Westwood Lodge Hospital

Reviews 4

A

A Private User

Look, Im not going to lie - I was mortified by the filth of the Adolescent Unit. It was just DIRTY. As in, "never cleaned...ever..." kind of dirty. And after the trauma of what brought him there in the first place, having to leave my 13 yr old son (with Aspergers) in such a squalid place was absolutely devistating. And oh yes, there were plenty of red flags of inefficiency - 1) even though I had given them full documentation, his med list was incorrect (I had to have the nurse correct it), 2) a bag of clean clothing that I had brought for my son was left unchecked by staff and stuck under a desk in the office (I had to look around for it the next day since it never made it to his room), and of course, 3) the fact that not a single staff member thought to cue or encourage my son to shower, brush his teeth, or change his clothes. By the time he was discharged, he smelled like something I dont even want to say. HOWEVER - the psychiatrist who dealt with my son was excellent. She made a sharper assessment of him in 72 hours than it had taken many other doctors months to do. She was very willing to communicate with our private psychiatrist so that they were in agreement on medication changes. And she understood clearly that once the initial crisis was over, their facility was not the appropriate place for an autistic child to spend any extended length of time, and so fast-tracked him out of there. We were very, very pleased with her attitude and candor. Our case worker was also very good, and together with the doctor, formed a decent team. Regarding the staff of the Adolescent unit - I understand why some people might find them rude, or abrupt, or unfriendly...but I expect they need to be that way a good portion of the time. I wonder how often a 15 yr old boy comes in there, all pumped up, angry and looking for something to prove...in that situation, a nice, sweet, hand-holding staff member is not going to last long. Also, Id bet that many parents come in there with attitudes of their own - and I got the impression that the staff will give what they get. Personally, we were friendly to the staff, and they were friendly to us. Bottom line - Westwood Lodge is NOT a nice place. Its like the institutions you see in the movies. And nobody wants to leave someone they love in such a place, especially a child. But they did what we needed them to do for our son, and for that, I give them due credit.

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Zandra B

I got sent here in 2013 for being depressed and, after 8 days I became 10x more depressed then before i got admitted. First of all, I was here in January-February and it was so cold my feet, toes, and nose were numb. I begged them for another blanket but they refused until the next morning, and the blankets they give are the really thin hospital blankets. After I eventually got my second blanket it did absolutely nothing. The whole time i was there I had to double up on socks and wear two sweatshirts to bed. Second, you get screamed at for even giving your opinion in this place. This one girl was telling me how she had been in and out of mental hospitals her whole life, and this one was one of the worst ones shed been too, and one of the workers (dawn i think her name was) completely embarrassed and belittled this girl for simply stating her opinion, and on top of that threatened to take her privileges away. Third, they overdosed me on medication that MY FATHER NEVER GAVE PERMISSION FOR THEM TO USE ON ME. Not only that , but they gave me an overdosed amount and when I told my psychiatrist (after I left that place) she said I could sue them for endangerment of a child. They also took away my cafeteria privileges for not drawing blood for a medication my father didnt want me to take. Fourth, you can never get any sleep, because the overnight people are so extremely effing rude , ALL I COULD HERE WAS THEM LAUGHING AND CHATTING ALL NIGHT. EVERY NIGHT. Theyre supposed to check on you (every half an hour im pretty sure) and when they did this they would rudely slam my door closed, waking me up every half hour, if i could get sleep, from how loud they were. Not to mention, they even gave me earplugs, and i still could hear everything. Finally, this place is dirty and very dangerous. a hazard to girls who want to kill themselves. There are two bathrooms, one of them has a full tub. When I used this one the water would fill up because of all the hair clogging it. This never got fixed in the full 8 days i was here. And if i was really going to kill myself i would drown myself in that tub, because thats how easy i could have gotten away with it. PLEASE DONT GO HERE. I took my time to write this huge review, to warn anyone thinking about self admitting themselves, or for parents even considering this place.

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Hannah McWalter

I am 25 and came here when I was about 11 years old due to severe anxiety, OCD, depression and a fear of vomit that was controlling my life. 14 years later, I am still traumatized by this place. I am the first of 5 kids so my mom had no experience with mental illness so she thought that putting me here would be what was best for me. I was thrown into a room and never once was I approached by a staff member. I remember you had to "earn privileges" in order to eat. At night I was so cold that I couldnt sleep because they only give you one thin blanket. Because I couldnt sleep, I could hear the staff making fun of the other patients in their office all laughing. I was shocked. The windows in the patients rooms had bars on them as if it was a prison. I remember watching one boy being restrained and I started crying then was told by a staff member "to grow up". All this place does is prescribe medication. I vividly remember One kid actually threw up on the floor and I had a panic attack (throw up was my biggest fear), and a staff member looked at me with disgust and said "wow, youre really crazy, huh?". He did not even attempt to help me calm down. He just belittled me. The psychiatrist put me on 5 different medications simultaneously without the consent of my parents. My parents told me that when they came to visit me, I could not even form full sentences due to how drugged up I was. They said I couldnt keep my eyes full open everytime they saw came to see me and that I walked like a zombie. Of course I dont have a vivid memory of this because I was so drugged up. My family was outraged and demanded to know what drug I was on assuming it was only 1. So you can imagine how they reacted when they were told I was on 5 different medications. I am honestly traumatized by this facility. Please please for the love of God do NOT send a loved one here!

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Raven Tetreault

This place is a joke and needs to be shut down. After making a discharge plan to undergo on a Friday for my husband to be released to his cousin due to my not being able to get the day off or even leave early, all of a sudden because one of the stewards on duty assumed he had fire arms, they would only release him to me even though I confirmed that there were none at our house. I explained how I couldnt leave work and they kept pushing so finally I agreed. Then they kept twisting my words around. After back and forth of meach explaining what I said vs what they wanted to hear, I agreed to leaving work at 3pm instead of my scheduled shift til 7pm. My boss, who was not too happy, let me go. As Im on my way up there l, I get a phone call saying that a last minute decision was made and he wouldnt be released until Monday due to "safety". As any normal person would react, I was pissed. So now not only did I lose hours Friday but now I had to go back and ask my boss for Monday off. Later on in spoke to my husband who originally was there for drug and alcohol addiction and attempted suicide. He told me they had made some kind of deal with him that if he sign a paper, they would let him leave with me at 4pm so they would look good only to for them to take it back. He also said they were giving him muscle relaxers between 50mg to 100MG, that it was his choice and also kept pushing ambient, another addictive substance on him. Not only is this place playing games with peoples lives but they are giving an addiction, addictive substances. The ONLY reason they kept him was they lost all federal funding and now rely soley on insurance for money. NEVER let a loved one come here or any of the UHS hospitals. They dont help people, they keep you addicted and push you to your limits so they can go "see this is why you cant leave"

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