Discovery Mood & Anxiety Program - Annapolis, Birch House

“I forgot to add on to my last review. If you aren’t coming from a Psych ward the other patients will poke fun at you for not having any experience of mental health. You are not allowed to talk about anything. You can only listen to some music and watch movies. Family therapy is also not helpful my first meeting she said “and something with the roommate” which was so funny bc my roommate and I had GREAT conversations and even traded art work with each other. The second family session I was kicked out of so they could talk and when I asked what was said I was told not to worry about it. One of the older gentleman in the house was treated poorly and they missed up his meds and physical therapy. I can not stress this enough. SAVE YOUR TIME. SAVE YOUR MONEY. AND GO SOMEWHERE ELSE FOR HELP. THIS PLACE WILL NOT HELP YOU.”

“This was one of the most traumatizing experiences in a mental health facility. The food is absolutely horrible considering this is probably a million dollar company. All of the dinners we are supposed to cook together at night or for lunches are frozen and PROCESSED. They lock the bathrooms and you have to ask the techs every single time to unlock it for you. The therapists here were all African American women who run the groups excepts for some of the other therapists who were white, and the men I lived with in the facility were all white males. So one of the therapists pissed off some of the younger men and someone actually told off one of the therapists. It was bad. I could feel the racial tension between some of the people who lived there vs. the staff who worked there. The techs work on a 12 hour shift, day and then night. The night time crew were crazy and would play music late at night sometimes. Some of the men who were in my facility were so mean and bitter, or the younger men were cocky and bossy. I hated it. I would NEVER recommend any of the Discovery facilities especially the residential ones. I had no idea this place would be this horrible. And also because of horrible this was I never want to go to another residential facility every again because I see that you're forced to lived with other moody and demanding people for weeks on end. I was completely exhausted after being there for more then a month. Also they have a weird policy of not letting people use skincare or shampoo, lotions if it has any alcohol in it. They basically bought up some of the million dollar homes and turned them into facilities. The only plus about where i lived is that Birch had a beautiful kitchen and living room. The upstairs bathrooms were not bad. They give you time from 6:30AM-9AM every day on your devices and then 8PM-930PM every night as well. It was so boring. The therapy groups were exhausting and I am much happier now that I am back home and in a PHP program near where I live and not being in god awful Maryland. Plus the other techs were sometimes nice if they were not uptight. Alijah and Briana were nice but very uptight and stuck with the rules. Aday was very sweet. La Donna was very sweet. The more laid back techs would sometimes let us have longer times with our devices during the weekends from 1PM-3PM which was great. Some of the techs were actually very sweet and I enjoyed talking to some of them but overall I felt like the company needs to raise its standards. They share the nurses between all the different houses and because we had fewer people we did not have much priority. It was bad the medication management was crazy sometimes. I would sometimes have nurses not posting if i took my meds at all sometimes. They kept having the nurses give top billing to Magnolia house because they had more people living there. So sometimes we would get our meds when we were supposed to take during dinner very late. It was annoying to constantly check to see if ANY nurse was there. THEY NEED TO HAVE A NURSE THERE ALL DAY LONG. They let you go on an outing once a week and we kept going to Barnes and Noble nearby with a measly $15 allowance the facility gives you to pick out anything there(food or books, anything). We went bowling once which was fun. And we went to parks during the weekend. They also let you have a choice to go to Downtown Annapolis, or even do pottery which never happened people always kept picking Barnes Noble. To be honest I felt like some of the people there were very nice, but the management of the facilities was not good. And I think they need to do more fun activities which I heard they used to do more of but stopped for some reason.”

“You get out what you put in. I have been to this facility two times and each time I walked away with new skills and beliefs about myself. The property is located in a lovely area. The people who work here really care about the patients. They go out of their way to help, especially if you are having a bad day. The nurses are experienced, the techs are helpful, and the structure is conducive to getting back on one’s feet. There are few places that cater to adults who face mental health challenges. The care is outstanding overall - not perfect - but very useful if you put in the work.”

“This place does not deserve any stars. If you are thinking about coming here DO NOT come here. You are wasting your time and money. First off they told me I had a $5,000 deductible and I had to pay that fee up front and than my insurance would cover the rest. That was not the case when I called the insurance company to verify this. My insurance paid 80% and I was responsible for 20%. They will tell you it is a 35 - 45 day program, they fully intend to keep you 45 or more days. You will also be told that you will meet with a psychiatrist and a therapist within 48 hours. You meet Dr. Hoffman via zoom and he really doesn't listen to you. You get 15 minutes and he diagnoses you right away. He wanted to put me on buspirone and I told him I was already on it and it didn't work, His response was "lets try it again". I did not meet my therapist for a week. Let me tell you about the rules: Bathrooms are locked all day except from 6:30am to 8:30am for hygiene, than they are closed til 8:00pm. If you have to use the bathroom you have to ask a tech to unlock the bathroom if you have to pee, poop, shower, or anything else. Phones: For the first 72 hours you don't have any access to your phones or any electronic devices. After 72 hours you can have your phone after you completed your hygiene in the morning til 9am. So if you don't finish your hygiene til 8am, you only get your phone for an hour. You get your phones in the evening from 8pm to 9:30pm. You have to hand the techs your phones and electronic devices at 9am and 9:30pm and they will put them in a locked closet. TV Time: There is basically no TV time. You can listen to certain music videos but that is it. They don't have cable TV here. It's streaming devices and the techs don't sign into the streaming services. THERE ARE NO TV'S IN YOUR ROOM Food: BREAKFAST: You are on your own for breakfast. LUNCH: The techs are responsible for lunch, but at least three days it is lunch meat. You can not identify the ham or turkey, the lunch meats suck. Some days the techs do cook chicken but it is pre-cooked chicken DINNER: You are responsible for dinner and there is a dinner menu on the refrigerator. Two house guests are responsible for cooking dinner. While cooking dinner you must wear gloves, a hair net, and a mask. Sometimes you don't have all the ingrediants. BEDTIME: You have to be in your room at 10 and it's lights out at 10:30. MORNING: The techs start banging on your bedroom door at 6:30am and do it every half hour til 8:00am. YOUR DAY: 9:00AM - Commitments: In a group setting of your housemates you tell the tech how your are feeling and what your commitment for the day is. 10:00 and 11:00am: Two group meetings Noon: Lunch 1:00pm to 4:00pm: four more group meetings 5:00pm: Group cook 6:00pm: Dinner 7:00pm: Evening commitments and letting the tech know if you met your commitment for the day. 8:00pm - 9:30pm - Phone time 10:00pm - You have to go to your room 10:30pm - Lights out The techs suck except for Alijah, Tony, and Jaylen the rest of the techs are horrible. Average timed worked their for the techs is four months. The techs always talk badly One tech (Darin) in particular threaten to shoot up the house. When I filed a grievance against him, he got promoted. Shannon, another tech is always in a bad mood and always yells at you. James loves to listen to himself talk and is two-faced. He will write you up in a heartbeat. The techs are constantly talking about you and not in a good way, you will soon find this is not a healthy environment. I was encouraged to file grievances and I filed three of them and every time I was told someone would come speak to me, no one ever did. I sent out an SOS to talk to a psychiatrist or my therapist on a Wednesday morning, nobody came to talk to me until the following Tuesday. I had to do a request for a new Therapist and that took a couple of days when I was told that someone would talk to me that day. They always tell you someone will come talk to you and they don't. You can not trust the techs, or Lisa, social worker”