Here are two recent anonymous online posts, found on Citysearch.com, regarding Arbour Hospital, the facility in Massachusetts we are focusing our advocacy efforts on. Please be aware that it may be disturbing.
These are just some stories that demonstrate the egregious and criminal nature of the discrimination the consumer/survivor/peer community experiences.
11/10/10
Should Be Shut Down
If I could give this place negative stars, I would. My husband was in there for several days recently--he was sent because they were the only place that had a bed and took his awful insurance plan--and he was completely traumatized. When he arrived they were fumigating his floor for bedbugs and they put him on another floor where he had no bed and no staff knew who he was.
He was given no information, no one was friendly, he was seen for 30 minutes total in 48 hours, the other patients were all violent and very loud, where my husband was simply depressed. There were fights in the hall that were slow to be broken up. Several patients were doing drugs in his room that one had smuggled in. Security was lax and they forgot to give him his medication for 36 hours.
Further, this place is dirty, dank and disgusting, the staff were extraordinarily rude to me with the exception of two night male nurses and the receptionist who gradually warmed to me. The nurses by and large seemed like they should be admitted.
My husband's case worker took 6 hours to call me back on the first day and then refused to come upstairs and meet with me, saying he was too busy. The second day, when he again refused and I said I would wait in the lobby until he was free, he accused me of harassing him. I don't think my husband's outside Psych received a call back until 8 hours had passed.
The only bright spot in this was the case worker's manager (who I escalated my concerns to) who was very kind, apologized for the case worker, and worked with me to get my husband transferred to McLean. We were very very lucky-- If I had not spent 36 straight hours on the phone and kept on despite being repeatedly told no, I never would have been able to transfer him. As it was, if he'd spent one more day there, insurance would have refused to move him.
If your loved one needs to go into the hospital, research ahead of time and go directly to that hospital. Do not ever allow them to take your loved one to Arbour. It is a mystery to me how anyone could ever get better there. I recommend McLean, which is like day after night.
11/09/10
the biggest mistake I made as a parent
I have never had to bring my child to a mental health facility before. Arbour was the first one we were told was open and to go. The staff not only did not understand a thing I was saying but they treated my child who was so scared like a piece of discarded trash. Their idea of family therapy was to put an entire family of divorced mom and dad and only one extension of my ex's family in the room with my daughter and myself and the social worker led my daughter to actually turn on me as a parent. In addition I will also make it very clear in this posting that the social worker who was supposed to help my daughter who is under aged actually told my child on a one on one meeting that my child should just call someone else and see if she could live with them. Said social worker told my child that she didn't think my daughter should live with either me or my ex husband. It not only disturbed my daughter and limited her trust in people and therefore did not assist in her recovery but it also shows me that it is AMAZING how these people think they know a child in less than 7 days....who does that? Not only do I think that you should refuse to send a loved one to this facility but I think that the adolescent ward should not even exist.
