"Thankfully I was only in this hospital for 11 days. I have to say the staff was always nice to me, but I didn't cause any problems. They are always short handed with not enough staff per volume of patients. I don't know how anyone could work in a place like that & stay sane themselves. You could definitely tell the ones that actually cared, weren't there to just get a paycheck, or completely burnt out. There were patients mixed in together from suicide attempts, alcoholics, autistic, mentally challenged, trauma, turrets, psysophrenics, drug addicts, anger issues. Men & women. You name it & we were all in the same unit. 30 people total. 6 units all with 30 patient capacity. Some patients didn't feel safe or protected from other patients. Especially when the violent ones weren't being punished. I felt like being grouped together like that, you'd go in with one problem & come out with more. Depending on staff to unlock doors for showers, laundry, bathroom, etc is all understandable until you can't find a staff member to assist you due to not enough staff. Constantly running out of shampoo, conditioner & other items. No one on one psychologists or counseling for anyone. Although we did have group sessions twice a day & that got us off the floor. The groups were usually fun & interesting, but no insight to our mental health or ways to control it. With exception of a couple I was in. As on the unit, groups were mixed as well. They did have bonus incentives to help achieve the ability to use the library, computers, buy snacks & there was a pool table. These were of course not in the unit. I went in there scared to death because I'd never been in a place like that. The staff didn't explain anything at all to me. I did make friends & they were my source of knowledge. We helped each other get through the days. I had so much empathy for the other patients, I found myself trying to help them cope even though dealing with my own issues. I felt so bad for one autistic young boy who just wanted to go home. I think patients like him should have one on one care. Not just someone following him every move he made.
Being in a place like that makes you really appreciate the tiniest things we take for granted everyday of our lives. I did gain a new perspective. I know I was able to get through it with God's mercy & grace.
Mental health is an illness. It is the most widely misunderstood illness there is. Being sick does not make you a bad person!! Most try to hide it because they know it's not socially accepted. Their family & friends turn their back on them instead of trying to get them help before they end up in a place like that. Some just put them in there to keep from dealing with them. It's a sad situation.
I thank the Lord I'm home now. Being able to sleep in my own bed among all the other things. It was a restless night due to dreams of still being in that place & some things I had to deal with from the other patients. I'm sure that peace will come again with time.
I especially want to thank Meagan for being so nice to me from the minute I walked through the door. She was a staff member that actually cared about the patients. She wasn't assigned to my unit but filled in a couple times. She treated everyone with the same kindness & made us feel like people rather than a statistic."

Bridgett Perkins

"So in 2012 I was sent there straight from jail! And been hospitalized many times in the past. I'm rating this a 5 star because that's exactly how it is! No lock down! You can actually roam around at night with no problems! During the day you got fed breakfast then attended a meeting! Meeting was good for most of us. After we went to self help meetings and earned money for those classes! It rocked! I really can't think of any negatives to this hospital except for everyone needing more food! I lost about 50 pounds in this place! Was hungry all the time! If you're looking for this kind of hospital you really can't go wrong! Trust me! I know all to well!"

Ray Johnson

"For patients, the quality of care isn’t amazing but it’s also not the worst. There are many people in the hospital who sincerely care about the patients and do everything in their power to help. That being said it is a psych hospital and nursing staff, who are constantly attacked and threatened by patients, do eventually reach a state of empathy burnout and don’t always have a great attitude towards patients. There are also some exceptionally rude staff who have managed to avoid being fired just because there aren’t many people that would decide to work under the conditions. Understaffing is a constant issue, with some shifts being around 60%. There are many reasons for the hospital being understaffed but the main reason, in my opinion, is members of the nursing staff constantly being sent to ER (at times a daily thing ). It’s unsafe and really the only way for things to be more safe is for there to be more staff, so the hospital just bounces between understaffed and unsafe to well staffed and reasonably safe as the months go by.

Like others have stated, this leads to literally anyone getting hired. It’s ironic, that one of the people who recently left a comment complaining about it was someone who was let go for inappropriate relations with a patient. Another reviewer was let go for sexual harassment of female staff and patients. But that’s not to say all the negative reviews are just bitter people who were let go. All lot of the negative concerns around the hospital are well warranted. Management seems to not care and only offer lip service when concerns of the well being of both the patients and nursing staff are brought up. There’s always the scape goat of bureaucratic hold ups and “we would help if we could” but that grows old eventually.

Overall this hospital is about on par, or maybe a little better than comparable institutions. Many patients end up there because there is simply no other facility that can handle them. If you are looking for a hospital to send your loved one to, a private facility that has stipulations that they only take no violent patients would likely be able to give them a higher quality of care because of the difficulties that arise when staff have to constantly fear for their safety."

Jackson