van rose as high as 141 degrees. Christopher died in that van.
Deborah Cobbs
In May 2024, 20-year-old Deborah Cobbs, died after she threw herself down a staircase. At Timberline Knolls. Police reports indicate that she attempted to run away from the campus twice that very day. Which makes it quite curious as to why she was not being closely supervised.
Tiley McQuern
In January 2023, Tiley McQuern, 50, was found dead in her bed at Timberline Knolls after swallowing too many pills.
Those are just three of the many Acadia victims. Look at their faces. Never forget their faces. Because the faces in those photos are all that is left for their loved ones.
On April 22, 2025, the New York Times published an article about Acadia’s now shuttered and infamous facility, Timberline Knolls. It is entitled, “Suicides and Rape at a Prized Mental Health Center. Timberline Knolls, a mental health center owned by Acadia Healthcare, skimped on staff. Then came a series of tragedies.”
Although behind the New York Times paywall, the good people at the Salt Lake Tribune published the article in its entirety here:
https://www.sltrib.com/news/nation-world/2025/04/22/timberline-knolls-owned-by-acadia/
Some of the statements in the article include:
“But dangerous conditions persisted for years at Timberline Knolls, an investigation by The New York Times found, in part because of pressure to enroll more patients without hiring enough employees.”
“Two former residents sued Timberline Knolls last year, claiming that an aide had raped them. Acadia had hired the aide despite a criminal record that included domestic violence and gun charges.” [emphasis added]
“Another resident — a child who was a ward of the state — nearly died after she overdosed on medication that had been left out in a common area, according to former staff members. And two other women died by suicide after being left unsupervised, a rare occurrence at mental health facilities.”
“We were extremely understaffed,” said Cecilia Del Angel, who worked as a behavioral health aide at Timberline Knolls until last July. Several other former employees echoed that sentiment. The patient deaths, Ms. Del Angel said, were “entirely preventable.”
“Illinois regulators had not looked into the suicides. A spokesman for the state’s health department said it did not regulate Timberline Knolls, and the state’s Division of Substance Use Prevention and Recovery had not visited the property since 2019.”
“The problems at Timberline Knolls were part of a nationwide pattern of lapses at Acadia, one of the country’s largest for-profit providers of mental health services, with more than 260 facilities in 39 states, The Times found.”
“Acadia has closed facilities over the past decade after reports of sexual abuse. More than a dozen patients reported sexual assaults at an Acadia psychiatric facility in Utah. At a youth treatment center in New Mexico, patients claimed that staff had sex with them and pushed them to participate in “fight clubs.” And in Michigan, three women said they had been sexually abused by a supervisor at a youth treatment center.”
“In the summer of 2018, patients complained to Timberline Knolls employees that a therapist, Michael Jacksa, had sexually abused them on Timberline’s campus. The facility waited more than three weeks to call the police, doing so only after the patients complained to the state’s substance abuse agency, court records show.”
“Timberline’s leader at the time, Sari Abromovich, said an Acadia executive had told her not to alert the authorities, according to a deposition she gave in a lawsuit later filed by one of the women who was raped.”
“Ms. Abromovich, who was fired in 2018, said she was under daily pressure from corporate managers to fill beds and keep expenses low by skimping on staff.”
“Patient enrollment fell with the news of Mr. Jacksa’s arrest. In the ensuing years, Acadia pressured staff to find new ways to fill beds, according to eight former employees, who spoke on the condition that The Times not publish their names because they still work in the mental health industry.”
“Staff struggled to prevent patients from fighting, harming themselves and escaping the facility. In 2020, the Lemont police were called to Timberline Knolls 222 times, police said. By 2023, that number had soared to 519. No one else in Lemont made more emergency calls.”
“In a brief telephone call with The Times, Eiliana Silva, the director of J.P.’s [rape victim] residential unit, acknowledged that she had heard concerns from staff about Mr. Hampton [the rapist/employee] but said she could not properly supervise him because she was one of only two directors overseeing five lodges. As soon as she heard about J.P.’s complaint, she said, she relayed it to Timberline Knolls’ leadership.”
“At the time Timberline Knolls’ leadership heard the accusations against Mr. Hampton, the staff was still reeling from three other disasters.”
“In January 2023, Tiley McQuern, 50, was found dead in her bed after swallowing too many pills. A staff member told police that although employees were supposed to check on patients, those checks were “not thorough,” police records show.”
“Seven months later, a child, who had been placed at Timberline Knolls by the state’s child welfare agency, was rushed to the hospital after overdosing on medication that a staff member had left in a common area.”
“Then, in May 2024, another resident, 20-year-old Deborah Cobbs, threw herself down a staircase while no one was supervising her and died. She had tried to escape Timberline twice that day, police records show. Ms. Cobbs had also told several people that she was feeling suicidal, according to former employees who worked there at the time.”
So, what was Acadia’s response to this legion of corruption and harm to those entrusted to their care?
“Tim Blair, a spokesman for Acadia, said in a statement that the company had a zero-tolerance policy for behavior that could put staff or patients in danger. “We reject any notion that we put profits over patients,” he said, adding that “complaints and incidents are investigated and addressed.”
“Mr. Blair denied that Timberline Knolls had dangerous conditions and said it had adequate staffing levels.”
Another unidentified Acadia spokesperson said, “The recent New York Times story about Timberline Knolls, a closed Acadia facility, includes material inaccuracies and cherry-picks and conflates historical incidents to paint a false and inaccurate picture of the safety and quality of the care our facilities provide.”
Acadia’s corruption is vast. A report by the National Disability Rights Network detailed allegations of inappropriate physical restraints, sexual abuse, and emotional abuse at for-profit treatment centers, citing examples at Acadia facilities including an incident where a 9-year-old was injected with antihistamines as punishment at an Acadia facility in Montana.
In March 2025, three adolescents filed a lawsuit against Detroit Behavioral Institute, LLC and its owner, Acadia. The plaintiffs allege widespread sexual, physical, and psychological abuse inflicted on dozens of children. In fact, more than 35 people have come forward after they were reportedly abused as children at the Detroit Behavioral Institute between 2005-2022. The lawsuit alleges that the children were groomed, sexually assaulted and those that spoke out were retaliated against.
Naturally, Acadia closed the facility in 2022.
Acadia’s response to that lawsuit? “The well-being of all patients is of the utmost importance to Acadia Healthcare and its affiliated facilities. We take these allegations seriously. While we can’t comment on specific allegations and patient situations due to privacy regulations, the picture being painted of Acadia and the quality of care provided by our facilities is inaccurate. We intend to defend this case vigorously.”
It is enlightening that Acadia’s public response to both the Timberline Knolls scandals and the horrific allegations against Acadia’s Detroit facility utilize almost identical language … “the picture being painted of Acadia and the quality of care provided by our facilities is inaccurate.
In addition, the same day the New York Times published its story, Acadia released its own statement entitled, “Setting the Record Straight: Acadia is A Leader in Quality, Safe Behavioral Healthcare.”
That statement can be found here:
It should come as no surprise that Acadia once again uses its old stand by line, “Regrettably, a recent media report cherry picked and conflated historical incidents at a closed Acadia facility to paint a false and inaccurate picture of the safety and quality of the care our facilities provide.”
So apparently, medication overdoses causing death while under the watchful eyes of Acadia, two suicides in the facility within a year, a minor taken to a local hospital because of a drug overdose, numerous young women being sexually assaulted and raped, five hundred nineteen (519) 9-1-1 calls within one year all fall into the category of “false and inaccurate picture of the safety and quality of the care our facilities provide.”
So, painting an inaccurate picture? Like this?
Or is the painting inaccurate because it does not nearly portray the numerous additional instances of abuse, misconduct and neglect perpetrated by Acadia?
It seems as if Acadia anticipates these lawsuits and issues the same trite defensive language dripping in lawyer ick. For Acadia, it is merely the cost of doing business with our loved ones being nothing more than corporate commodities.
Acadia’s profiteering at the expense of its patients results in the dirtiest kind of money. And yet, our eating disorder organizations continue to close their eyes and continue to accept Acadia’s dirty money. In February, it was iaedp at its annual symposium.
Next month in San Antonio, it is AED’s turn to turn a blind eye and accept Acadia’s dirty money. In doing so, AED arguably becomes complicit in the following odious, reprehensible acts perpetrated by Acadia and its feckless employees:
- Multiple rapes in their treatment facilities located in a number of states;
- Multiple sexual assaults in their treatment facilities located in a number of states;
- Multiple attempted suicides in their treatment facilities located in a number of states;
- Multiple successful suicides in their treatment facilities located in a number of states;
- Having your lack of oversight result in the death of a 5 year old child left under your care;
- Acadia’s officers and Board of Directors engaged in a scheme to defraud and mislead investors concerning patient care, staffing levels and legal compliance issues;
- Acadia and its employees submitting false claims for payment to Medicare, Medicaid and TRICARE for inpatient behavioral health services that were not reasonable nor medically necessary;
There are many other woeful, reprehensible, unethical, illegal and criminal acts being perpetrated by this rogue organization. But even all of this is not enough to make eating disorder organizations take notice, stand up, and say enough, no more, no longer will we permit you to abuse the most helpless, vulnerable people in society. We refuse to be part of your misconduct.
Instead, like a common street walker, these organizations stand by with their hand extended willing to participate in any act no matter how vile, demeaning or degrading for its 30 pieces of silver.
A DAD'S JOURNEY WITH EATING DISORDERS 