Peace River Center Outpatient Therapy & Psychiatry — Local services in Lakeland

If I could give a NEGATIVE number I WoULD! I have been a patient with Peace River Center for 3 years. My nurse practitioner was Carolyn Brooks up until August or September 2020 when she unfortunately left. She was wonderful. Now they replaced her with Nurse practitioner Equilla Cherry. She SHOULD NOT be working in any kind of MENTAL HEALTH job. She is cold hearted, doesn’t care, blames the patient constantly and talks over you and belittles you. So let’s start from the beginning I do not recall the month but first time I talked to her I requested for a medication change because it was not working for me her words “I don’t feel comfortable changing your medication because it’s probably from Covid 19 pandemic” I was upset and thought she may be right. Made another appointment for January. Advising the same thing and again no medication change. I can feel my Major Depressive disorder becoming harder to deal with. April 22nd. Her nurse calls at 10:09 am, was in bathroom so nurse spoke to boyfriend and said Equilla will be CALLING you at 1030 for your appointment. Boyfriend relayed message no call on April 22nd and records to prove it. Call Peace RIver back and Equilla had put in the notes that no answer. LIES! Requested another appointment and they said can’t see me till June 2ND on zoom. Meanwhile I was already missing work since April 19th due to panic attacks and serious suicidal ideations, loss of concentration and no sleep. In between waiting and dealing with disability through my job I called the crisis hotline for help. Told me to call Equilla’s office everyday and see if there are cancellations or told me to reach out to another provider. Well I reached out to a psychiatrist and got an appointment. Still calling about disability paper since it’s due May 24th in order to get short term disability. Still not working behind on most of my bills. Equilla told the disability company my job goes through that she never received papers. Faxed 3 times, emailed twice to two different people within peace river who both said the papers were given to her nurse 🤦‍♀️ At this point I’m livid. So finally go to Psychatrist and tell him what’s going on. He says one of the medications I was put on is for Schizophrenia or psychosis meaning for people who are seeing things or hearing voices which I am not. Prescribes me better medication and started to fill better. Well June 2 comes waiting in Zoom for Equilla Cherry. Comes on zoom already has an attitude, condescending and just down right rude. Explains she will TrY to fill out paperwork but hasn’t seen me since January and blaming me for not taking my medication properly. The way and tone and the lack of empathy in her voice hit deep down. Says she’s gonna have crisis call me so they can come out and check on me. Then proceeded to talk over me and was no help. As soon as we hung up from zoom I immediately cried and felt guilty for being sick and blaming myself for everything all because this at this moment because of the way she talked to me. PLEASE DO NOT SPEAK TO THIS WOMAN IF YOU HAVE any MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES don’t trust her to give you medication just please find another place. I’m BEGGING you. I do not ever want to hear that this woman could have helped someone and she acted like she did with me and they act on their suicidal ideations! EQUILLA CHERRY is not fit to be any kind of mental...

I have been going to Peace River ever since I was a teenager, (I'm 31 now as of writing this review.) now I have made the decision to not ever want to go back after have dealing with one of the two that work there:

Do not settle for a Karl (I do not remember your last name) as your therapist! As he prefers to be more interested in comic books, funko pops and video games than mental health and personal problems. Absolute joke of a overly absorbed and rude therapist. I was feeling like if I was HIS THERAPIST at times! It got so bad that I asked to switch to another therapist and I did. however, I cannot comment much about this new therapist I had switched to because I have not gone much due to mostly and finally to Delgado who will be mentioned second in this review.

Now for the second who is: Jacquelyn Delgado as she's a very awful and pushy psychiatrist that got me sick from prescribing me medication that clearly had too high of a dosage!

It all started after she prescribed me on Vybriid for my anxiety and major depression, everything went well and she told me with a smile and I quote: "Let's get you feeling Vibrant!". It's clear enough that she is money driven! For when I quit Vybriid (after it was not working and the side effects on top) that I was PAYING out of pocket for at the time (because I had no insurance) but then I found and started using the Polk Insurance health plan to cover my future medications after Vybriid, is when Delgado started to become pushy towards me and very uncaring, condescending in her tone, and demeanor, and all on top of being apathetic towards my CHOICES for medication WHEN I USED TO QUESTION while sitting IN HER OFFICE, and clearly was showing me signs that she did not want to continue working with me, and acting as if it was my own fault for having medication prescribed to me that did not work well with me after...

Overall, I've had a pretty negative experience with this practice. Inconsistent scheduling and low frequency for appointments has been difficult to navigate. The discussed appointment frequency with the provider is often not held up by the practice. I understand baby images of. Lots of patience but then there could be a conversation about needing to find a better fit. It seems like they are more concerned with you staying on the books and making the money then ensuring they are meeting the needs of their clients.

I've had a couple cancellations for a minor as well and from my experience, the wait list that they put you on isn't actually used. I've been told this by many employees so it's become hard to see Peace River as a reliable provider. I understand people get sick but once my appointment was canceled because the doctor scheduled vacation after I made the appointment. I got pushed out another 6 weeks and they wouldn't do the refill. My child had to go without medication until we went to the ER.

My appointment today was canceled. The last provider visit was 6 weeks ago. The follow-up was scheduled for July. 2 months without seeing a provider isn't sustainable. Finding quality mental health care is incredibly difficult as there is more need than quality providers. I don't think these things are going to improve with this org. When I voiced my concerns before the receptionist/nursing staff, in particular, were...