Ulster County Mental Health

“Zero stars if it was possible. This place has many rude, (some) unprofessional workers while having very few nice workers who actually want to help you. Sometimes though rare, they'll laugh right in your face when expressing an issue (wish I was kidding), undermine your situation(s), lot of the workers will have attitudes and will talk to you rudely even when nice (as if they don't like their jobs), they might attempt to threaten you with police and security guards over the most absurd and smallest things. Security guards will talk to you more disrespectfully even if you haven't done anything wrong, and they (mostly guards, but some workers) talk terribly to children which I've seen it. It's disgusting really. It's just ridiculous honestly and highly disrespectful, a joke if you ask me. Mind you, I'm genuinely not exaggerating here, read the other 1 star reviews if you don't believe me. It should be shameful as well as humiliating for them to carry themselves that way, and treat people they're supposed to help, people who are in need in such a distasteful manner. Please quit if you're not going to do your job right, and instead make those people feel worse as if they're not already going through their own issues. That's why they come here, to find solutions/feel better (if you workers didn't notice). But your overall experience depends on the worker you interact with alongside the day and the shift, often times it won't be the nicest or most helpful person. I'll admit, there's some good people there, so I don't want to give them *all* a bad rep. Still, by all means, try to find somewhere better than this Mental Health Center. Try avoiding here unless you're in **dire** desperation. (Reminder: not people friendly, but especially not a great place for minors at all.)”

“This post is specifically in regards to Ulster County Mobile Mental Health: I have had mixed experiences with the counselors of this organization. A few have been compassionate and transparent about what my journey in supporting my child's mental health would look like, others have been dishonest with me. For background I have a child who has severe panic attacks. When reaching out to them for help they have then called the authorities on me. I continued calling because I deemed the benefit to my child's safety to outweigh the risk of bureaucracy. They never had the confidence to discuss with me the concerns that they were perceiving or the context of my child's crisis. I think the potential of this program could be great. Oftentimes police are not properly trained to deal with mental health crises and programs like these save lives. Increasing the amount of funding and training within the program could be a big help. Improving the caliber of some of the counselors (better salaries and working conditions could be a good motivator for this) could show better results when working with those who need mental health support. My 3x interactions with them has left me with a sense of distrust. I now deal with dangerous situations on my own and no longer reach out for help. My concern, and reason for writing this, is not for myself, but that if others are also walking away from their interactions with UC mobile with a sense of distrust then this is a county-wide setback. I hope they can find ways to do better, keep their own head on their shoulders, and really see the person for whom they should be advocating.”

“The worst counselors!! Get paid to do nothing but yes the patient to death, agreeing with everything they say. I understand that they try to calm patient down initially, but if the upset involves another family member and that family member would like to discuss it with the counselor on the line, it should be a given opportunity to bring peace to the situation. Instead there may be peace only for the next 10-20 min, until the patient comes out screaming again! I had asked this counselor, Mckenzie, several times, while she was on the phone with my son, if I could speak with her a few min. I just wanted her to understand what led up to his upset and call, since he is autistic ,and although verbal has difficulties expressing himself. This counselor did not even acknowledge me at all! She totally ignored me! She could have acknowledged my presence and responded, even if she preferred I call back. Needless to say, as I had predicted, within about 15 min. since no productive counseling was done, he got upset again and called 911. So 3 police officers and a state trooper were obligated to leave whatever they had going on to come out here. It's really amazing how they know first to speak to me so they understand the situation at hand and then talk to my son. Instinctively, they know what to say to him and actually were able to resolve the issue within 15-20 min! Shame on the Ulster county mobile health unit for hiring such incompetent and outright rude counselor! To McKenzie's credit, she did try to call back, while police were here. (She was concerned when she heard one of us mention calling 911.) I tried to call her back, but was greeted by another rude staff member, Christine! I also wanted to find out why my son said they were putting him in a "Pros" program and was very excited about going. He was turned down twice before due to his intellectual disability, so whoever told him that was way out of line! Christine would not give me any info nor leave a message for McKenzie to call me back! Now it's my job to break it to him that he will not be accepted into that program ever, because basically he is too stupid!! Thank you McKenzie and Christine for properly resolving a situation that any layman off the street could have done a better job!”

“DONT GO HERE I would give this place a ZERO stars if it were an option. When I went in for my own personal reasons..... the psychiatrist asked me my symptoms. I told her. She responded by asking me if maybe I was just on my period. Also, when given a therapist.... Bernadette was her name..... thank god she was forced to retire. I would go see her weekly for sessions, and after pouring my heart out to her..... she would say things and make facial expressions of disgust. These people make you feel HORRIBLE about yourself when you're already feeling down to begin with! My mother unfortunately got lost in the system to. Her therapist Janet Mcbride KNOWS that without her medication and therapy is a danger to herself, AND to others. Yet when her patient began refusing treatment, This "professional" did absolutely nothing to even TRY to help. Now my mother walks around believing the government is out to get her. I've had to call mobile mental health unit AND authorities on my own mother. Only to be told it is the therapist's job to force her back into treatment! Just know this, when push comes to shove..... these people in this building don't give a damn about you. They make you feel horrible about yourself. They don't care if they help you or not. They are just there for a paycheck.”