Michiana Behavioral Health

My child attended for a short period of time and reported having the best time there. Their ability to provide a therapy treatment setting that doesnt even feel like therapy to minors was quite amazing. Thank you for helping my child learn the coping skills she needs to thrive in her life.

Horrible. It’s been a minute since I was there (I was eleven) and i hated every second. I’ve tried looking back and think of good memories. Can’t recall a single thing. Being in there made me want to kill myself and that’s after a full stomach pump. I still struggle with my depression and only thing that’s kept me from doing anything is the thought of it failing and I have to go back to this place. Staff were rude. I’m vegetarian and the fake meat was absolutely diabolical. Horrible. A girl slapped my butt and repeated how she wanted to have sex with me. I told staff and they claimed she’s just joking and it’s okay because she’s also a girl. It took me just recently to realize it infact was not okay. God I hated that place and wouldn’t wish that on anyone. Being kept in a room crammed with other smelly mentally ill kids while sitting in rock hard chairs is not helping my mental health. Which I got yelled at for getting out of the chair. Aswell as when I said I had to use the bathroom and got degraded for not going during our bathroom break. That place didn’t help me at all. It only made it worse.

The groups sometimes helped, but the staff do NOT pay enough attention to the patients. I was one, it was wild.

We took my daughter in for a risk assessment and were immediately greeted by a young woman at the desk who did not make eye contact, was visibly texting on her phone, and had a very poor attitude and tone. This created an unwelcoming environment from the start. While we were there, another patient was being released outside and was hysterical. Although this was not intentional, it frightened my daughter (who is elementary school age). She had never seen anything like that before, and it made her feel unsafe and reluctant to be there. The woman who conducted my daughter’s assessment was cold and read directly from a paper. She did not check to see if my daughter understood the questions, many of which were not age-appropriate. At one point, after my daughter clearly answered “no” to having current suicidal thoughts, the assessor rephrased it as “so yes,” putting words in her mouth after getting information from an outside source. The entire experience made us feel unsupported and uncomfortable seeking help. Questions for children should be developmentally appropriate, clearly explained, and allow space for them to answer without being guided or corrected. Staff should dig deeper to understand what a child means rather than assuming or leading their responses. After reading other reviews, I am thankful we will not be returning.

I'm 13, I stayed as a acute adolescent. Staying here for 5 days was absolutely the most traumatic and stressful time of my life. I don't think I've ever cried more. 5 days felt so much longer than it actually was. From my experience, nobody there does anything to help. If staff really think sitting in a room for 9+ hours with nothing to do but draw with broken crayons and talk to a bunch of other mentally ill teenagers is therapeutic, thats insane. My first full day I had about 3 panic attacks and 2 asthma attacks and when I was asking for help they did absolutely NOTHING to help me. I never even got to talk to my social worker one on one. I know I shouldn't expect much from a hospital like this, but sleeping was so uncomfortable. I got no sleep. I always have trouble falling asleep, even at home, but here, laying on a thin, hard pillow and what looked to be a gym mat, sleeping was much worse. Especially because there is staff coming into your room with flashlights to check if your sleeping every 10 minutes. The food there, it didnt taste terrible, just like school cafeteria food and thats not a bad thing, but it smelled HORRIBLE in the cafeteria everyday, I felt sick everytime I walked in there, and the food was not filling at all. Because of that I overate a lot there, especially because I struggle with stress eating. The food made me super constipated and the water always hurt my stomach. Most of the staff there are very careless and ignorant. The patients there were nicer than most staff, but still, there was a few kind staff that I was comfortable with. I'm autistic, severely depressed, i have anxiety, and adhd too, and being away from home is extremely difficult for me. All my coping mechanisms were taken away from me, I couldn't have my favorite plushies, my favorite clothes, blankets, music, books, etc. Everything was so strict there. It annoyed me really badly whenever staff would say "Don't focus on going home, focus on treatment and yourself." But there was absolutely no treatment. All it was, was basically just 0-2 papers a day writing stuff we like about ourselves and sharing it with our group. I also hate how they don't like when you make friends, what else are we supposed to do. If there is people like me there, that have the same interests and hobbies as me, im going to try and talk to them. Its not like they give us anything else to do there besides talk to our peers. They genuinely had us all sitting in a room doing nothing all day everyday. I felt so isolated and disconnected from reality, I never knew the date or time. We only got one phone call a day for 15 minutes at a specific time. No matter the emergency or anything happening, you could not have any contact to anyone outside of that place except for those certain phone call times. I understand placing important rules to keep people from hurting themselves or others but not everyone is like that. Me and many others, my whole group and more agreed that there was a lot of unnecessary and silly rules that dont make sense at all. I think in some ways they should try to help accommodate certain peoples stays to make them more enjoyable and actually helpful. In conclusion, I dont think this is a good place to be at all, I didn't feel comfortable or safe here at all. The staff did not handle situations well and nobody here helped me at all. There was No treatment. Thank you for reading, I hope I never have to back here. I still have much more to say and more complaining to do, but im going to stop here because of how long this review has gotten already. (This is my first time writing a review, it probably wasnt very good but I really wanted to let anyone reading this know about my stay)

My daughter was admitted to this facility on December 6, 2025. (ACUTE ADOLESCENT) Michiana was the only behavioral/ in patient center that had a bed open, so we had to choose it. We were told that the duration of her stay could be anywhere between 5 and 10 days. She ultimately ended up staying for nine days on the adolescent ward. Her experience was a nightmare; there were constant fights between staff and patients, and much more between patients. She saw three fights occur on her unit (which stressed everyone out and injured some of the girls). In her first few days, there was only one group, and all 13 of them spent their days in the same group room and ate with each other at mealtimes. However, as soon as a couple of those individuals started discharging, about 20 more kids were admitted. They kept on receiving new kids every day, so much so, that they had to split the group because there were simply too many people for one or two techs to manage. The therapy there is only group therapy. They leave the hall for mealtimes and a gym time once a day (gym is 45 minutes). Other than that, they stay in a group room the entire day. It becomes very suffocating and monotonous, so many kids were frustrated with the lack of communication and interaction between groups and the fact they could not leave the room. Often times, group was repeated and not effective for the patients. There was a nursing group and a psych group each day, but with the large group of kids, and different levels of respect and focus, many times, group could not be completed due to disruptions. Other than those two groups, they had group time the rest of the day to do more group therapy led by the tech assigned to your group room. The quality of these led groups really depended on which techs you have. My daughter left this program with so much gratitude towards Makayla, Aaron, and Amelia. These three are the absolute best techs there, hands down. Their groups are comprehensive, realistic, and helpful to the patients. These techs don't treat the patients as lesser than them (like most of the other techs did), and they made group therapy a safe place to share individual concerns. They genuinely cared about the kids getting better. They were professional, unlike other techs who would gossip about each other and about patients in front of the patients. Some staff members constantly looked to remind the patients that they held power over them and could punish them by adding more days to their stay. Makayla, your words will always stick with her, and she says she's so grateful for your support and advice. Amelia she says you are one of the kindest techs there. Aaron, she said you still look like Boq from Wicked. Her experience here held some positive memories only due to these three people. She cannot stress enough how thoughtful, selfless, empathetic, responsible, and amazing these individuals are. Honestly, they deserve more respect and appreciation for all they do. I believe they are the only reason this program is still functioning, albeit not well. I hope that in the future, you guys can hire more people like them who are passionate and excel at their job. I also hope you get rid of some of the rude, disrespectful, and honestly lazy staff members, who obviously hate coming to work every day (as they frequently stated). If you are sending your child here, keep in mind that this is a behavioral center. Some kids are required to stay here before they are placed in juvie. Some are there for suicidal ideations or anger issues, but some are there for truly despicable things. There was an incident when she was here with a boy. He blatantly stated he had a foot fetish and constantly touched other girls. He also stated that he wanted to have sex with her- willing or unwillingly. The staff reprimanded him once and moved him to the other group, but that was it. You are severely understaffed, so admitting more and more kids is just plain stupid, even if you have enough beds for them. The kids aren't getting the attention, help, or support they need to be successful.

The only good thing about this place is Makayla, Aaron, and Amelia (not the residential staff member, but the acute adolescent night shift tech). Makayla is a true angel and one of the only people who actually knows what she's doing. She spends time actually putting together interesting and beneficial groups, and shows us ways we can apply the skills we learn in our lives. She was one of the only staff members who made us feel comfortable to open up and be honest about how we were doing mentally. I will forever remember her advice and support she gave me at the lowest time of my life. Makayla, you deserve so much better than this place, but I am so grateful you were there when I was admitted. I truly don't know what I would have done without you, and I benefited so much from your words and experience. Aaron, you were also an amazing tech who actually cared that we were getting better. You were empathetic, professional, and had way more self restraint than I would if other, incompetent, coworkers were talking about me behind my back. You did so much for all of the patients on the acute adolescent unit, and you worked so hard to meet our needs and actually listen to us. You need to stop picking up so many shifts, I swear you're going to work to your death. I really hope you are more appreciated and respected because you are and were an amazing educator, supporter, and tech. Amelia, I was always so excited for night shift because you were so positive, empathetic, thoughtful, and kind, when no one else was. I thoroughly enjoyed and benefited from your groups. You need to be given more credit for how well you can communicate with the patients and lead a group of mentally unstable kids. That is a huge feat in itself, and I don't know how you do it with a smile on your face. Overall, these three have positively impacted my life, and I am so grateful to them. Other than that, this place is not equipped to treat all the kids you admit. You are severely understaffed and underfunded. If you are sending someone to this center in either of the acute units, you are setting them up for failure. I really relate to someone else's statement about this place: "In the end, I think the most effective way this place prevents suicide is by making you never want to return to it."

We really appreciate the respect, the welcoming us in all the staff was really nice. They explained everything step-by-step to us. I didn’t feel uncomfortable which I thought I was going to but overall it was excellent. I am not one to leave a comment or how I like it somewhere, but I think all of them deserved it from the front desk to in the back I will really refer someone to this facility at any given time knowing that they will all take care of them. Thank you so much. I do really appreciate it.