I was admitted into Highland January of 2015. It was terrible. I arrived there and the tech that admitted me was named Sandra, she was completely rude and ignorant. She teased me for being in tears. She did not even care that I was horrified and anxious. Sandra then stuck me in a room without a pillow. I asked for one and did not receive one until three days later, only when my roommate got to leave to go home, I stole the pillow from her bed. I did not see my therapist until my fourth day there. The psychiatrist gave me some weird pill for my "treatment plan", they do not force you to take the pill but if you don't they say you are not following your treatment plan and do not let you go home. You could overdose so easily in there, you can ask for a Klonopin and receive another 5 minutes later, because they are so unorganized. They are also understaffed. We were confined all day in the "day room" we usually ended up coloring 5-7 hours a day. You did not feel safe there, there was kids bagning their heads on the wall, friction burning themselves and saying the weirdest shit. I was roomed with this one girl who would purge herself, so I had to listen to her sing every time she used the damn bathroom. That is not my job, the people who work there should be doing that stuff. The same roommate started teliing me she was having homicidal thoughts, about me. This chick has done some crazy stuff, like she probably would have killed me. I spent every night trying not to fall asleep because I was scared for my own life. Then she would just scream bloody murder out of no where in the middle of the night. The food was utterly disgusting. The staff is lazy. We never had group like the schedule said, it was a rare thing. I have nightmares about this place still. I felt isolated and alone my whole stay. My eight days there felt like a million years.
Staffers were kind, but my psychiatrist was a jerk. Have since been an inpatient at UNI. . . . a world of difference. Do not go to this place or send family there.
This place is painfully unprofessional. The staff ignores you. At one point, I was given the wrong patients medications. The website states that it is a "State of the art facility..." However, this place is a dump. The intake process is a nightmare! It literally took over three hours from start to finish before I was even brought back onto the unit. I never once saw a therapist. I saw a med doc only after several days of being there, and having to constantly request to see one.... They have psych techs running the groups who clearly have no idea what they are doing (pretty sure they must be fresh out of high school and this is their first job experience, for many of them). Just not a good experience. I think I may need therapy just to get over the trauma of having been to this place, alone. Ugh! :(