Heritage Oaks Hospital

DONT SEND YOUR LOVED ONES TO HERITAGE OAKS!!! Our family had the most awful experience with this hospital. They tried to hold my husband much longer than was necessary and were pushing drugs on him without even a full evaluation of what was necessary. He had people asking him why he was even there and our family tried to communicate to both Dr Hilty and the social worker Cynthia that he was not a danger to himself or anyone else and that the best place for him to recover from his stress was at home. I left multiple messages and NEVER received a call once from any dr and the social worker did not respond to our request until it was convenient for her. Dr Hilty said he could have been released Friday but since he was gone speaking somewhere and not answering his phone my husband had to stay 3 more nights until he was back. We ended up having to get a patient advocate involved and he was the only person who had our back. Michael met with my husband and was angry for us that he was there when he shouldn t be. This place is like a dirty jail that pushes drugs and wants peoples money. I swear they want to make people crazy so they stay here. I feel bad for patients that don t have a family to fight for them. BEWARE

i cannot describe how awful his place isnever go here under any circumstanceavoid at all costs, no matter your conditionfind ANY other optionone star is farrrrrr too generousEDIT: I followed the link below & responded- after month, they have nade zero attempt to rectify the problems plural they are dirextly reaponsible fornot so much as an apology for being the sole reason for a suicide attempti cannot believe this facility is allowed to label itself a hospital. absolutely shameful

I've been to other inpatient mental health facilities, and knowing your worth in a place like this will tear your soul apart. Everyone here experienced extreme dehumanization from staff members, and I personally had to de-escalate and solve problems for other patients because the nurses refused to do their jobs properly and would just degrade patients for being problematic. That, in particular, seems to be the idea here; make your patients feel worse than they did before, push them to the point of breakdown, demonize them for having said breakdown, and pump them full of medication.They never quiet down, either. At night, when all of the patients are trying to sleep, the nurses stay in the hallway and speak so loud, so constantly, that there is no chance for a peaceful rest. The first night I was here I could not sleep, and I was already doing poorly, as I was here, and the nurses were no help. They did nothing to soothe me. They talked amongst themselves and ignored me when I had a panic attack, curled up on the floor directly in front of them. I mean it when I say ignored to the fullest power of the word- not a single word was spoken to me. I had to stop myself from having my panic attack, snapping out of it because I felt embarrassed to be ignored by those who were employed to care for me.On another occasion, I had a panic attack, and I couldn't calm down. Apparently I'd been indisposed for 40 minutes, or so the nurses said. During this event I had nurses trying to regulate me, as I was in the lobby and they were nervous (lol) but I was so horrified I could not move, due to the circumstance of my doctor refusing to communicate with me about a possible discharge.I couldn't handle being here, and as I panicked, the nurses specifically disobeyed the notes I had filled out upon my admittance- I had written not to touch me when I'm feeling like this, and they wouldn't get their hands off me. Because I couldn't calm down, they eventually told me I was "wasting their time." Then, because I didn't want to take the medication they had proffered to calm me, one of the nurses told me I had no choice- that if I didn't take the medication willingly, they would use a syringe to inject it into me against my will. I wasn't being violent, to myself or anyone else, I was simply panicking. That's how they chose to handle it.Those were my most extreme negative circumstances, but bear in mind, nothing here was positive. Everyone is inept and undertrained, from nurses to presenting staff for group therapy. Speaking of therapy, if that's what you or your loved ones are looking for, good luck getting it here. This facility doesn't have therapists on staff who will sit down and talk with you, at least in my experience. I was here for nearly a week and never had anything resembling one on one therapy. I was only able to speak with my psychiatrist twice in intervals shorter than 10 minutes each time. The closest thing present is the group therapy, which is both pithy and required, even if you aren't getting anything out of it because the staff hosting is generally clueless. During the last session I attended, the 'professional' hosting the session implied babies couldn't have schizophrenia, and when I pointed out the discrepancies in his claim, he referred only to the possibility of "crack babies." He used that phrase.I was put here on an involuntary hold because it was deemed I needed intensive therapy to help me work through my suicidality. I didn't get anything resembling that here. They put me on a second involuntary hold, and I had to have a hearing, judge and all, to be released when I did. She ruled in my favor before my patient advocate even testified, that's how clear it was I shouldn't have been there, but staff here doesn't care. Once you don that hospital gown, you're less than human.As a final note, this place is also terrible at handling transgender patients. My birth name was everywhere and I was consistently misgendered by staff. They acted like it was a total hassle to take my name off my door when I requested it.