in 2012, i was unfortunately placed in this hospital a total of 3 times. july 1-mid aug, 2 weeks in sept, and dec 9-jan 2. i had to sign in as voluntary, however i did not want to be hospitalized at all. AZ is a mental health police state. you do not want to live in AZ and have any kind of mental health issues (anxiety, what have you). they stereotype/generalize you, misdiagnose you, and will have you committed for unnecessary reasons.
1st stay: i was here for 1.5 months placed in the co-ed general psych unit. during my time there, a middle aged white male patient decided to make sexual/rape threats at me, and when i reported him to the staff (verbally and written formal complaint), they didn't do anything.. and he decided to try other female patients. you would think that the hospital would take precautions to keep patients SAFE, but NOPE! however, when any patient suddenly gets violent, they're immediately drugged/restrained and sent to the PICU (psychiatric ICU).. but i guess sexual endangerment is considered ok to them.. we were never moved to another unit, and he was never moved either. all that was done was a big guy was put in the corridor to watch so no one went into another's room during the night. we're doped up on sleep meds anyway so it was pointless since when we were all awake, he was very much in our personal spaces all the time. me and the other female patients he'd threatened were in tears and hysterical for the whole time until he was released many days later. even the other male patients didn't understand why we or he were not moved elsewhere for our safety.
i think he was a sex offender (or wannabe) so it worries me that he was released back into society all willy-nilly.. but the male patient who replaced him was not any better. at first i stupidly tried to be nice to him. i saw how his hands were severely dry (cracking and bleeding) and i told him he needed to put lotion on.. a couple days later, i found out why his hands were this way! we were sitting in the small tv room and i was focused on the tv. next thing i know, he's sitting a few feet away from me and starts fixatedly staring at me and proceeds to put his hand in his pants and (you know). he used sanitizer right after too, further explaining his dry(!) hands. so i got up and told the nurse. she was very grossed out and i wrote a formal complaint AGAIN which was just placed in the pile of complaints (i saw them do it). this patient also seemed to have a crush on my roommate at the time, so i had to warn her of what he'd done.. nothing was ever done to keep me safe and no one told him what he did was wrong. so it wouldn't surprise me if he was out there in society doing this to any female he sees.
this hospital does not care about its' patients in regards to rape threats and sexually endangering patients. there's no reason why the male patients couldn't be moved to PICU or *something* instead of nothing. i had to deal w/ being sexually threatened and jerked off at right after the other. and keep in mind, i already have my own bad sexual past as it is. i stupidly expected i'd somehow be safe in a hospital where patients are transferred to other units all the time for the slightest 'threat' to others. it's the least they should have done. but you know if it was any of the staff who were sexually threatened, they would be up in arms and demanding to be made safe.. but no one cares about the patients! patients are expendable and don't matter to them..
2nd stay: i made the dumb mistake of allowing myself to be in the outpatient program, i didn't know before that i could refuse it so you can bet i never did it again.. so one day, i'm at the program which is at the hospital, and i explain that my symptoms had changed a bit. so they decided to have me admitted right then, i never got to go home to get my things and was never given a choice. anyway, it was my 1st time in the women's only unit and only for a couple weeks, so not much happened there besides constant female drama and fighting over the 1 phone for the whole unit. no one followed the rules for the phone or the schedule.
3rd stay: this was a huge waste of time. i was again in the women's only unit and janice, the head of it, made me stay longer than even my psychiatrist there wanted me to be, because she claimed i didn't talk in the groups.. um yeah because i have social anxiety so of course i'm not going to talk! i explained that and she said 'well just keep on not talking then and i'll release you soon' SMH! come to find out, she kept me there because of insurance/billing reasons! i missed christmas and new yr's and whatnot because of THAT!
i'll say, the recreational therapy people were really nice and i liked them a lot. one group therapist there my 1st stay named marissa? was amazing and sooo nice! i miss her! a few techs and nurses were also good to me. But i refuse to ever go back to this hospital for the above reasons. can you blame me?! don't go here!