Siouxland Mental Health Center — Local services in Sioux City

I moved to the Midwest the beginning of November, 2024. I was grateful and lucky enough to find a psychiatrist to continue my medication check ups for my anxiety and ADHD at this location. Recently with many big world changes I’ve found myself especially sensitive to yelling, and aggressive behavior, especially given some of my traumas growing up where verbal, mental and emotional abuse was endured until I moved out as a 17 year old.

This past Friday, 2/21/2025, I had an appt with Lori (I absolutely adore her, and she listens and asks questions to always ensure I’m taken care of and okay!) I am on meds that can be skipped on days I don’t work or I feel I don’t need them quite as much, so I hadn’t taken them prior to my appt. When I went to check in, there was another patient having a very heated conversation with one of the front desk receptionists to my right. I was feeling overstimulated and struggled to hear the woman helping me check in (she was so kind, patient and helpful.)

In order to try and hear the woman helping me I had to speak up and could barely understand her due to the patient next to me near yelling. While scared and worried for the other front desk worker helping this patient, and feeling uneasy due to her growing volume, I tried to hurry my check in process. The patient then turned to me and rudely told me to be quiet because she couldn’t understand the receptionist helping her, which triggered a minor panic attack. I told my receptionist I was overwhelmed and needed to go step out, and burst into tears. I walked outside and after 30 seconds went back in. My receptionist had left her seat and came out to find me and make sure I was okay. She let me know she had checked me in, asked if I was okay, and I hesitantly walked a couple steps toward the patient who was now even more upset and had 2 receptionists behind the desk helping her.

My receptionist then took measures to ensure I was okay, in a quiet space where I wouldn’t be overstimulated, and asked if I needed water, coffee, anything - then while waiting in a quieter area, a woman from the nurse station checked on me as I was reading a book and I was still physically shaking and had some tears left since I was still calming down.

The fact that the entire staff took my situation seriously meant more than they will ever know. The humanity, compassion and gentle & quick response to my situation made me feel seen, cared for and like I was seen and accepted as the human I am.

Being in my 30’s with ADHD only having been diagnosed 2 years ago, it can be challenging understanding the “why’s” of my physical, mental and emotional responses and navigating them in the real world, namely when I have a “I want to keep everyone safe” complex. This facility and their entire team (down to even Natalia at Genoa Pharmacy, which is inside the same building) has impressed me from day 1.

Thank you all so much for what you do, for your humanity, compassion and kindness. This world needs more of what you all offer and provide, and it was such a deeply impactful feeling to know that I am truly the safest when there and in the care of the entire team there.

I’d give them 10 stars if I could. Truly, the way they handled this when it’s something I’m use to navigating on my own and calming down from just because my brain gets overstimulated easily, means so much. There genuinely aren’t enough words to express how much it meant to me.

In...

Don't go see Shawn Salmon if you're looking for a p.a. to see for periodic med checks. I found her to be very judgemental, uncaring, & plain nasty in her attitude toward me & the medication handling of my life long battle with mental illness.

She wrote my prescriptions (meds & doses that I've been on for a lengthy period of time & with prior psyschiatric providers) completely wrong & much under the doses I was on, & much under the doses we agreed in person (in August 2018) to continue. Then when I saw her this last time (Nov. 20, 2018) & she took no accountability for her error & more concerning she was threatening to write the doses for much less than what I'm used to, & doses that have been therapeutic, long prior. When I contested her mal treatment towards me & my psychiatric concerns, as well as her complete disregard for my lengthy mental health history & history of my meds - she got nasty in her demeanor & comments & left the appointment room prior to my alloted time with her. Quickly it was assessed that neither of us would desire to see each other again.

After that I asked a nurse to ask Shawn Salmon what doses & meds she was writing for this session. They came back after a wait & said she would not even write a prescription for anything. So now I'm stuck waiting until February to see another provider at Siouxland mental health center, or go to the E.R. She did this out of spite & with complete disregard to how this will negatively impact me & my mental health.

Shawn is also a treatment counselor at Jackson Recovery Center in Sioux City Iowa, which she told me more than once in judgemental connotations towards me as we discussed my recent life events. It also was expressed that since she is a "treatment counselor" she refused to write my long (10 years) prescribed medication - clonopin which my previous couple of providers prescribed in varying doses. Clonopin has a long standing history at being effective in help relieve semi frequent panic attacks & anxiety issues. It's a narcotic however it has never once been abused by me & was helpful. This is long documented in my mental health records which she disregarded. She as a "treatment counciler" in her other job, will not prescribe benzodiazipines period - in this job as a p.a. even if they are proven to help. If you've been prescribed benzos in the past & they were helpful & you plan on seeing Shawn Salmon- you might as well plan to no longer be prescribed them. She obviously can't separate her jobs, & be impartial & unbiased in her role as psych p.a.

Seeing Salmon is like swimming against a heavy current. Don't do it. Dizzy, pent up, broad...

I’m writing this in the hopes that it helps someone else. I called today, not too long ago, looking to reestablish care. I have not been here in multiple years. I am not in crisis, however things have been exceptionally tough lately and I have not had the time and space to address it. I took the day off work today and called this facility to set up an appointment. The receptionist that answered my call was careless and dismissive. She didn’t tell me her name, but she sounded quite young. When she told me there were no appointments today, I understood and I asked about their 24 hour services and how I could get set up with anything today. They told me their crisis center is 24 hours and that I can just show up there. I was not given an address, a number to call, or even just one ounce of compassion or empathy. I do not leave reviews like this literally EVER, but I have genuinely never been so let down by someone who is supposed to be a healthcare professional. I don’t currently consider what I am going through a crisis, but I hung the phone up and cried. I can’t imagine how someone who wasn’t doing as well as me would take that treatment. Hoping that this is a wake up...