South Sound Behavioral Hospital — Local services in Lacey

I haven’t stayed here but I’m looking into it. But wow wow wow ! As a former meth addict with 2 years and 8 months, 10 days sober from meth!! I did that on my own.

Before the meth I struggled for so many years with the real oxy (not this fentanyl crap), I shot heroin and took cocaine before switching to cheaper meth. I alone was able to stop using Meth and I’m so proud of myself. Now Im back struggling with an old old enemy- alcohol. I need help now with alcohol. Not my first time. I’ve been battling addicting on and off for 17 - I’m proud to have a lot of success but mostly the I notice is switching substances.

So currently I’m looking for a detox facility and I am sick and tired of patients complaining because it’s not a five star resort. I know addicts. That was me for a long time. I know the kind of clientele that detox places have and I feel they’re highly ungrateful.

Get over it people. Yes these places are often quite underfunded so instead of thinking like you’re the first person to come through and complain about every little thing why don’t you keep in mind why you are there in the first place!

You’re not there for the best experience of your life. I have a hard time taking anything addicts say especially when it’s regarding things like “the food wasn’t food, the beds are hard, I was allowed to bring my phone and it’s so boring- there’s absolutely nothing to do here.

Do your due diligence and research the rules and guidelines ahead of time. This isn’t a spa retreat (although that sounds wonderful right now. You don’t need your phone to entertain you (consider it a second phone detox) bring books, puzzle books, coloring books with crayons. Bring NON electronic stuff. Boredom is a state of mind. If you choose to go crazy it’s on you.

Look up what is allowed ahead of time and prepare yourself mentally. my God this is NOT a getaway. This is something to literally help you detox safely if you’re the one going crazy in that place then I think you should see the Dr about extenuating issues.. So the next time I read a review about someone complaining about the food or the beds or the lack of entertainment I’m like don’t you know what you signed up for? You’re either serious about getting help or you should probably leave now. Your mind isn’t in the right place. I struggled with my first inpatient detox that was at the VA hospital in Seattle. Looking back- what I wouldn’t give to go back. I didn’t appreciate it at the time.

Ultimately stop complaining instead of looking at your circumstances as being awful and inhumane. Look at what why you signed up there to begin with???? This is also not a therapy place it’s just to stabilize you. It’s highly unlikely That there will be group meetings or counseling. Each place is different, but remember this is only detox. You are here for stabilization only….. then you move on.

Yes, you’ll very likely have to share a room with other women to sleep. They don’t have that many beds or that many rooms. Why don’t you take the opportunity to see if you can be friends someone in your room and talk to them.

I just want to be clear that I have not been a resident of South Sound behavioral hospital. I’m currently looking into detox facilities and there’s not a lot of options. Of course this is one location on my list and Im advocating before I’ve been there.

Lastly, if something terrible or traumatizing happens(ed) to you at this facility. I make no claims. Patients can go directly to https://www.naatp.org/programs/ethics/ethics-complaint-process to file a claim with the state.up in deserve and feel you have been cared for in a harmful or negative way. Just know you ALWAYS have the right to file a complaint. If we were rich and could afford the best then yes we should expect more but I feel like we’re the bottom of the barrel. I guess I am just willing to accept what I have and make the best of it. Just accept what is and work hard in life to do better. I will be calling soon about how detox works at this place. I...

This is out of order but it’s extremely important to know: SSBH discharged a patient before her required 10-day quarantine was done. She told staff that she had sick roommates and did not want to discharge without a negative test and they denied to test her. She was discharged into homelessness.

I was in inpatient for a week, partial hospitalization for a month, and inpatient again for three weeks. My experience was solidly mediocre and sometimes downright painful. PHP on the other hand was largely great! So it's a little hard to get this all into one review.

Inpatient started out predictably not ideal just because it was a mental hospital. It was annoying but I got used to it. What was really awful was the lack of communication between staff. It created most of the problems that I had and witnessed for my stays. You tell staff something, but it wouldn't be passed along and you'd have to keep explaining things to everyone. I was especially painful for trans patients, as their names and pronouns weren't properly passed along to staff. It could be really difficult to get a hold of anyone with specific purposes like a social worker.

One thing I noticed that was really upsetting was the way staff would treat patients that had been there a long time. It was like they'd grown tired of them and felt like they didn't have to be nice to them anymore. They’d complain about patients who were in real distress. I know that it wasn't my place as a patient under their rules but I couldn't help trying to get in between some of those arguments. I understand the "focusing on your own care" thing but I couldn’t let that stuff happen right in front of me.

I think one of the areas the PHP unit excels where the inpatient units fail is the staff. There are two MHTs for the day and two for the night, so patients don't have to navigate the rotating staff like they do in inpatient. I know that understaffing isn't always easy to fix but the difference sure is noticeable when you switch between the two programs! (As for PHP staff, Gladys and Carol are wonderful, Marissa is wonderful, and Wendell is just ok.)

PHP was great because it had a real schedule. The stability was good. And day passes were AWESOME. Mental hospitals are often inherently dehumanizing because you're STUCK. But being able to go to the Fred Meyer practically next door and buy my own food that I like and visit the library and just feel normal for a few hours was so great while I was there. Honestly the best part was getting to listen to the music I like. There's a TV there with YouTube on it but the filtering is INTENSE and it's hard to find anything on it.

My 2nd inpatient stay was way worse than the 1st. In the 1st, my issues were more typical for the environment. But the second stay was just terrible. Caught covid a few days in. There was a patient on my unit that was very ill and eventually diagnosed with pneumonia who had been allowed and expected to be out of his room and go to the cafeteria for meals as if he wasn't sick.

The staff on the covid ward had varying observance of the quarantine rules. We were supposed to stay in our rooms at all times with the doors closed, and we were supposed to be quarantined for 10 days. The doors were rarely even near closed, even when I was trying to keep mine closed and even though there were signs on the doors detailing all the rules. Some staff followed them, but others just straight up didn't care. They would let people out and hang around the day room without masks, and several staff members would try and get patients out of their rooms for meals even though it was specifically stated that we had to eat in them. Often when I pointed it out they would sigh and make it very clear they didn't feel like bringing my tray into my room.

I really wanted to like this place. I had a lot of good individual experiences here! I love the recreational art therapy! But the good things were one-offs and small details compared to the terribly wrong things that happened...

Stay away from this place at all costs. The staff is under trained, under staffed, lies to you, and most don't even want to be there. They lose your stuff, heavily medicate patients, keep the patient stressed, and keep them in a hostile environment. We rarely had group and I don't feel like I learned anything useful. Most of the time we were left with nothing to do as staff repeatedly didn't show up. If we needed or wanted anything we had to ask the staff which was usually met with an attitude. They made it very clear that they didn't want to be bothered one staff member even slept through his shift. They never clean and when a orange was splattered on the wall due to a fight it was left there and never cleaned. There was no schedule and the whole environment was chaotic. The food was terrible and they refused to meet my dietary restrictions. The medical care was deplorable and my cut got badly infected. Whenever I requested something that required more work they said they would put in an order which they never did. Everything was said to be because they were understaffed. My provider forgot to see me for two days and was useless when I did see him. My social worker I saw on intake and discharge only she also didn't follow through on anything she stated she was going to do.

My personal experience is as follows I have chronic severe depression and have been on medication for it 29 years. So I have unfortunately been to multiple mental health facilities. This is the worst one I have ever been to. The whole time I was there they constantly lied to me and my mother who was trying to check on me. They lost my cellphone and all my clothing that I came in with only finding my phone at discharge. So my mom sent me clothes and they lied for two days saying it was not delivered. Anyone who tried to call couldn't get through most of the time as they let the phone ring and go unanswered. Two different nurses said they would call my mom back after I signed a release but they never did. They also never sent any paperwork to my general practitioner or my psychologist like they said they would. I don't take anxiety medication but they had me on 100 mg of hydroxyzine 4 times a day which is the max which they then tried to increase but I declined along with buspirone. I felt numb and like my brain didn't work the whole time. Also the place is very unsafe they had people with severe mental illness who had violent outbursts with people who were depressed. They also had people in the same unit detoxing off hard drugs. There was no separation of the males and females so a female patient went into a male patients room stripped naked and took a shower. There were two fights while I was there and the staff never did anything a patient had to break up one fight which got his shoulder dislocated then the hospital blamed him for it. The provider I was given was useless and didn't do anything that he said he would other than feed me anxiety medication. I also got a trash bag thrown at me and a violent patient tried to fight me along with other residents. He also called me a homophobic slur which the staff refused to do anything about. I ended up with a roommate that was detoxing off opiates so he just slept in the room 24/7 so I had no place to be alone. They aren't supposed to let people sleep all day but they never did anything so multiple patients did sleep all day. Then when I was scheduled to leave the provider tried to get me to stay another week so they could get more money. I told him this place has made me worse mentally and physically at the time a cut I had was infected due to their lack of care and they didn't let me see a doctor. Also I have Asperger's along with other patients who were autistic they had us fill out our triggers such as loud noises. They then completely ignored those letting patients scream and fight with the staff. This is honestly just the tip of the iceberg they wasted 10 days of my life while actively making me worse. Avoid going here...