SpringBrook Behavioral Health System

Our child was sexually assaulted at Springbrook. They then stopped ALL communication. Would not allow us access to our child at all. They they kicked him out a week later, when I said we'd sue. Our entire experience with Springbrook was awful. Cannot imagine what these children and adults are being put through. Unacceptable. Our most vulnerable children deserve to be safe. His therapist LIED to him. Told him we were to busy to support him. His therapist lied. When they discharged him. They keep all his brand new clothes. Withheld items ect. If you love your child. Take them somewhere else.

My daughter stayed at this facility for nearly two months in their acute program. As promised, they conducted extensive testing within the first one to two weeks, which I appreciated. For those concerned about communication, it’s important to understand that children choose who they include in their call plan. If you weren’t receiving calls, it may be because your child prioritized other individuals. Calls are also limited to twice a week, which, while difficult, makes sense frequent contact can sometimes disrupt a child’s ability to regulate and adjust to treatment. Each week includes a scheduled update call as well as a family counseling session. I found the staff to be very responsive to emails and questions, and consistently timely in their communication. According to my daughter, the staff were friendly, warm, and knowledgeable. She also described the food as decent and yes, they didn't have bone in chicken for a reason (see below) Some concerns mentioned in other reviews, such as open-bay showers and supervised hygiene, are accurate, but in my view, these practices are understandable in a setting that serves children with behavioral challenges or ASD. These measures are in place to prevent unsafe situations (such as elopement, self-harm, or aggression) and to support those who may need guidance with self-care. Our primary goal in choosing this facility was to evaluate whether my daughter had ASD after it being flipped on and off of her diagnosis list throughout the years. From this program, we confirmed she did not have ASD which was valuable information for us, for insurance reasons more specifically. Upon discharge, I was given a binder with recommended behavioral changes directed toward me (written with “YOU” in all caps throughout). While some of the guidance aligns with established best practices for parenting children with ASD, the tone at times came across as overly generalized and, in places, somewhat accusatory or impersonal. I would suggest that discharge materials be more individualized. Many parents who seek this level of care have already implemented standard strategies extensively. Including direct parent-child interaction observations could help identify where breakdowns are actually occurring, allowing for more tailored and actionable recommendations rather than broadly repeated guidance. In our case, I was now pursuing a residential level of care after more than eight years of trying multiple interventions such as PCIT, family counseling, play therapy, OT, ABA, CBRS, and BI without success. She has also since been declined from additional ABA/BI services due to the complexity and severity of her behavior, despite my consistent implementation of recommended strategies at home. Because my daughter was ultimately not diagnosed with ASD, the ASD-focused strategies recommended at discharge were not appropriate for her needs and, in some cases, proved counterproductive. The primary recommendation was to return home with ABA-based in-home therapy. However, upon returning home, her behavior escalated immediately and severely. She carried out a premeditated physical attack against me, which she later admitted she had planned while in the facility, with stated intent to...it's not a igurative or impulsive aggression it was deliberate, targeted, and life-threatening behavior. This resulted in immediate medical intervention and her transfer to a higher level of psychiatric care that is more appropriate for the severity of her condition. Which we actually couldn't have done without getting that pesky ASD diagnosis off of her belt because insurance loves to stay stuck on the whole ASD thing even though it was never her primary diagnosis. That said, I am giving 4 stars because the facility delivered on what it promised. The staff were professional and compassionate, and the program appears well-equipped to support children with ASD. My daughter herself reported feeling safe, supported, and protected from negative peer interactions, which speaks highly of the environment they maintain.

Whatever you do please do not send your child or any family member here, this is not a safe place at all! It’s not clean, all they care about is money! They don’t have any staff on their website of who’s running the place, trust me please do your research!

This is a long overdue review that honestly should have been written 11 or more years ago. I stayed at Spring Behavioral Health from 2014 until late 2015, and looking back on that experience still bothers me to this day. It’s something that has stuck with me for years. During my time there, everything felt extremely rigid and controlled. We were kept on a very strict schedule for almost everything we did, and it often felt less like a place meant to help people and more like being stuck in a prison-like environment. There was very little freedom, and it didn’t feel like patients were treated with much understanding or compassion. One of the hardest parts was the lack of outside time. We barely got to go outside, and when we did it was usually very limited. Being cooped up inside most of the time made things feel even more stressful and isolating. The food was also terrible. Meals often felt low quality and not something anyone would actually want to eat, especially when you’re already dealing with mental health struggles and need proper care and support. What bothered me most was the way the environment and some staff interactions made me feel. Instead of feeling supported, I often felt mistreated and ignored, like what patients were going through didn’t really matter. When you’re somewhere that’s supposed to help you heal, that kind of environment can make things even harder. Even now, years later, the experience still haunts me when I think back on it. I wish I had spoken up about it sooner, but at the time I didn’t feel like my voice would matter. I’m sharing this now because people deserve to know what someone’s experience there was like, and because this is something I’ve carried with me for a long time.

I have an interview, should I accept ? My son is 11 he is autistic I will make this Springbrook fold under . I’m hearing terrible things about this and bc I’ll come in there an change it only if they are going to allow me ! In my interview I will bring up everyone name in these review . God bless you all !

This review is long overdue, I was one of the high functioning patients in this facility from June 15th, 2023 to December 19th, 2023. I am not exaggerating when I say this place literally gave me C-PTSD. This is a Troubled Teen Industry program, not a treatment center. Firstly, the neglect: They did not provide me with clean clothes. They constantly lost my clothes in the laundry to the point that I had to keep repeating the same three dirty outfits. They also educationally neglected me. I was a sophomore with above average intelligence but they usually made me do elementary-level English work with the other youth and I was missing an extremely high amount of credits when I returned to an actual school. Secondly, the medical malpractice: They often lied to insurance companies to continue getting money from the children. I will not sugarcoat this, it was child exploitation. For example, once I asked my friend if I could use his light up stress ball and they claimed I made a "sexual comment" and filed a report to my insurance and secluded me for hours. It is not uncommon for this facility to use seclusion or PRN injections when it's completely unnecessary. It is stated in the youth's rights that they should not be secluded, restrained, or injected with a PRN unless they are posing a critical danger towards themself or others and cannot be deescalated. I was never dangerous towards anyone, yet I was secluded several times a week and sometimes threatened with PRNs over simple things like making rude jokes towards staff. Dr. Fisher also put me on an antipsychotic called Geodon, although he was well aware that I don't have psychotic features, and I had an adverse reaction to it but he kept me on it and threatened to extend my stay if I didn't take it. After that he put me on a very strong off-label weight loss pill, topiramate, even though I was already below average weight and nowhere near overweight. Briefly after I left the facility I developed substance-induced anorexia nervosa. Third, the building: The facility in itself is absolutely disgusting. The bathrooms smell so bad it is legitimately hard to breathe in them or near them. There are cockroaches in the cafeteria and every table is sticky. Children constantly get sick from the lack of cleanliness in the facility. They also don't have doors for the majority of the bathrooms and we're not allowed to shut our doors when we shower, we can only prop them shut with something like a shoe. Sometimes staff would walk into the room while someone was showering and not even put the shoe back and the entire hallway would be able to see somebody's naked body. One staff even came to search my room while I was showering because she thought I had her pen (I didn't) and she saw my naked body. People on 1 to 1 literally had to be watched while they were in the shower and staff saw them naked every time (is that even legal??). This facility traumatized me in other ways, one being the isolation. We were only allowed to leave the building once every two months if we were lucky and the only contact we had with the outside world was phone calls with parents. Even worse, two patients there were actively homicidal towards me (one was in psychosis) and the staff did basically nothing about it. One of the patients tried to throw a chair at me and I had to hide under the table to avoid having my head busted open and when I told somebody they accused me of lying. I was also sexually harassed by some of the male patients there and blamed for it or accused of lying every time. Some staff were verbally abusive and they would insult or mock patients. This place is a hellhole. Don't send your kids here or they'll leave with more trauma and mental issues than they already had.

A few years ago I was sent here when I really shouldn’t have by a bad parent, so that might bias my review but overall, I did not enjoy my stay here, I made a few freinds and had fun but in the end it was miserable! Here are some of my BIG complaints The SMELL, again last time I was there was a few years ago but every time you walked into the common area/bedroom area you would be hit with a FOUL smell, you got used to it but if you left and came back from a trip it would REEK Some mean staff, honestly the staff were hit and miss some were ok, few were really nice, but a few were HORRIBLE, a few that were there seemed to view us as almost sub-human and treated us like it, and that and I think they saw springbrook more like a prison than what it’s trying to be The other people, this part is probably unavoidable but some of the other people there were genuinely a little too crazy, they separated us by age but I think they should have separated us on how high in the spectrum we were, cause for a week or so I had to share a room with a guy who smeared his on poo on the walls But here are the few upsides They have a gym, a big outside space with a pond (and lots of fire ants) and a REALLY NICE pool, and based on the video on the website there’s a few things I never got to see during the year I was there Easy ways for parents to help, I barely got to benefit from this cause of my bad parent but some people got some nice stuff to help them along! Anyway if you’re curious about when I stayed there I’m not 100% sure but it was in the 2019-2021 timeframe, I remember Covid breaking out and the chaos that caused But in conclusion, I’d give springbrook a 2/10, it can work for what it advertises but might leave some other permanent marks on your kid (mostly mental) and there’s probably some bias involved

The aides are mean and have zero compassion for patients. They need to take time to listen to patients and treat others with respect. This includes doctors. I spent a month too long there in 2024. When I arrived I didn’t know where I was and how I got there. I was yelled at for wearing my nightgown. That’s what I left home in via EMS. Dr. Maragu over medicated me 300mg of Lithium 2X a day. After being home a short time I ended up in Prisma Easley with Lithium toxicity. This same doctor said I lied in magistrate court. She barely spent time with me. I think I saw her 3x during the entire month. What I observed personally, this place needs shut down. No one cares.