Parkside Psychiatric Hospital & Clinic

“Where do I even start? First, I want to be clear that many of the techs at Parkside seemed to genuinely care about the patients. Most of them were simply employees doing a difficult job, and several treated us with kindness and respect. That said, the overall environment still came across as unprofessional at times. Staff openly discussed how much they disliked working there, and during my stay, one tech even quit on the spot. The therapy groups were also disappointing. Ivan, an elderly therapist from Brazil, was friendly, but he often seemed to lose his place during groups, ramble, and struggle to stay focused. Mary, another older therapist who had apparently come out of retirement, was also kind enough, but I personally did not find her helpful. My biggest concern was with Dr. Owens and the discharge process. In my experience, discharge felt like something constantly dangled in front of patients. I was given one expected date, only to have it pushed back, which made the stay feel even more frustrating and uncertain. I cannot say what the motivation was, but it left me feeling like patients were being kept longer than necessary. The unit itself often felt chaotic and unsafe. During my stay, there was a young man experiencing severe mental health symptoms who screamed, laughed, talked to himself, and eventually broke a window with a chair and escaped. He was then brought back onto the unit, which made me feel like the safety of the other patients was not being taken seriously. The food was also extremely poor. I genuinely struggled to eat it and joked that I had to close my eyes and pretend it was airplane food just to get through meals. Overall, I do believe some staff members at Parkside care. But the facility itself felt disorganized, unsafe, and deeply frustrating. For a place that is supposed to help people during vulnerable moments, my experience left me feeling more stressed, unheard, and trapped than supported.”

“Cafeteria is amazing. I go over here a couple times a week from next-door to eat. Zac is the manager over the kitchen. Always has a smile on his face. He calls you by name as you walk in the door and is always happy. Wawa is the head chef she’s amazing always has a smile on her face always cooking amazing too. She is a very hard worker I enjoy coming over here because everybody is so nice and the food is so good and the prices are excellent”

“The cafe here is awesome. Finally a place that is truly fresh, not frozen and i don't have a reaction to all the processed seed oils. It's nice to have backup when i don't want to bring my own lunch. WaWa is great as executive chef, and tries to do something new each week. But the secret is out, its a busy lunch joint, be patient!”

“the staff was really rude, and didn't really care about you, they would let other patient's talk crazy to you. for my whole stay i was getting made fun of, but Mr. Maui did help a lot. the doctor was really rude. and the nurse would wake me up almost every day at around 4-5 a.m. i did make a few friends there but most people would just make fun of my appearance and the way i looked. the food wasn't bad.”