Weill Cornell Psychiatry Manhattan Division

The Continuing Day Treatment Program is excellent for patients who have serious mental illness, but NOT for people who are primarily seeking treatment for emotional issues, namely those with Borderline Personality Disorder.
When I had been there (until September 2014) those with BPD were put in the DBT track. However this track only entails two DBT meetings a week. All other groups are mixed with people who may be struggling with bathing, as an extreme example.
It is inappropriate and a disservice to the disparate disorders to combine them.
It caused frustration for patients (BPD and non-​BPD) and staff.
The DBT groups were very helpful, but I wish that the 20 some odd other hours I attended there each week were as helpful. Instead, they stalled my treatment, as there was no psychodynamic treatment at all. I didn’t realize how essential psychodynamics were. Also, the DBT therapists are too bent on DBT; instead a «course» of treatment modes should be implemented to successfully manage BPD: Mentalization Therapy has been a useful tool for me at my new day program, for example.
DBT is very helpful but NOT everything!
Also, the director of the program was very poor at understanding BPD outbursts and it made for a very uncomfortable, unequal environment for borderlines.
Many of the therapists are young and still learning what their boundaries are, which is a difficult situation for both the borderline and the therapist; the borderline is learning and testing boundaries as a human being while the therapist is learning and testing theirs as a therapist. Guess everyone has to start somewhere…

I had to write this review to provide another perspective besides the one below. It sounds like the CBT program has some issues, but the DBT (dialectical behavior therapy) program saved my life. Honestly, I can’t say enough good things about it. If you’re struggling with borderline personality disorder, please, PLEASE get in touch with Payne Whitney.
Granted, I was there in ’05-’06, so it may have changed by now. But if Carole Freedman and Marcy Kopakin are still there, it will be good.
I can’t speak for the inpatient program, but if I were really in crisis, I wouldn’t hesitate to go. I’ve had nothing but great care at NY Hospital. Other people in my DBT group had been in the partial day program prior to going outpatient, and they had good things to say about it.
The wait list is super long, but keep calling back every few weeks to check in and show you’re still interested. It’s worth it!

I was wildly disappointed with the psychiatric care at Payne Whitney, as it is such a heralded facility (consistently doing battle with McLean for «US World & News Report’s» best hospital). I was not on the inpatient ward here (the Greenberg Pavilion), which I heard from fellow patients was intense by exceedingly helpful at regulating adverse psychiatric conditions, getting people on the correct medication, and engaged, constantly, in therapy of various sorts. They seem particularly fond of ECT; ~10% of inpatients get it. (I should mention there is no outdoor time at all, unlike Payne Whitney Westchester, where you can ultimately earned such a «privilege»; and this is something I think [and many behavioral health professionals agree] is gravely unhealthy [never seeing the light of day] when trying to recover from a depressive episode or what have you; though, to be fair, this seems to be the unfortunate standard in NYC hospitals for insurance company reasons (big shocker!), which is why I would elect, if ever essential, to go back to McLean or to Four Winds [the latter has hours of outdoor time, but I cannot speak to the care on a personal level, though I have heard excellent things].)
I was enrolled in what I thought/​what was supposedly, a Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Partial Hospitalization Program, and ultimately an Intensive Outpatient Program. And I gotta be straight: it was really kind of worthless, and even a waste of time (many other people in the program fiercely agreed). The best part was meeting, yes, some more fabulous folks with whom I am now deep friends. My case worker seemed grossly inexperienced; raised her voice without realizing it; had an exceedingly convoluted analysis of my conditions and was unable to be of any assistance whatsoever in sorting it out with me, and was even rather antagonistic and defensive. (I literally thought she was an intern after our first meeting.) I left Payne Whitney feeling worse nearly every day. My parents came to the family meeting, and agreed with my assessment completely, as does my actually brilliant and enormously kind psychiatrist. I mean, the program was just not challenging; it was frustrating and sometimes even ridiculous (i.e., dance therapy made me feel even more crazy).
To be fair, there is a Social Worker there named Caris who is unbelievably talented. I wish she ran the entire program. I simply cannot resist shouting her out; she helped me a great deal, and I don’t think she even knows quite how much.
The doctor, who was so impressed with himself it was nauseating kept trying to put me on Lithium. I mean, what? Not a chance. This dude was seriously obsessed with Lithium. Almost everyone was put on it (no exaggeration), and shaking with tremors during group until they all had the dose lowered. Once, he literally said, «I love my Lithium!» and when I asked if he ever took it, he acted like I told him to go… be naughty with himself. I called my real psychiatrist, who agreed with me 100%, and they sort of did serious battle on the phone a bunch of times. I am doing exceedingly well on Parnate (an MAOI antidepressant), and what I truly need is some extremely serious, kick your ass therapy. You will not get that in the Partial Hospitalization Program at Payne Whitney, which I am still gob-​smacked by. Also, my psychiatrist made myriad phone calls to the hospital’s DBT program, which went completely unreturned. How outrageously unprofessional! He was shocked and livid, and so was I. I definitely would not recommend this program, unfortunately, to anyone who wants a real challenge and to be understood – because that’s what you need to get well. Something really, really hard, and with diligence, getting better all the time; like anyone, a work in progress, always learning.