Psychiatric Institute of Washington

My daughter was transferred directly from an emergency room — my insurance covered PIW but not the hospital we’d gone to the emergency room of. It was over a holiday weekend, and though they did not tell us on admission (they told us quite the contrary, in fact) there were no therapeutic services available over the long weekend. My daughter waited more than 90 hours to see a doctor or a licensed social worker. It was clean, it seemed safe, but she got no therapy, no coping skills out of it. And she came out an expert in cutting, given the 90 hours of unstructured time she spent with the other girls on the ward. All in all, it destroyed any trust my daughter has in the mental healthcare system. And mine too. They had the audacity, later, to bill us for therapeutic care over that long weekend that my daughter never received. I’ve gone back to my insurance provider to assert they are engaged in insurance fraud.

I worked here a couple of years ago. There are a couple of good social workers. The quality of care delivered by the child psychiatrist I worked with was almost criminal. Those poor kids deserved better than her.

The nurse named Francesca on the Posttraumatic Unit was extremely rude and belligerent when I was visiting someone I know. Additionally, the receptionist at the front desk was nasty and disrespectful. She was not helpful at all. I will be writing a letter of complaint to management.

The staff on the trauma unit (the center) took my eye glasses while I was sleeping, from my bedside, then lost them. I got discharged with a promise to find or reimburse me for my glasses in 48 hours, by the patient advocate (Earnest) and chief executive (Carol). It’s been a week, unanswered phone calls. I had to spend 500.00 on new glasses. THANK YOU TRAUMA CENTER, VICTIMIZED AGAIN

I saw a kid get his arm broken by a nurse. Enough said.

Open Letter to the Post-​traumatic Disorders Program, Psychiatric Institute of Washington –
A close and dear friend is dead.
She was a patient at your hospital, and a few days ago she sent me this text:
I left the trauma program after 48 hours. I was appalled at the environment, the terrible therapy and being treated like a prisoner. I went there looking for healing and support and found the experience even more traumatic. Western mental health systems are dehumanizing and insane.
That was the last message I ever received from her. I got a call that my friend’s body was found in the river: she drowned herself.
After many weeks of searching she came to your program in what was to be her last act of hope. My friend made a great effort in a time of utter despair. She trusted you.
I am stricken with grief but I am not looking to blame. Suicide is a human mystery and nobody can know why one person chooses to endure while another chooses to end their life. She is not here to help us understand.
But when she was here, were you listening? Did you offer refuge and kindness? What pretense of behavioral science can absolve you of the basic duty to be gentle and loving to a human being in pain?
No, I don’t want to blame. As I find the courage to write this letter, I have hope that you might understand. I hope that someone reading this letter might now take this chance and really hear my friend, really understand what her last message says about your program.
But I also have a fear. I fear that you will listen instead to what you think you already know about her. I am afraid that once again you will just use diagnosis and assessment to disqualify and dismiss her, in the same way that destroyed her last act of hope.
I am afraid that, to my friend’s death, you will just add another tragedy.
Sincerely,
Will Hall

This is not a place for help. It is a prison, and it is run like a prison. I was there for one day and the patients were nearly in tears because they could not get the help they needed from the staff. The staff pretends not to see or hear the patients.
At one point, an elderly black lady began to cry incessantly because she was charged with a petty crime and could not remember the court date or the name of the public defender to which she was assigned. I have the skills to help and coincidentally have a best friend who works at PSA. I needed a phone, particularly my phone, to get the contact numbers and provide this lady with the help she needed. But the staff refused to let me help her, or to help her themselves.
Most of the staff have a high school education and nothing beyond that, so if you’re a highly educated, high-​functioning, gainfully employed, articulate human being, you’re automatically treated like garbage. They love to exercise that little tidbit of power, because outside PIW, they are nothing.