Trinitas Regional Medical Center — Attraction in Elizabeth

My experience is in both the Behavioral health department in the DBT program AND the Psychiatric ward across the street in the hospital. First the DBT program was actually helpful to me for a period of time and helped my self growth. The staff I interacted with are very good at teaching the DBT skills. I saw only the positive side of their DBT program for awhile but there was another side that you should know about.

Unfortunately, I also warn people who are thinking of wanting to be in the Trinitas DBT program. This is only my opinion but I serve to caution others so they don’t go through the traumatic experience I did. While the DBT program will enable a willing and motivated individual to be more skillful, don’t put any faith in any of the staff. My opinion is the entire DBT program has an almost cult like dynamic where the other therapists blindly follow rules without even acting on their own accord in my opinion. The boss of the program seemingly controlled the others and fed them orders. No one told her she might be wrong or Inappropriate. Not one person spoke up on my behalf, not even my own therapist who only deferred to the DBT boss.

I worked extremely hard for over a year and a half only to be treated like a stranger in the end!! I was also treated in a inappropriate way causing me trauma that persists today. After an individual session had ended I had suicidal ideation and told my therapist I needed help. 2 staff members came down, the DBT boss looked very angry at me. They both escorted me across the street to the Psych ward. Even though I was completely emotionally broken, scared and dissociated, the DBT boss told me something I will not soon forget. I told her that I “felt like a burden” to which she replied, “This IS an inconvenience!!! We have places to go, things we could have been doing but we are here” My heart broke a bit. I was in total and absolute shock that she actually said this to me in the condition I was in. The other therapist did absolutely NOTHING!! They offered me no comfort whatsoever!

I felt dehumanized and humiliated by the entire DBT team. I actually felt a need to report 4 of them for misconduct which went absolutely nowhere. I believe my investigation was botched and NOT even properly investigated despite the DBT boss admitting she was burned out and not in a wise mind!!! They offered 0 help, to add insult to injury no one on the staff apologized or was held accountable. Lastly, I wasn’t offered a termination session privately with my therapist which is standard in regular therapy, but this is DBT therapy.

Can this DBT therapy help people? I think so depending on the individual. Is this a bad therapy program? No, but there are HUGE flaws in the way the DBT team is run period!! I’m sharing my terrible experience in the DBT program so no one else will have to suffer like I have been suffering. Before you sign that year contract, think hard!! If you decide to enter this program, do not break any rules, don’t expect DBT therapy to be like psychotherapy. If you are perceived to step out of line, you might be on your own.

Secondly, my one experience in the psychiatric unit across from the regional plaza was abysmal. I was trapped in that place for several hours from morning to evening!! I was NOT allowed to leave even though I told them I wanted to leave! I was kept in a small room with no TV, magazines or anything to keep me preoccupied. I wasn’t allowed my phone to call for someone to get me out of there. I was extremely upset, was scared and started to feel dissociated from being in this place. I had to literally count the tiles on the floor and things around me to keep it together. I tried to sleep but felt intense anxiety and a lot of fear. I finally got out by DEMANDING to leave!! If they said still said no, I was planning to escape somehow and tell the police I was trapped there!!!! I was not checked on...

The New Point Campus where the Psychiatric Units are is disgusting. This a revenue to the 2D DDD unit. I'm surprised no one mentioned it. Still uses archaic treatment. Leather restraints really?um... They let patients refuse medication. So people are of course going to get out of hand. They believe in positive reinforcement. But if someone is mentally ill, they're not likely to take medication until forced with injections for awhile until they gain insight again. So even though it's a DDD unit, they claim to treat dual diagnosed mentally ill and developmentally disabled patients. So they need the expertise in both areas not just DDD. A lot of their money comes from the State so everyone needs to keep that in mind. Like they can't manage certain patients on their DDD unit, but yet they claim to be able to prevent crises and stuff. The crazy thing is that that 70% of their DDD unit patients, are not mentally ill, yet, are in a psychiatric unit. Also, the DDD unit received someone according to Facebook with pending legal charges. Like I thought all the people with legal issues go to State Facilities. I didn't know that they could send people there who are low functioning with charges to Trinitas. We're not talking Murder here either. I'm referencing terroristic threats, simple weapons possession of a 25 year old man in a group home. Yes I am referencing the Hunterdon a County Return Home NJ story, when I say this. Sad to say, there are people that are too low functioning to be competent to stand trial. But I still thought they could not place a "Forensic patient" at Trinitas. Also, the DDD unit proclaims that reduced "long term hospitalization" and 90% of patients are discharged to the community. This is false. When I was on the Unit, so there's 10 beds, 4 patients were on their way to long term hospitals, specifically State Hospitals, including myself, which they openly say are "not the place for DDD clients". So that would mean that 60% of their patients at the given time were discharged to the community. Guess what, Trinitas? Some DDD patients are onto you guys lies. So, the patients that openly tried to leave or signed 48 hours notices or was just too "psychiatric" for them, not DDD related behaviors, or said something about the ongoing on the unit were just sent elsewhere for long term care. The thing is that the State of New Jersey condones these ongoings and lets it continue endlessly. I have got to say that Trinitas should lose their DMHAS and DDD funding for 2D. Definitely should be getting inspections. Heard that they failed Joint Commission inspections on more than one occasion as an entire behavioral health facility. So they need some up keep. It's dirty and people deserve better. It's so...

By far the worst hospital experience! I brought my 1 year old daughter in with a 103 fever and I expressed my main concern was that it appears she was having Febrile Seizures and I swear this meant nothing to all these HEALTH PROFESSIONALS

Right out the gate the initial registrar questions my health insurance and I assured her that my daughter was covered under my health insurance through my job! She proceeds to make A COPY OF MY DRIVERS LICENSE AND HEALTH INSURANCE CARD but apparently NEVER entered my information or my daughter’s health insurance info into the system! We wait about 45 minutes and we are taking to room 1 in the ER and we WAIT for about an hour before a doctor or PA is available!

Now for the second time another registrar comes into the room to obtain information in regards to who the legal guardian is and if my daughter actually has health insurance….. He even questioned if I was the child’s mother because our last names were different!!! Now I am a little angry because they are all so pushy about the health insurance or no health insurance my daughter has that we received a misdiagnosis.

A PA finally comes into the room does a 5 minute check up and saids definitely an ear infection left (completely red as she stated) Then a nurse comes back 20 minutes later to have me administer 2 5ml syringes of Amoxicillin to my daughter who I have already express to them does not do well with medicine is syringe; what happen MY DAUGHTER ONLY GETS 1ml of the medicine… Complete waste!

I was given instructions to follow up with my child’s Pediatrician which I did and guess what…. NO EAR INFECTION IN EITHER EAR…. But what she does have is a form of Coxsackie (Hands, Feet and Mouth Disease) which is contagious but we were DISCHARGED without the PA even looking for an actual cause of the fever, she chose a common infection and sent us home WITH MY DAUGHTERS FEVER STILL AT 102!

To add insult to injury today I called the ER to speak to a supervisors and I was transferred to this ARROGANT Nurse by the name of Juan. I expressed my concerns and he literally did not care! When I asked for his last name nhe saids YOU DON’T NEED MY LAST NAME MY FIRST NAME IS GOOD ENOUGH! And immediately cut the line, no Please hold on NOTHING!!!

No one wants there child sick but if we are coming to the ER it’s because our home knowledge and remedies are not helping our child get better; they all take a oath to help people but Trinitas some of your staff is lacking in...