Brynn Marr Hospital — Local services in Jacksonville

I give this hospital 1 star ONLY because of Ms. Kim, Ms. Donna and the very nice lady who admitted me. First of all, I was involuntary, I got there around 9:30 am, I didn’t get processed till after 12:30. They made me take all my clothes off and examined me (really uncomfortable) the lady was very nice ( I don’t remember her name but she had long blonde hair and bangs) I had one shirt and pants, the rest of my clothes weren’t cleared. The hospital was literally freezing, I didn’t have a jacket so the very nice lady gave me a jacket. The food was not good, it tasted microwaved and it made me sick after a couple days. Group therapy was pointless most of the time because all you did was color and most people took it as a joke. In the morning we met with Dr. Brown, the first time I met with her was on my second day, I was really upset because I missed my mom and she took me off of my vyvanse, I was not happy about that and she gave me attitude and was very immature while meeting with me. They kept me on a heavy antipsychotic and bipolar medicine, but if the doctor took time to understand what was going on she would’ve known I was WRONGLY prescribed these medications by my psychiatrist and by them! They made me feel numb and the first few days there were some of the worst days I’ve ever had. There was a very nice nurse named ms. Michelle I think was her name and I was crying and she calmed me down very quickly and knew how to handle the situation (which I cannot say about most) Ms. Taylor was awesome, but extremely unprofessional, she cussed so much and shared very explicit details about her personal life. Ms. Heather was very nice to me and always was fair which I appreciate. The first day I was there, there was a fight during “Rex therapy” ( where you paint or play board games and then talk about how it was therapeutic for you) a girl got her glasses broken, they said they were fixing them and when I left (8 days later) they weren’t fixed. Showers were FREEZING after the first few people went. The chairs were beyond uncomfortable, I was in the teen unit ( I’m 16 ) but there was also people age 11 with me, which didn’t seem right. There was a girl there who was hurting herself with any given opportunity and the staff did nothing about it. They let her use markers after she used a marker cap to hurt herself as well as the wrist band. Some days we literally did nothing but read and watch tv which made the day go by so slowly. Ms. Kim, and Ms. Jazz were great though, they kept structure to the day, Ms. Kim always had the best shoes and Ms. jazz always made me laugh. While I was there, these two girls started dating and the only people that told them to “respect boundaries” which was very important in the hospital were Ms. Kim and Ms. Jazz, other than that they made everyone really uncomfortable bc they’d be sexual and ew it was just not what I wanted to see while I was there! Eventually they split our group into 2 so they were separated. There was also an extreme amount of bullying. There was a group of 4 or 5 girls (ages 12-16) that would make up nicknames for people that were degrading and made fun of them. I told staff on more than one occasion that this was happening, no action was taken. I absolutely dreaded it there. When I met with Dr. Brown for the WHOLE 5 mins she gave me, she asked questions like “how are you feeling?” “Any suicidal thoughts?” “Are you sleeping any better?” I would always say that i was fine no thoughts and I’m sleeping great. I put on the biggest act to get out of there. Ms. Portia, my care coordinator was really great and was the only part of my stay there that helped me at all, my mom and I continued the plan we made for my discharge and our relationship is so much better, because of the plan we made and because of therapy outside of Brynn Marr. I was wrongly prescribed bipolar medicine by my old psychiatrist, Dr. Brown did not evaluate me at all or change these meds that I repeatedly told her made me numb and not care about myself. Care was horrible. Do...

Recently I was Involuntary commitment for an overdose. When I was in the hospital after overdosing they decided I needed ivc and decided to send me to Brynn Marr. They never told my mom when they would be taking me, where it was, what kind of place, or any information she needed; they didn’t tell her when I would be leaving and it was a total surprise when a sheriff came to pick me up not long after they told my mom I would be committed, and I wasn’t even allowed to keep my hair ties which obviously wasn’t true because other girls there had them . They did not follow transportation rules/policy.

So I was sent to Brynn Marr and was told by multiple doctors I would only have to stay for three days. Simply because before this attempt I had never self harmed, heard voices, tried to commit suicide, etc. The first thing I did not like about this facility was the strip search, the lady was very rude and judge mental and made me feel extremely uncomfortable. I have a ; tattoo which reminds me not to give up, she told me I was a hypocrite. It took my all to not cry.

My mom tried calling me the first few days but couldn’t because they didn’t know which wing I was put in. I was put in wing 2West which is the psychiatric unit and my mom was told I would be put in the depression unit. It honestly was a bit traumatic, I had never been around so many people who seen and heard things, or so many adults that seemed like they hated you, a few girls had even tried to kill people and joked about it. There were two girls who were in a relationship and it made me very uncomfortable because they were all up on other girls and each other and never separated.

The nurses and MHTs were mostly all mean. They yelled at us for everything, belittled our problems, cursed at us, etc. Some nurses even bullied other nurses. Throughout my time there the only nurses that were nice were Ms Kim and another Blonde lady who was in the marine corps.

They constantly tried to put me on multiple medicines after my mom and I both said no because I wanted to try therapy and then do medicines when I went to outpatient because the first two doctors said I would have to stay for ten days if got on medicine and then another doctor told that it wouldn’t make my stay longer.

Each night I had to take the last shower, meaning it was cold water and my hair was wet when I went to bed. They only gave us a small hand towel and shampoo mixed with body wash. The rooms were extremely cold, the AC came on at least every 10 mins. I had told multiple nurses that I didn’t feel safe in my room over multiple days because of a roommate but nothing was done, they kind of just laughed it off. The nurses in the hallway were all very obnoxiously loud at night and made it hard to actually sleep. Two days after my discharge I went to the doctors and they found I had pneumonia.

Most of the groups were pointless, we basically did the same thing over and over while patients took it as a joke and the nurses yelled; and the only things they tried to teach was “cOpiNg sKilLs” and also Dr Brown wasn’t a good “therapist”. The two to three one on one counseling sessions a day you’re supposed to have is one five minute (at most) session where she asks you; “Have you heard any voices?” “Have you had suicidal thoughts?” “and how have you been sleeping?” And another patient waits outside the door for their turn.

Basically the whole time I was there my mom had no clue what was going on with me or my treatment plan. I was told several different discharge dates and my care coordinator Angelica literally avoided me because she got “in trouble” for making me think I would only be staying three days. I ended up staying more than three days and on more than one occasion did they mess up my discharge date.

Would not recommend if you’re actually wanting to get help, because the people here do not make any changes to your mental health, and if anything it will only get worse. But I tried to stay positive and remembered that I could’ve been somewhere like...

This hospital was awful. this was very traumatic to me. I went in almost 8 months ago and was wrongfully held for 4 weeks. I’ve been to 2 other places, 1 highly rated, and 1 with 2.6 stars. Brynn Marr was by far the worst. Some of the most unacceptable problems being, a lack of emotional support, authoritative staff members not communicating with me, short/ unprofessional staffing, lack of safety due to other patients, bugs, and a dirty hospital. THIS IS HIGHLY SUMMARISED, this is a slight peek into the conditions LACK OF EMOTIONAL SUPPORT While there were many issues with the staff as individuals one of the biggest problems I encountered was the lack of decent therapy or counseling. we had a 1-hour group with underqualified workers. in that group, we would have 1 of 2 of the workers rotate throughout the week. one of them consistently ended the group early by about 40 minutes each time. both of them forced us to do non-mental health-related activities. if we did not do the activities we were threatened to lose privileges. certain nurses were very helpful and respectful but usually there was 1 nurse in the nurses station and one nurse with up to 15 patients so they often couldn’t talk. we met with a psychiatrist daily but it was solely about our meds if we needed help with any other topic it was ignored. NOT LISTENING TO PATIENTS My guardian at the time wasn’t able to tell the staff everything that was going on they sent me there and no staff who had any authority over my care/ stay would listen to me, i believe this is because I'm a minor. my guardian told the staff many things that were not fully accurate and I could not correct my guardian. this caused me to be put on meds I didn’t need, put on protocols that didn’t apply to me, and have a care plan that did not suit me. this caused my stay to exceed the average stay by 18 days even after having a judge rule that I should go home. if I told the doctor that I had a bad reaction to my meds I was told to wait it out, if I refused to take the med I was told I would likely stay longer due to non-compliance. there were many times that the doctor wouldn’t tell me what meds they put me on if they changed the doses, the side effects, or what the med was for. There were some very nice nurses who would tell me when they gave them out or tell me if I asked but many other times I had no idea. STAFF ISSUES While there were many nurses, techs who were excellent at their jobs, many staff members didn’t know the rules or the schedules. I was there for a rather long time for a “short-term stay” and I knew the schedule quite well. staff members threatened to have me put in the seclusion room/ put on a 1-1 watch, when I came to them with concerns or needed to work through my emotions. an instance that doesn’t sit right with me is when some of the kids on my unit would urinate or make bowel movements on themselves and the staff wouldn’t clean the messes or do anything about the unsanitary furniture. we were often left unattended while a nurse or tech would need to get something due to short staffing. often nurses would have to work as techs because of short staffing as well OFHER PATIENTS/ UNITS There were many fights both verbal and physical during my stay. many of the fights were unreported. the other units would sometimes try to break into our unit and we would have to go into lockdown or have to relocate to the gym or courtyard for safety. I was yelled at by a few patients and the staff did nothing to resolve it or separate them from me. I had a roommate steal my clothes and there was never any action taken. SANITARY I saw roaches and flies in the cafeteria many times. there were hornets and flies all over multiple of the courtyards. the hallway was puked in many times while I was there and they wiped up the vomit but didn’t clean the floors until sometimes many days later. the chairs in the day room were wiped once a day only and the floors and tables were very dirty. the hallways were unsanitary and the shower rooms were always...