Washtenaw County Community Mental Health

“I am deeply disappointed with my experience with Community Mental Health. For more than a year before I became homeless, I repeatedly expressed concerns about my housing instability and the possibility that I would lose my housing. Despite my requests for help and my increasing level of need, I did not feel that meaningful assistance or intervention was provided. Since becoming homeless, I have continued to seek support and resources. My experience has been that services have been limited, fragmented, or unavailable when I needed them most. I was referred to temporary housing, but the conditions did not meet my expectations for safety, comfort, or dignity. I have also struggled with PTSD, anxiety, and emotional distress during this period. At times, I have engaged in self-harming behaviors, and I do not feel that the severity of my situation has been adequately addressed. While I understand that providers must follow policies and clinical guidelines, my experience has been that my concerns and requests for help have not resulted in effective support. I am sharing this review because people experiencing homelessness and serious mental health challenges need timely, practical assistance. My experience has left me feeling unheard, unsupported, and without a clear path forward during one of the most difficult periods of my life.”

“After every injection for 1 year I would throw up black stuff for weeks and gave me a nasty side effect to where I would loose control of my eye muscles. You would think they would promote healthy medicine not poison”

“Barbara changed my life. All of their listening skills will make you melt. My son and I felt safe and like we were at home. I am in love with this resource.”

“Let me preface this by saying everyone I've been able to talk to has been very kind. This place sounds like a great place to receive mental healthcare - IF you can get an appointment with anyone. That's my issue, here. I'm a new patient. I moved to Ann Arbor with a small supply of mental health meds from my previous prescriber, and I'm looking for someone in Ann Arbor to continue to prescribe them. I called WCCMH at the end of November asking to be scheduled with a prescriber, before I was totally out of meds. They said their soonest intake appointment was in three weeks, but I said that was fine, so they scheduled me. They said it would be an "hour and a half intake appointment," on December 10th. Today was that appointment. While the person who was scheduled to meet with me tried her best to be helpful, this was not at all the type of appointment I was told it would be. It ended up being only 15 minutes, where she gave me phone numbers for outside psychiatrists, since apparently the psychiatrist at WCCMH is booked out for a month. So, why did I wait those three weeks for a "1.5 hour intake appointment" if there wasn't going to be an intake? Why couldn't someone have told me up front, the first time I called in November, that I wasn't going to be seen by anyone who could help me? So NOW I'm in desperate need of a refill of my mental health med prescriptions - I wasn't desperate the first time I called, but by now I'm out of meds, AND I've wasted three weeks that I could have been on another prescriber's waitlist (and I only waited because I thought I WAS on this prescriber's waitlist). This whole experience has been really, really frustrating.”