Maple Heights Behavioral Health Hospital

“Hell on Earth. Avoid this place at all costs. No difference between this place and jail. For example: Both use locked doors and high security to keep people inside Staff in both places watch residents constantly and enforce exact schedules for meals and sleep. Both places search people and take away personal items like belts, phones, and sholaces. Both have uncomfortable beds, terrible food, and very little privacy. The “beds” are absolutely horrible, they’re pretty much those stiff blue gym mats. And the bathroom was terrible too, the soap you’d use to wash your body and hair was literally wall-mounted soap dispensers you’d see in public restrooms. The conditioner they gave us was a tiny amount in paper dip cups. And this place is overrun with people who fight and yell. And I’ve seen plenty others who were commonly sedated. Plus there was no actual helpful therapy, except for an old lady who was truly passionate and helpful, but I forgot her name. Besides that, the closest thing to therapy we got was when every day early in the morning someone would call me to a room where I’d talk to some nerd through a laptop video call. And he’d pretty much ask you why you’re there and how you’re feeling. And nothing else. I’ve heard other patients say that anyone could easily leave in a week minimum if you just lie and act happy and nobody would question it or even try to help in case you weren’t truthful. They’d just believe you because they probably don’t care enough. This is NOT the place to go for mental help, if anything, going here is a punishment. Seek any other alternatives and don’t even save this place for last because it’ll only exacerbate things. To whoever runs this place: you want to help people? You’re doing a bang up job, sort this out and do something about it because right now it’s a terrible excuse for a hospital. If you don’t want to help people get the help they need, stop pretending you do. And just be honest with what you’re trying to do with this prison.”

“I was recently here at Maple Heights. I admitted myself & was ultimately marked as involuntary.. I want to start by saying Mercedes, McKayla, Matt Riffe (Jake) & Nurse Taylor went above and beyond.. Nurse Eric on unit 200 belongs in a cave. He lied to me stating I was receiving antibiotics when really it was trazadone & hydroxazine.. The food was mediocre at best. The showers flooded into the bedrooms. We had to ask for water but had 24/7 access to coffee in the activity room. There was no therapy, only groups. A doctor there tried to give me nitro when I wasn’t in cardiac arrest. If you deny the medication, they threaten you with a longer hold. Upon finding I was marked as a ten day hold when I was voluntarily there, I asked to sign an AMA. I was denied & I asked why I couldn’t, to which the psychiatrist said “catch 22”… I didn’t get help for my anxiety. I ultimately gained more anxiety. If you love your loved one, do not send them here. It is a prison. There was no shampoo the entire week I was there.. They had little to no clothes for patients. Leaving other patients sharing clothes with newer patients until they could contact loved ones to bring them clothes. You’re locked out of your room from 8 am to 8 pm where your only bathroom is located. So you have to ask permission to use the restroom and wait for someone to unlock the door.. If I could give zero stars, I would.”

“If there was anything less than one star to give, this place would get it. The staff working the units with patients daily were great. The “providers”, not so much. I was initially sent on an emergency detention order, but after being there for about 7 hours the admissions staff asked me if I wanted to change my status from EDO to voluntary. I agreed to this, thinking it would only be beneficial to my stay. Before the lady left I asked her if that basically meant I could sign myself out if I chose to do that? She told me that almost nobody is allowed to leave against medical advice and that if I initiated the request to do so, they would just reapply for an emergency detention order and keep me 14 days from then. Whether you enter this place of your own volition or not, you will only leave when they tell you that you can. I couldn’t believe it. In my first 48 hours there I watched 5 180+lb men restrain a 105lb kid who was about 19 years old and force antipsychotic medication on him because he didn’t want to take the same meds orally. He wasn’t violent, disorderly, loud, or disruptive in any way. I saw this happen with numerous patients, none of which were violent or a danger to themselves or anyone else. It was absolutely heartbreaking to watch these men turn into slobbering mush before my eyes. The nurse practitioner overseeing my stay there literally talked to me 2 minutes each day and lied directly to my face on more than a couple occasions. I was sent there on an EDO in order to be placed into an inpatient drug rehabilitation center in a timely manner. I was there for 7 days and released back to my address. No rehab placement, IT WAS NEVER EVEN BROUGHT UP. I’m on a MAT program for opioid use disorder and I wasn’t given my medication or even a prescription to fill upon discharge. I contacted my doctor who oversees my MAT program and they told her that they got me placed in a facility that after investigation did not even accept my private insurance. I could go on for days. It is safe to say this place is trash, no compassion, all about the money. Like I said, apart from the unit staff and BHTs. Shout out to nurse Kite, Ali, Veronica, and Kristen.”

“I gave them a whole year while processing my trauma to leave them a review. First, they won’t give you any medications unless prescribed by their doctors BUT if you’re admitted after 12 pm you may not see a doctor and have to fight like bloody hell just to get the drugs that keep me sane. Every night they forgot to give me the worst one for withdrawal effects. Every night I had to fight for hours for the nurses to call someone to get me my drugs. It’s also a minimum 7 days if you have insurance. The people who really needed to be there but were homeless were in and tossed out all the time. Food for dietary restrictions? Course not. I’m vegan and wasn’t provided food for 24 hours. I was given a plate of bland white rice. I begged for snacks but was told no. I was supposed to take the drug they kept forgetting with food and they didn’t allow snacks so I wasn’t given food to take my meds with hours later and had some side effects. There was one truly scary guy in there and staff were never around to make us women especially feel safe. My roommate went to alert staff minutes before he attacked someone but they still didn’t help until after the fact. You have to wear little ankle monitors that they have to scan in constantly making you feel like you’re in prison combined with no doors for the bathrooms. They also never brought me my approved shoes my mom brought so my feet hurt being barefoot all week. Other people had it worse and were never even given their clothes or books. They didn’t have any therapists on staff to actually work on our problems with. Group was a joke. Song title bingo. Every day. A nurse took us outside, asked us each one question which took five minutes then said good now I can call this group and went back inside. We also never got taken to the gym that was on the activity sheet every day. Some staff fought me on my pastor coming and bringing me communion. And don’t you dare pay them before your insurance bills you. They made this big spiel of how much money they’d take off by paying in full right away. So we did. After we got the bill turned out we’d overpayed them 1k even with the discount and had to literally fight them to get it refunded. Not to mention it cost way more than the little financial thing they have you sign when they lock you up and you have no choice. It’s been almost exactly a year since my stay and I’m still processing the trauma. I still wake up screaming in the night once a week and my fiancée has to calm me down. I was running ten miles a week and training for a half marathon days before this. The psychological trauma was enough that I couldn’t even run a full mile when I got out. The food insecurity was so bad I ate nothing or everything and have gained fifty pounds in a year. I’m trying but it’s still hard. I wasn’t even actively suicidal I had a bunch of ideation cause yeah BPD does that to you but I know the difference for when it’s actually a problem. Too bad my brand new baby therapist sent me here and the bad intake assessment made me stay so they could get bank and ruin my life. Wish I could sue them. If you really love your loved one or your wellbeing, you’ll go to Parkview.”