Bradley Hospital — Local services in East Providence

My son recently had a short inpatient stay at this hospital after concerns of self injurious behavior, and aggression to try to get a handle on him and prevent behaviors escalating and also to assist with medication management. I can speak to some of the nursing staff being very polite and nice during phone calls, we were restricted to my sons room during visits, so I was not able to see how the staff interacted with him. Upon discharge, my son came home with unexplained bruises and broken skin. I should mention he’s nine years old with autism and difficulty communicating. Since his release, I noticed an immediate increase in behaviors, behaviors he had not exhibited before entering this hospital and a complete lack of impulse control. In trying to get explanations, even innocent explanations, all I was able to find out, was that the injuries photographed by my sons other parent at discharge are not documented by the hospital, although they claim to do full body checks. In trying to get explanations for these injuries and new troubling behaviors/language we are now being completely ignored. I wanted to wait to write a review until I heard from the hospital, but after receiving a package yesterday with a few of my son’s belongings we had left there, It occurred to me that while that hospital is still up and running, the families concerns and questions are apparently not nearly as important as returning sweatpants. I’d like to make mention of the physician who medicated my son. We had virtual appointments being over an hour away from the hospital, and upon the first meeting of this man, I was asked a series of questions about what will happen at discharge, something I’ve come to find they apparently really don’t care about. I answered, candidly, in the aftermath of a divorce, there was much uncertainty, but I was honest. The physician asked me where my son would be discharged while with me, I answered honestly that I was not sure yet. He went on to ask me, with other people present in this virtual meeting I mind you if there was a possibility I could be homeless. This was something I had not considered and certainly couldn’t rule out since I did not yet have an answer as to where we were going, so I broke down in tears, and said yes, that is a possibility. He then went on in front of these people to suggest my son may not be discharged back to me. The trauma of having to make the decision to put your trust in professionals with full-time care of your son, is more than many people could understand. Going through that trauma, and then having a physician you’ve just met and trusted with your son question you and make you feel that inadequate after desperately reaching out for help, was another trauma in itself. I left that meeting in tears. Something I had never experienced during my sons previous stays at the Hospital for Special Care in New Britain, Connecticut, where I felt I was treated with dignity and respect, and where I could count on explanations for my son. Having a child with an intellectual disability and behavior challenges, I am aware that innocent explanations are there. Self injury happens, restraint causes injuries, but they should be well documented in a hospital that supposedly specializes in these things where professionals are involved. And then to completely ignore parents desperately seeking explanations for horrifying behaviors/habits that they never experienced before entering.. very disappointing. I hope this hospital follows up about my child who is the one affected most by his stay there, but I would advise/warn families to consider other options before this hospital not just for concerns of injury and new habits but because bad medication choices by the physician there have set my son back so obviously that the school has documented it started since his release. There was zero behavior improvement and the “safety plan” we were supposed to get consisted of me answering questions of what I did prior to his hospitalization. Sending him to this hospital is by far my biggest regret...

i went here when i was 7. i feel i should mention before all of this that i was 7 in around 2018. i came out with even more trauma than before. this hospital is one of the main things that caused my severe ptsd. they make everything worse. i already had traumatic experiences beforehand, but going here for however long i was in ruined me even more. they once locked me in a small white room for at least half an hour telling me to calm down in there (they were the ones telling me whether i was ready or not). also they heavily encouraged kids having too much time on youtube (all i would hear all day was baby shark over and over again). also, the partial program doesn’t help either. they make you do it instead of school and im proud to say i learned basically nothing. they just taught us like one math skill from our grade level, made us do coloring pages, “rewarded” us with 15 minutes of screen time on the tablet with crappy games. i’d also like to add there is NO controls over the tablets/electronics either in the inpatient or partial, at least when i came. they let us download and watch anything, and even though i didn’t really find anything too bad, it was clear they didn’t care. in the partial program, i once started throwing up and they blamed it on me. they left me to throw up in a bucket literally right next to everyone, saying rude stuff to me telling me to calm down. they will taunt you to lash out and then blame it on you, telling you to calm down while ridiculing you. they also do not seperate the kids from ongoing incidents. this one girl (i believe she was around 10) started swearing and throwing stuff and etc. and they didn’t even try to get her out of the room until like 10 minutes later.. in the inpatient they also barely teach you anything. the one thing i was made to do in there for “learning” was reading some passage about how to train your dragon and answer the easiest questions ever. i’m forced to still go here for therapy and have the same issues from before, literally even worse. they do not try to help you. they force you to stay here for as long as possible because it’s all about the money, doesnt matter if they actually care, they just want you to stay. this place is genuinely so horrible and i dread having to come here every time. they just mindlessly play around with your medications whether you’re there for therapy or inpatient (ive experienced both and currently am experiencing it in the “therapy” there) not caring about side effects. yea, they tell you about them, but they do not care. they just tell me to tell someone if i have side effects even though they KNOW SO WELL that these side effects would make me even worse because of the conditions i have. im genuinely so happy to hear that this place has horrible reviews because these people deserve to know that people like me have been left scarred for years. also im a suspected did/osdd system and this is one of the biggest factors.. ironic since they treat disorders, hm… also the experiences in this review aren’t even close to everything. my brain has blocked out almost all of these memories (dissociative amnesia). to whoever has read the whole thing, i thank you for staying to listen to my...

The reviews below are true. This place is equivalent to a prison. I was brutally suffering from severe OCD and planned to go to Butler. There were no beds at the time so my only option was Bradley. I immediately met the staff who started to treat me like a psychopath. They constantly followed me around and asking if I was going to kill my mom or heard voices. I had a type of OCD that revolved around fears of hurting others. Since I did in fact had OCD I sobbed after each interrogation. I met with my doctor a little bit after and described my symptoms.

SHE NEVER TOLD ME WHAT MY DIAGNOSIS WAS, DID AN IQ TEST FOR SOME UNKNOWN FREAKING REASON, PRESCRIBED MEDS THAT WEREN'T PROVEN TO TREAT OCD, REFUSED TO PUT ME ON A SSRI, AND SAID I COULDN'T BE HELPED. SHE EVEN CONSIDERED I SHOULD RECEIVE NEUROSURGERY. I was infuriated by this bullshit and demanded another psychiatrist (who was not from Bradley.). I sat with her for about 20 minutes and she was calm, cool, and collected. She said I definitely had OCD and was perplexed that the doctor didn't figure it out on the first day. She was ticked I wasn't on a SSRI. I think she told my doctor off because after that I was finally prescribed a SSRI and treated like a human being.

On my final day my doctor came up to me handing me the discharge papers. I was like "what now?" She said I was too challenging. SHE DIDN'T REFER ME TO A BETTER PLACE FOR MY CHRONIC CONDITION. SHE THREW ME TO THE WOLVES OF MY OCD.

Staff would scream at you to get up, you were locked in a tiny activity room all day, weren't allowed to go outside in an enclosed area, staff seemed to love pissing off patients, they said I was extremely dangerous despite me exhibiting no symptoms of true homicidal tendencies, and often ignored my cries for help. The nurses were the only people decent. Most were very kind and comforting. However, most were clueless.

IN CONCLUSION, NEVER COME HERE FOR ANY MENTAL CONDITION. GO TO BUTLER. Butler was extremely on top of things and told me my diagnosis. They added other OCD treatable medicines to combat it. Staff was enlightening and very friendly. If you needed to talk to someone, they would come right away. BUTLER LET YOU GO OUTSIDE AND FREELY ROAM THE WARD. They never made you feel...