Brunswick Hospital Center

"This hospital staff did not take care of their patients attentively. Usually there were only one or two staff on the floor during the day. And sometimes the staff were just on the phone of falling asleep. They were lazy. Many times they did not interfere with altercations between the patients and let them solve their issues on their own. Sometimes the therapy groups did not show up on time or on days when they were scheduled. The bathrooms were locked and patients were not able to get to the bathroom on time. One time one of the male patients were in the female bThis is absurd. Many times the social worker and doctor will not come talk to you during their rounds unless requested. This facility was not very well kept as well. There no visitors allowed and the food was not very good. The showers were not in good condition. The nursing staff inside the office were not attentive to the patients on the unit."

"I was on 2E from December 18,2023-Jan uary 5,2024 and they only allow 2 5min phone calls a day. There's only one phone and there is no treatment room. There is just one Bathroom . When I first met with the social worker Nataly I told her I needed to be discharged to a Domestic Violence Hotline for men and there is no knowledge of this by the system. She gives u 5min a day to speak to her and she promises you that you was going to be discharged at 10am when I wasn't discharged until 11:45am. I had to share the ride with to other mental paitents from South Oaks .Dr Mmousfer spends 5min with you and sometimes he doesn't speak to you. He discharges only the Indian paitents early. They also allow one smoke break. Most of the staff are rude. Especially the Indian day shift nurse and they have MHLS Posted but I kept asking the staff if they can call the MHLS lawyer and the lawyer only came once a time and she don't announce her self. They don't even post the visiting hours. There are very few groups . There is no individual therapy. The social worker Nataly also said that she was going to write on the Dicharge paper the medicaid taxi number. She didn't. The night staff all they do is sleep. This place is so old fashioned. They only give medication therapy and they don't educate u. The nurses don't run a medication education group. There is only one shower room . I have two heart conditions and I was having chest pains and they doped me up with two MG of Ativan IM and IM Zyprexa .I was held down by 4black men and I only weigh 92lbs. I didn't get a script for Ensure clear."

"This is the worst hospital ever, they should be shut down! 1.You have to ask to use the bathroom. 2. You can only use the phone from 9am-10am and 6pm-7pm for 5 minutes. 3. They walk in your room without knocking. 4. They don't provide individual therapy or group therapy. 5. They don't provide clothing if you don't have any. 6. Alot of the staff is rude 7. You can hardly ever see the psych or social worker"

"A disaster of a psych ward where you will get worse and leave freshly traumatized. The staff is horrible.There are a handful of gems but the rest dislike people & don't understand the first thing about mental illness.They will refuse to get more water, do things to trigger reactive patients for fun,ignore you as you ask for details regarding scheduling.I watched a woman having an asthma attack get denied her inhaler until she almost passed out.Nurses yelled at us aggressively for every little thing.My psychiatrist refused to give me the appropriate sleep meds (seroquel) and I did not sleep a wink for 72 hours.Even worse, very often, the nurses refused to contact "my" psychiatrist at all regarding issues with my sleep.They would claim patients were irritable & cite that as an excuse to deny us our prescription anti anxiety and sleep meds.One nurse who did this in particular was Nurse Esther. Not only would she greet you with rudeness, but she would hide her ID and pretend she was asleep for hours no matter what you needed. She could hear you through the perforated glass- but she would sleep through your requests for sleeping meds or Pepto-Bismol.she didn't care if she was the only Nurse on staff. It was the most helpless feeling, being at this place. Undermedicated patients with schizophrenia &drug induced manias, were left to self soothe through the days and evenings. At any given moment, you could hear one of them screaming out for help, fighting hallucinations violently.. truly suffering. A doctor here told me she couldn't stand crying and made me stop, as I begged for help with my serious physical ailments that had been ignored since my arrival. Without divulging tmi, my digestive system was in BAD shape. She couldn't have cared less. Her name was Dr. F Payne. She makes a mockery of the Hippocratic oath and an example of how dangerous narcissists in the medical field are. The bathrooms were a set of 5 stalls shared by 20 male and female patients- many of whom were extremely mentally ill. It was rarely cleaned and I found myself sobbing every time my stomach acted up and I knew I'd have to face the filth to relieve myself. This was a high security ward where volatile criminals were forced to rub elbows with each other as well as more vulnerable populations. I had to tell the techs to take notes regarding altercations because they wouldn't bother to. Another patient, who was fighting hallucinations, broke into my room in the middle of the night and the tech in the hall watched as the patient climbed on top of me and tried to hug me in my bed. No staff spoke to me about it later. You NEVER saw your case manager. You didn't have contact with the outside world via internet. All you had was 5 minutes on a pay phone(in the TV room). If you didn't know important phone numbers, too bad. Case managers apparently couldn't help with even opening your phone once to access vital phone numbers. Going into this ward is like going off the grid completely for so many patients here. Many patients don't have phone numbers, they are confused, vulnerable, suffering, and every time they fail to control their emotions, it is an excuse to keep them longer- a horrific cycle which never results in getting better. I saw so many kind people deteriorate before my eyes. We were allowed ONE outside break in the morning for a 10 minute smoke on a muddy section of fenced in area. Some patients had their clothing removed before being admitted due to medical reasons.these patients were not provided clothing for days. Even after finding a shirt for one of the females on my ward, she remained without shoes and with the same underwear for almost a week. Patients without shoes, would go out into the freezing muddy ground for some fresh air and drench their socks. I found myself trying to help my patient-peers because staff did so little. I cannot stomach the idea that this place is still open and people are still trapped there, being subjected to these conditions. Mental health treatment does not exist here. It is a truly dangerous establishment."

"I am writing to express my dissatisfaction regarding the situation concerning my elderly mother, who is currently at Brunswick Hospital. My mother faces challenges with her mental health, and I find it concerning that I am consistently required to seek out her case worker in order to address my concerns about her well-being. I specifically inquired about an update on my mother's discharge status on Wednesday, 8/9/2023. However, as of today, Friday, 8/11/2023, I have yet to receive any response. This situation is particularly frustrating, especially considering that the case worker does not operate on weekends, meaning that I may not receive a response until Monday. Furthermore, I wish to address the limited visiting hours at the hospital, which do not accommodate individuals with work commitments. I personally work in Manhattan from 9 AM to 5 PM every day, and my vacation hours are also limited. Unfortunately, there are no exceptions to this schedule, and it is unreasonable to expect me to adhere to the hospital's restricted visiting hours. Complicating matters is the hospital's location, which is roughly an hour away from my residence. Additionally, I must bring attention to an incident involving the case worker's comments about my mother's attempts to read and comprehend documents requiring her signature. These comments were tied to my mother's mental illness, which I find inappropriate. Reading and comprehending legal documents is a standard practice and should not be linked to an individual's mental health. I am left wondering if the decisions made by the hospital are genuinely in the best interest of their patients. Given that Brunswick Hospital specializes in mental health, one would expect them to encourage and value the involvement of concerned families. It is disheartening to think that such decisions might not prioritize the well-being of the patients and their families. I hope that my concerns are taken seriously and that appropriate steps are taken to address these issues."