Ascend Behavioral Health - Fresno, California

NESSA

I was first doing IOP here last year while I was still a minor, which I felt was ok not the best and then was stepped up to PHP due to another hospitalization which I hated more than anything. The group therapy aspect of it all didn't work out for me, not even in IOP. I had a great clinician, Natasha but when she left to work at the residential home, I got this new lady, I don't even remember her name and it was horrible. My family and I were assured that we would be handed over to another great clinician and obviously were not. Not only that, but Ascend failed to meet their promises upon weekly family counseling. We paid hundreds of dollars in copays daily just to be put in a room to talk about our moods (which didn't help) and were fed SNACKS for lunch. I both gained and lost an unhealthy amount of weight being there. When I was having visible severe panic attacks, I barely got the support I needed. I was physically sick and throwing up due to severe anxiety and they still refused to call my mom to pick me up. I felt alone here and severely detached from the outside world. It felt like a prison here and to this day I have severe nightmares about being stuck and trapped in here. Please do yourself a service and know that group therapy isn't for everyone. ADVOCATE FOR YOURSELF NO MATTER WHAT.

jay waterman

Effectively working with adolescents requires a specific skill set and the staff at Ascend have all the skills to reach and help youths struggling with behavioral health issues. The providers at Ascend seem compassionate and dedicated to their work. They speak language that's relatable to younger people. They seem to create a real community which is helpful because younger people that struggle often feel different from their peers. Great environment.

Kerry Figueroa

I enrolled my 16 year old son at Ascend when he was struggling with online learning and feeling helpless. I can not say enough good things about our entire process! The growth that I have seen in him is indescribable, he is happier, more confident, he has not only learned new tools but actually uses them. I would recommend Ascend Behavioral Health to anyone who has a teen that is struggling.

Mike RoSho

We tried Ascend because our insurance said they would partially cover services, but still had to pay a substantial amount out of pocket. We had a bad experience at a time when we needed help. After the "intake" process, Ascend provided little to no communication to parents. We had to call several times to get a call back if we got one at all. After a few weeks of not receiving call backs we tried to escalate the lack of communication to the director, but all they seemed to care about was billing. Every time they billed us, we were overcharged and had to request a re-fund, one time we were overcharged by $2600. Our teenager was not helped by their services and in fact developed new "behaviors and ticks" that quickly subsided once we stopped services because no one was communicating with us. I still have no idea what we paid for or what our teenager did for the weeks they attended, we were far better off before we started services.

Corey Bautista

I went to this facility for months (4-6+) during Covid 19, and from what I recall, I hated this place. I always felt judged by whoever I was talking to, causing me to go in and out of overnight facilities for mental health. I genuinely believe that that place made me worse for a lot longer. There were only a handfull of people I felt that I could really talk to, and majority of them werent even staff. The people I thought I could talk to were peers at that place, which makes me wonder why it was like that. Mentally unwell people shouldn’t be trying to help other mentally unwell people, it ended up draining so many of the people there, and it caused me to probably hurt a lot of people due to the fact that I was getting pulled out all of the time. Another thing: DO NOT GET VERY CLOSE WITH ANYONE THERE. Friends or dating, don’t even risk it. I dated there and it ruined me, I won’t ever be the same. As for friends, remember that they need healing just as much as you do, and that those friendships could end up getting very dependent. The friends I made there were great at the time, but don’t expect anything good to last.

Noelle Vargas

I give it 3 stars based on my own experience. Everything depends on the clinicians and the people going there. There was a therapist (I’m not sure if he still works there) that would cross the line several times with different people. For me, when I was in php and went on a walk, he mocked me for having a suicidal ideation . I told the lead at the time and nothing stopped, and he continued saying awful things to me and my friends. It’s possible to gain more trauma at Ascend too. Seeing people leave in ambulances, police coming in the building to take someone, staff rushing us out of the building, etc. I truly believe that Ascend can be great place, my time there just wasn’t. You can get so much support and make new friends, trust adults and people your age, be comfortable and safe somewhere, and have someone to talk to you at night when you’re not doing okay. (DO NOT DATE PEOPLE THERE) every relationship I saw was messy and ended poorly. Please do not date at Ascend of all places. Whether you’re a parent wanting your child to go somewhere safe and get help, or you’re someone who is starting soon, look for the good and bad things there and don’t make you or your child stuck there getting worse. I got too dependent being there for 3-6 hours a day and stayed there longer than I should’ve.

Mellohi Morningstar

If I could rate this place negative stars, I would.

I have never been disrespected more by a doctor than by Dr. Battle when she worked at this place.
That doctor lied about me to my personal therapist, told private information to my mother that caused more issues than I started with when I went there, and caused panic attacks in multiple other patients and blamed them on the patients.

There is very little actual focus on true help in that place. There is very little communication between therapist and patient. I was worse off leaving than I was going in.

From a patient themselves, DO NOT send your child here. It’s not worth the thousands of dollars you’ll end up paying if your insurance stops covering it partway through, which happened to multiple of my friends.

Barb

I can’t possibly give Ascend Behavior Health enough stars! We have been struggling with our 16 year old for 10 years. Different medications, therapists, psychiatrists, and at-home services. This is the ONLY PLACE where she has come out of her self-inflicted cage. There’s peace in our home now. They truly work miracles. I can’t thank this group enough, we finally have hope, and more importantly, we feel like we are getting our daughter back!!!