Portland Mental Health & Wellness

"Nope. This place ain’t it. Upon having a referral sent on Tuesday, I received an email stating I’d be contacted within 48 hours. When I was not contacted within 48 hours, I attempted to call, and found only voicemail boxes. Their website lists hours during which they answer the phone. Nopety-nope again. They don’t answer phones. Upon listening to assorted messages in their VM tree, I learned that if a referral has been sent, they have definitely received it and will do their best to follow up within five business days. So….they will not permit any kind of contact with a human. At all. They send an email letting one know there will be contact within 48 hours, but in another place, that’s five business days. A week or more before they will even confirm if they have a wait list. A week—or more—before they will even confirm if they are taking new patients or honestly, if they even exist beyond a series of voicemail boxes. This is no way to treat people. It’s even more no way to treat people in need of intensive psych services. Editing to add: After a week in their program, I was pretty much done. Gave it another week to keep trying. Nope. This place ain’t it. Their IOP program is managed and staffed entirely by minimally-experienced, limited license young professionals. Yes, the person who manages an intensive program for people in need of intensive treatment is not fully qualified to provide therapy without supervision. So that’s a pretty big red flag. It doesn’t seem unreasonable to expect that a program for people with high acuity mental illness be managed by SOMEONE with enough experience that they can be fully licensed. This seems like an absolute bare minimum. Other red flags include: A very large proportion of a three hour treatment day consists of filling out worksheets and other independent activities with mics/cameras turned off. On one day billed as three hours of “group therapy,” patients were directed to turn off mics/cams no fewer than five times, with a total invisible/silent time of about ninety minutes. Patients were permitted to speak for a total of approximately 18 minutes. This is not “group therapy.” This is not any kind of therapy. This is a scam for billing insurance companies to get paid for having 8-12 adults sitting alone in their own homes, not interacting with anyone at all. Another red flag: Patients are asked to complete assorted introspect self-reports that include various commitments to action. Patients are not furnished with copies of those reports. This is clearly an artifact of a speedy transition to a remote program without thinking through the therapeutic purposes of these exercises. In August 2021, such a lapse would have been understandable. In August 2023? It’s unconscionable that no one seems to have thought through how to ensure each aspect of the program has a clear therapeutic purpose. Another red flag: Ableism. I asked for an agenda for the next day’s program, because like many people with autism, I function better in a stressful situation when I know what to expect. This was refused, with the reason given as “patients are required to attend every program day regardless of agenda.” Ok? Not sure what that has to do with trying to be prepared for what was coming. Another red flag: Upon becoming a patient, communication does not improve. They simply don’t answer phones. Emails containing confidential information are sent through regular, non-password-protected email, including a boilerplate signature line about how one can opt out of vastly unsecure email communications, but it’s hard to see how one could, as they simply don’t answer their phones. The quality of care is simply less than sub-par. Their “remote IOP” program is poorly thought out. Their “therapists” are all trainees, and it shows in their work. Another red flag: They monitor and respond to their reviews with boilerplate explaining their grievance process. Reviews aren’t for them, they are for the unsuspecting public and I find their responses to negative reviews grossly disrespectful."

"They don’t respond to emails and phone calls, nor do they follow up. So make sure you have everything from your DNP before you end the session. I mean it take more than 2 weeks to get a reply. I wish they would work on that."

"Don't deal with them! My therapist snapped at me twice. First time, I thought she might have had a bad day. Second time was the following week and she explained that she is not culturally sensitive. She truly traumatized me and now they're telling me that "there is no availability for individual therapy among providers within their group." I came here to heal, I am now out with an additional bag of trauma. This place should be investigated!"

"Issues won't be worked out in public forum, given boiler plate review responses dotted throughout, so I won't bother explaining either. Just know they're after the intake fee and nothing else, don't let them gouge your insurance for no reason. I also already did a grievance form day of review, no reply thus far. they're just hoping it blows over until other can gull some other unfortunate person."

"I have never been as frustrated with a provider office's service. My actual psychiatrist Dr. Karletia Lewis is fantastic, I thought she was really welcoming and engaging and made everything easy to understand. Zero issues with Dr. Lewis. The issue comes with getting in contact with anyone at the office. Firstly, they tell you that you can email them at any time, but due to their encryption software you are unable to read ANY email from your provider or their office. Their response to this was "Yeah, it does that with some patients." So I can see that my provider is responding to my email I send them, but since I can't log in to Paubox(the encryption software) the link just says it's expired every time I attempt to read it. I assume this has to do with some laws surrounding email communication, but the least it could do is work. So besides that, if you call they tell you to make an appointment online or email your provider. There is currently NO option to connect with a real person as far as I can tell. Since email isn't an option I opted to call in, and I have left 3 separate voicemails for billing (the only extension that has real people at the end of it) and all three have been ignored over the last 2 weeks. I've never been so frustrated with a provider's office. There is no reason that there shouldn't be an option to connect to real person, especially considering the email encryption software has been broken since I resumed my care here over a month ago. It's a bummer too because I really liked Dr. Lewis, but with no way to get in contact with her, and zero response from the main office I have no way to advocate for my care or discuss dosage with my provider. Unfortunately, I've already began the journey of finding a new provider that has the infrastructure required to simply communicate with a provider."