Community Behavioral Health Center - Fresno, California

David Lynch

My wife was visiting her parents in Fresno from the other side of the country. After her mother falsified a police claim, the “mental health” experts locked her up for taking a prescription prescribed by her doctor (one with a valid medical degree). This facility proceeded to inject her with a random combination of medications that temporarily crippled her, prevented her from sleeping for months, and actually inflicted mental health problems into our lives.

Rachel Delavan

ZERO STARS. Thanks for the PTSD. That is all I got from here. Oh and ER bills because they had to send me there for a seizure because they were not giving me my routine epilepsy medication that I told them about . I literally walked in here completely alert, just having some mania and feeling like a danger to myself. I went in 2020, soooo Covid made it worse for sure. One thing, no family members or any kind of visitors. You know what that meant? The staff could do whatever they wanted, like abuse and control the patients by ripping their pants off and shooting them with sedatives. Tell me why five people had to hold me down and someone sat on me while another five men were watching in the room as my butt was bare and they were jiggly there belts making sexual jokes about r*ping me… just to give me a sedative? I was fully capable of just taking the Ativan by mouth if someone had just cared enough to talk to me calmly… I felt so scared here from the staff and other patients. They never told me what meds they started me on, my plan of care, how long I was going to be there. When I was alert in the beginning I explained all my symptoms I had the past few years and saying I think I am Bipolar, but all they heard is that my family has a history of schizophrenia… So even though I did not have any of those signs or symptoms, that was my diagnosis. So I walked in as an alert nurse who was stressed out from working with Covid at a nursing home, and left as a paranoid agoraphobic mess with the wrong diagnosis and wrong meds… I lasted at home 1 day and then had to go to a group home cuz my parents were so scared and concerned for me. That group home made it worse and I was taken to another hospital after a su*cide attempt there… So uh yeah the other reviews I have read make sense. I am sorry to all of those other people that have trauma from this place…

Alyssa

I was visiting Fresno from the other side of the country and was illegally taken here on a falsified police claim. I was immediately knocked completely unconscious. The facility proceeded to inflict permanent damages into my life through a combination of random injections. The “forced” medications, which were injected after ripping off my pants, temporarily crippled me, prevented me from sleeping for months, and actually inflicted mental health problems into my life.

Adzáán Mą'íí Tso

Some of the nurses try to helpful but the ones who aren't have serious control issues. And even when they are helpful, it's more of a grin and bear it situation. The doctors are condescending, judgemental and just don't listen. The psychiatrist I had was useless.
To begin with, I have diabetes insipidus and have medication I need to take every six hours. They wouldn't give it to me for nearly a day; when they did, they got the dose wrong and tried to tell me I needed to take it every 8. NOPE. I knew exactly how much I had to take. I had to call my doctor and an advocate from my clinic to get them to give my meds on time.
The nurses... I was being discharged, had signed the papers and everything. This nurse I had been having issues with since day 1 sees me across the hallway, comes over while I'm gathering my things and demanded I take HAIR TIE out. Lol, not only that but she wouldn't let me leave. The thing that gets me though is the other nurses telling me to let it go, it's a rough day for her and put my hair ties in my bag. I asked why they gave them to me in the first place and no answer. They are petty beyond belief. I wish I could describe the situation better as to say that the tension in the room was so strong during the interaction, I felt that the nurse was acting like more of patient and the others were wanting me to appease her. That is not what I came here for.
The psychiatrist could not only care less about what I was going through, what he prescribed me was making me faint. I had even told him I had issues taking Venlafaxine in the past, they gave me heart palpitations and he still made me take it. So I stopped arguing and took it purely to get the heck out of there. The fact that they commented on my BP spiking and I didn't say anything because I was so desperate to leave and they never questioned it is a testimate to how negligent this facility is.
And the 'doctor'. Within the first five minutes into our initial session, I was explaining that I was having extreme anxiety but at home I have emotional support animal- he cuts me off here with an immediate 'NO!'. So I don't continue my question. I don't know if he realized how awful he was being but he asks me to continue when he sees that I am crying (not just because he yelled at me but because I am realizing this man does not care enough to even let me finish a sentence) he asks me what I'm about to say.
I told him I had brought a stuffed animal that would sometimes help to stroke. I wanted to know if I was allowed access to the toy. He says nothing. I got the stuffed animal the next day but an apology would have been appreciated more. I requested a new doctor.
In the end I lied about my suicidal ideation and self-harm intentions because I was done. They let me out in less than four days.

Also, they offer no activities. They have a couple 'classes' and check-ins but in between that, you'll pretty much only have TV. Unless you bring your own books and activies, there is nothing stimulating they offer. They will also deny you access to these things anyway on a whim. I was told by one nurse I could not have my books. She got off shift (this was also the hair tie nurse), I asked again, BOOM. I got my books, my crayons and was allowed to pull out my own person hygiene products. So the inconsistency in behavior and regulation is abhorrent in every sense of the word.
It is also criminal that they didn't even let us have an hour outside per day (for reference, they give you more than that in prison). They purposely cut it sort by taking at least ten minutes to line us up, double check that the people lined up wanted to go outside, call out again and the march us out. Then they'd cut even more time by taking us in ten minutes early.

All in all, I'd rather jump off a bridge than go here again. DO NOT SEND YOUR LOVED ONES HERE.

Lynnea Hanson

I recently stayed at CBHC and I will say the day shift nurses and day staff were fantastic and really seemed to care and gave wonderful support to allow me to get better. I however had a few interactions with night shift nurses that made me feel like I was not being cared for or listened to. Then I went to see notes on my stay and read what the one nurse documented on our interaction and except she did not document her side of the interaction correctly she made me out like I was being difficult and demanding when all I wanted was the meds that I was prescribed by the Dr to help with the thoughts. I have had a few interactions with this nurse and she seems to treat most patients the same way and is quick to anger and treats patients like they are not worthy of care. I could even hear her talking about me with other staff making me sound like I was the problem. I told my Dr about the interaction with her and I told the therapist on my unit about her. I went there to get help and to not be alone with my suicidal thoughts at night and I felt like I didn't have that support from night shift nurses.

Cheyenne Brumback

I have been to other psychiatric hospitals, and this visit was surely the worst experience I’ve had. If their goal was to break me, they succeeded. I felt neglected, ignored when asking for help, left alone when clearly struggling, talked to like a child (e.g., was put in "timeout" or told I couldn’t talk for 30 minutes), triggered by a thing that could've been prevented many times, consistently invalidated my feelings and they were unfortunately very short-staffed. Even some of the other patients came to me concerned about how they saw the staff treat me or even "how they looked at me". I believe I was discriminated against because of my diagnosis since it is already a stigmatized disorder. Thankfully, a therapist understood what was going on. She helped me get out by doing an AMA (against medical advice) after being there for 17 days. I came to realize that just because someone works at a mental health facility doesn’t mean that they care about mental health. No one deserves to be treated like that, especially when all they want is help.

Jake L

If you value the dignity and well being of your loved one in crisis, do everything in your power to avoid admittance to this abominable “hospital”. It’s been many years since I was an inmate, but the night staff were by far some of the most bizarre, power-hungry, and thoroughly arrogant humans I’ve ever had the displeasure of breathing the same oxygen with. They seemed to take pleasure in the suffering of the residents and it wasn’t exactly covert either. I hope and pray that patient treatment has drastically improved or this blight on mental “healthcare” needs to be shut down.
You didn’t break me you freaks. Enjoy your own clear mental maladjustment. Predatory foxes running the henhouse! Got your number!

darrelle Jaramillo

i just got out from a 9 days stay and i have to say the nursing staff and helper staff on unit 3 were some of the kindest ppl ever to me while i was in crisis . my psychiatrist drs were also very kind and helped me a lot . i couldnt thank them enough for the grace and kindness they showed me . they need recognition !!! thank you from the bottom of my heart