North Spring Behavioral Healthcare

This place is beyond unprofessional. I’ve made several complaints on Cierra on how she mistreats the kids. She likes to physically and verbally abuse the kids. She finds out what the kids triggers are and she uses it against them. This place needs to be shut down immediately. The staff doesn’t care about the kids well being. When you express your concerns about the staff they just ignore it. I will be contacting HR.

I spent nine days at this facility, and it wasn’t a positive experience. Some staff members appeared insensitive and unaware of your well-being. The quiet room needs to be made safer, especially considering that a child died there due to restraint. Personally, I found the experience difficult, particularly because I was dealing with emotional challenges, and the staff didn’t really seem to care. It was a struggle to endure the days there. You’re not even allowed to go to your room to have a moment, Food is bad, I would not recommend this place to others. It wouldn't be so bad it they were so strict with everything.

My child just spent a week at this facility. This was an incredibly difficult time for us as a family to navigate because we’ve never had any issues with our teen until about a month ago. So when it escalated to the point that she needed to go to this facility I was terrified. The staff that I spoke to while “checking in” on my child seemed nice enough and always gave me whatever information I needed. However, the therapists on staff fall significantly short of what children in need of help need. We had a zoom meeting with my child, the therapist, myself and my ex husband in preparation for my child’s discharge the following day. I expressed my concerns after that meeting that my child seems to be still trying to manipulate the situation to get her way. I expressed this several times that evening, into the next morning. When I arrived for her 11 am pickup, I expressed my concerns yet again. I was worried that she was still trying to manipulate the situation to get her way and I was fearful that her father was putting her up to it. My concerns were somewhat dismissed. After stepping outside with she and her father, an altercation immediately ensued with my ex husband over what he was told versus what I was told. So I insisted we go back inside to clear it up. Once inside, what the therapist had told me, was not at all what he had told my ex husband. Therefore caused the argument. From there, my ex husband proceeded to call me names and eventually threaten me. Something he has done in the past. Yet they still insisted that it might be “calmer” for her to go with him. A few hours later the therapist called to check in. I told him then that she was digging her heels in and I felt like nothing had changed. He assured me he would get me the family therapists he recommended by the end of the day. That evening, my child had another erratic episode. I called to talk to the therapist to see what I could do.. especially since this happened within 5 hours of her discharge. Never got a call back. The next morning, she was taken back to the UVA hospital by the sheriff’s department for her behavior again. I called and requested a call back from the therapist again to see what I could do to help her. No return call. The situation escalated again a few hours later. I asked to speak to ANY therapist that was available.. and no one was. No call back. Eventually I sent an email requesting the recommendations and got an automated message from the therapist who assured me he would help with recommendations after her discharge saying he was out for a chunk of time for vacation. So, not only do I feel that the therapists are qualified, but they literally spit my kid out and forgot all about her within minutes. (But they’ll send that bill though!) Once things settled down, my daughter opened up about the horrors of the facility. The rude faculty, the 8 year old that was randomly farted with a tranquilizer and left to sleep in a ball in the middle of the hallway.. how they belittled and bullied other children for their names and different situations. I’m hopeful that we are on the other side of this time in my daughter’s life and that she will never see another behavioral facility again. But if she were ever to have to go to another one, I would highly suggest somewhere other than this place.

North Spring is a very convenient facility. I did not have a good experience with communication and adult behaviors. Some of the adults and aids were very unprofessional in what they said to my child. Additionally, I did not get updates on the care, the plan for release or meetings with my child.

perhaps i judged you too harshly, North Spring. my stay was over two years ago now. i have bipolar disorder, which i experienced the height of during my stay here. did i have a “good” time? no. nobody at a mental hospital does. was i kept safe, and offered multiple types of treatment? yes. did i lie my way out of here? 100%. i did not get better here, but nobody gets “better” completely over a week or two. if you’re a parent reading this, or a child who was recently admitted and is waiting to be taken away, know this. it’s scary. it’s hard. but it’s just something you have to do. take the first step in getting better. it’s by no means a vacation, but it did the job. thank you for keeping me safe, north spring, when i couldn’t.