The food was terrible and they didn’t listen to any dietary needs or restrictions. I ate only apples and croutons 7 days. Which really didn’t help my already dropping weight due to my depression. So they don’t help you with anything pretty. And sadly I was told I had the nicer of the units. Either way I don’t recommend. Lower than a one star would probably be more honest.
Character limitations prevent me from detailing all the specifics behind this review but suffice it to say that our family experienced what we felt was egregious humiliating treatment during the assessment process at Lakeside. Approximately a week after his release from an out-of-state facility where he was treated for severe depression, our college aged son was effectively kidnapped and held against his (and our) will at Lakeside.
I made a complaint with a Patients Advocate who elevated the issue to the CEO who met with us. The CEO apologized for the way we were treated and the misrepresentation as to “JT’s” status (he is a clinician with a certificate from the state as to training on the involuntary commitment process). We received a follow-up letter advising the action the Administration Team had taken to ensure everyone involved was aware of our dissatisfaction and what the Administrative team expected from Lakeside employees.
I was treated really poorly. They keep kids longer than needed, and do their best to suck money out of the parent's pockets. The teacher v and education system that have set up is simply inexcusable. I wish I had never gone, because I have a bit more trauma from that place added up in my life.
The above are only a few examples of what transpired during the Assessment process.
Horrible experience there. I was there for 12 days and it was HELL. Some of the staff didn’t care when I had panic attacks, if any of us did anything remotely wrong we had to do write offs. One girl (I witnessed the attempted suicide aftermath) was forced to do write offs the day after she slit her throat. One time when we were in the community room and the other teens were being loud, the weekend nurse or whatever he was (I think that’s what it was, forgive me, this was in 2014) forced us to either go to our rooms and miss dinner or stay in that room and listen to “The Song That Never Ends” for 5 or 10 minutes just to eat dinner. If I would have known those two things were forms of abuse I would have never gave them a semi decent review at the end (I only did that because in my mind they were going to keep me there for longer. I was scared. If I could redo that survey, they would have gotten a terrible review from me.) They never seemed to care about our problems, only my given therapist and doctor did. Awful awful place in my opinion.
The wait to see the Assessor was unacceptably long; it took over four hours before our son actually spoke with the Assessor. The Assessor was rather robotic and cold. After she finished a phone call to an alleged doctor, the assessor advised the hospital would be involuntarily committing our son in accordance with Tennessee law as he had made reference to thoughts of harming himself at different times. My wife and son stressed how our son had surfaced all the issues he brought forward at the out-of-state hospital and that he had been released and allowed to fly home alone; they had come to Lakeside simply to obtain a referral for an individual therapist. A Supervisor (Ben) was called in who subjected my wife and son to cold, disrespectful and unkind comments that drove my son to tears. One example: my wife, who was on the verge of tears, at one point told “Ben” she wanted to go home. “Ben” condescendingly and coldly responded by saying she was absolutely free to go home, it was just that our son could not go with her.
To add credence to the hospital decision to involuntarily commit our son, an individual who was misrepresented as an employee of the “State” and as a physician (who allegedly just happened to be in the area) was brought into the “mix.” This individual (“JT”), was blatantly adversarial, frequently interrupting our son. “JT” implied in a very accusatory tone that my wife and son had rehearsed what they would say next (after being advised of the involuntary commitment), and in a disrespectful way said he wanted to hear the “truth” from our son. He was extremely rude, abrasive and addressed my wife and son in a dictatorial manner. At one point, when my wife was speaking of her and our son’s lovingly relationship, “JT” brought up our son’s suicide attempt in middle school, saying in a sarcastically manner, “I don’t mean to be rude, but when he tried to kill himself in the 8th grade, where was the love then?” Later in the conversation, he completely ignored a statement my wife was making and simply told her to “read this” as he rudely pushed the involuntary commitment document toward her.
I went there for depression and anxiety. I still struggle with it even after going there. I was on meds that worked well to help but they wouldn’t give me my meds until the 3rd day so by then I had to start over the meds in my system making everything worse, especially since I was on birth control and they never gave me it on time so it messed me up more. I got more help from the patients than the actual therapists. My doctor never saw me longer than a minute and never asked any questions besides how am I. The therapist that I was assigned didn’t see me and was disrespectful whenever I tried to communicate with him. The security lost my belongings and has not even tried to contact me or any family members to say they found them or are going to replace them. I pretty much had to fake being better to be able to get treated with decency and to be told I could leave because being there honestly made things worse than better. I would honestly say that the only time that I felt I had help was when I had to sit 6 hours in the assessment room. Speaking of assessment room you check in and won’t be seen until maybe 6 hours later. Me and my step room talked longer in there than anyone actually in the facility to help me.
As part of his out-patient treatment from the out-of-state facility, it was suggested it would help if he was around family in Memphis and it would be beneficial to find a Memphis psychotherapist to help facilitate his recovery. Our son flew back to Memphis (alone) and the very next week he made an appointment at Lakeside to try and obtain a referral for a local psychotherapist. Apparently, it is routine for Lakeside to do a patient assessment and our son was very honest in filling out the paper work to include providing specifics on the issues that had necessitated his voluntarily seeking treatment at the out-of- state facility.
Lakeside was a great hospital back in the late 80's and early 90's. They had a lot more staff to handle the patients. The cafeteria had excellent food, the staff was very kind because they were not stretched so thin! What people don't understand is the staff get's very frustrated because they are worn out. Lakeside was bought out by a different corporation called Universal Health care and the CEO is JOY GOLDEN! Lousy, money hungry corporation! I don't blame the employees at all! They are overworked and under payed! The inside of this hospital has never been remodeled since it opened in the seventies! Of course the outside appearance, the fountain and lake have been kept up nicely. There are bugs and rats in that place. Also patients that are thieves that steal from other patients that go unpunished for example there was one older lady that was being fleeced out of her money by another patient that was constantly stealing from other patients.! She went unpunished! So Lakeside basically does nothing by setting examples and punishing these people so the thieving continues with different patient's by other patient's. I am trying to get a online petition started to force the corporation to make some serious changes! For now there is nothing good to say about this place! Do not take your love ones there!!
The day after our son was involuntarily committed, I received a call from “billing” advising I needed to pay five days in advance of the 20% co-pay charge for my son’s stay. I refused.
Lakeside Behavioral Health System is a US Health facility based in Memphis, Tennessee. Lakeside Behavioral Health System is located at 2911 Brunswick Rd, Memphis, TN 38133, USA.
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