Pediatric Mental Health Institute at Children's Hospital Colorado

"From our experience the medical staff is pretty decent. Professional and knowledgeable. What is absolutely preposterous is scheduling any kind of appointment if you don't have a referral. For a hospital that claims to serve the community, they make it extremely difficult to schedule any kind of specialist appointment. I have frequently been waiting for someone to pick up a phone in excess of 15 minutes. If you intend to schedule an appointment through mychart or on the website, good luck. The hurdles that have to be jumped through are insane."

"The everyday staff were incredible. Extremely kind and caring. That’s the only nice thing I can say about this place. The “professionals” were horrible. Absolutely no help and did not listen to their patients. It’s clear this hospital just wants you out of there, with as little effort as possible. I was quarantined for 72 hours because of COVID in my tiny room. It was the worst experience of my life. I was extremely depressed and would beg staff to let me out. I had to stay there for 2 1/2 weeks. They would not let me leave despite how much I begged. Everyday we watched a girl with an eating disorder being startled down with a feeding tube shoved up her nose while she was screaming. To this day I don’t understand why they wouldn’t have moved her to a different unit. Once I was finally released I was supposed to come back for PHP, but I had a horrible breakdown and refused to go into the building. It was awful. The day staff was the only thing that he’d me together, they would let me listen to music and look up my favorite birds to show them. Justin and Jasmine saved my life in there."

"CHCO will not see your child if you have any services outside of their organization. I was told that my child would have to leave the private pay therapist to be seen for therapy @ CHCO and could only see a psychiatrist if receiving therapy through CHCO. Think about this: CHCO takes millions of dollars in charitable donations from the community, receives state & federal funds, contracts with insurance companies BUT denies care if the family has outside services and forces a family to leave private pay services to receive care at CHCO."

"i was in colorado childrens ipu from ERC in denver l. what i thought would be a short stay and then back to residential however that was not the case. i am from ohio and so they should NOT have kept me for as long as they did. i was there for over 4 months. they claimed experiences i was having were fake and new which is wrong. my doctor and therapist REFUSED to look at my chart from cincy childrens. the staff however were amazing most of the Bhs were amazing and the nurses were as well. i have significant trauma from this facility. they have a restraining chair that did help me calm down but did hurt my arms and wrists. my team claimed i didn’t have an eating disorder when i do in fact have one. my mom would not be told if i had any crisis. she was in ohio me in colorado. the managers on IPU mary w and sarah v were not great. my mom got no information from day staff ng only got it during night shift. i do not recommend this facility. if you are here for a long stay past a month or two advocate please."

"Excellent staff! They really care for the kids. Our daughter spent a month and a half here. From PICU to the behavioral Health center. I just can't say enough good things about the care she received. Some people have complained about the staff in some of the other commitments. I say take that with a grain of salt. These folks have one of the hardest jobs I can imagine. Working with kids who have severe depression who don't want to live, and make them see life is wonderful. Honestly, in the whole time there there was only 1 staff member I could have found fault with, but there were literally dozens of the most amazing people I have ever met. I cannot recommend this hospital and their staff enough. The folks on the 6th floor of the Gary Pavilion are some pretty special people!"