Alexian Bros Behavioral Health Hospital

Cold detached staff of primarily externs and bureaucratic supervisors. Not an ounce of human kindness in any of them. Stay clear of Alexian Brothers Behavioral Health at all costs. Their reputation is an historic artifact. Centegra’s (McHenry County) much smaller program has therapeutic, caring professionals who are interested in your improvement, not focused solely on their process and payment.

it’s an ok hospital. A lot better then whats in the area.

I needed to find a psychiatrist to better manage medication (re: depression), and ended up calling Alexian after learning the two my General Practitioner recommended are no longer accepting new patients. As a result, I was randomly hooked up with Dr. Yu at the Outpatient center and have seen her twice now.
My GP had maxed me out on one drug (SNRI) that wasn’t effective. Dr. Yu told me the plan was to wean me off of that drug and put me on another (NDRI) that would be more effective.
I was on 300mg/​day of the old drug. At my first appointment, Dr. Yu wrote me prescriptions for 150mg and 75mg. I was given 3 months’ refills of each (excessive?), and instructed to decrease from 300mg to 150 in a week, then 150mg to 75 in another week.
Concerned about possible side effects from rapidly decreasing, I went from 300mg to 225 and stayed on that dose for a few weeks, then decreased to 150mg (also for a few weeks). I then went from 150mg to 75 (again for a few weeks). Out of concern from going from 75mg to 0, I began taking the 75 every other day.
To me, this seemed logical, but when I went for my follow-​up and told her, she admonished me, saying, «Who told you to do that?! That’s not how it’s done.» I explained I was only given those two doses (150 and 75) from her and that’s what seemed logical to me, progression-​wise. She reiterated that I was wrong and wrote me a script for 37.5mg. I asked her how long I should take it for; she said for a week, and then stop. Still concerned about sharp decreases, I took the 37.5 for another few weeks until I worked up the courage to stop taking it.
Two days after I stopped, I began to have flu-​like symptoms. A few days in, it became clear it wasn’t the flu; rather, it was withdrawal symptoms. They lasted 10 pretty miserable days. I was never warned that this could happen. From what I ended up finding online, it’s Discontinuation Syndrome and not uncommon.
Meanwhile, as I was decreasing the SNRI, I was put on a NDRI, starting first at 100mg. At my follow-​up I mentioned that, aside from having more energy, I wasn’t feeling any different. She told me that she «told me before to take another pill if I didn’t feel a difference.» Ok… but increase how much and to what point? 1 pill (+ 100mg = 200mg)? If that doesn’t help, do I add 2 pills (+ 200 = 300mg)? More? At what point is it too much and deemed not effective?
I told her I also don’t want to be on high doses of drugs, because this is temporary and I’m concerned about the weaning-​off process. So, I asked her, if I need to get off of this NDRI, how long would that take? Months? «No; a week» was her response.
«A week» seems like her default response for everything.
The biggest concern (and not just from me, but from other health professionals I’ve talked to), is that I haven’t been given clear instructions: just to «take for a week and stop»… «if it’s not working, take another pill.» I’ve gotten more information from Google searches than from her.
I just called their office asking for something different, and have to say that a nurse (Lauren) called me back pretty quickly and with some options. I’m very thankful for that. Adding a star for responding to my call quickly and consulting with another doctor to help.
Dr. Yu has explained chemistry, cognition, etc in my appointments, so I guess she knows her stuff. I just don’t feel very confident in how she’s approached my care… I feel I’m almost worse off now than I was before. Luckily I was able to line up another doctor, and I hope he can better manage my needs and medication.

This place is the absolute worst. The doctors there are rude, do not treat you with respect even if you are being respectful, and don’t listen to you at all! Dr. Wadyal is a big example of this. He is very rude, he talks down to you, he tries to twist your words to make it seem like you’re the bad guy, and when I tried to talk to him about it he wouldn’t listen at all. I am making a complaint to his superiors and I encourage anyone who has the same problem with him to go file a complaint. This man should have his medical license taken away do to him having no ethics at all like he is suppose to.

I would give this hospital negative 5 stars if it was possible. Most of the nurses and psychiatrists here are very rude. I mean if you are suffering from a mental illness you would want a warm, caring professional. But most of the safe here are rude unprofessional and have a very flat personality. The people at the access department are very rude also. I’ve been admitted here 3 times outpatient and 1 time inpatient. The first time I was in the SIRS program most of the staff here were condescending and unprofessional. They would blame everything on the patients and as of a result patients would cry. One time I told my case manager in the program that I was very suicidal and he didn’t even contact my psychiatrist to talk to her about it. The second time was alright I guess. The third time they put me in the wrong program and as of a result I became increasingly suicidal and had to be put inpatient. My case manager was rude and blamed me for my problems. She refused to put me inpatient when I was suicidal. Overall this place has hurt my mental health more than it has helped me. I would not recommend this hospital. STAY AWAY FROM THIS PLACE!!!

This «hospital» is DESPICABLE. I would not wish an experience with this hospital upon anyone.
My list of complaints is more than a mile long, but for the sake of Unilocal readers I’ll try to keep it short and concise.
I had a brief stay in the adult division of the ED/​SIRS (eating disorder and self-​injury) unit thinking it would be helpful. I couldn’t get out of there fast enough.
First of all, I was brought here on the recommendation of my doctor, and was told I was only going to be evaluated for treatment. When I got there, I was told that I couldn’t be «evaluated» unless I signed some papers giving consent. It wasn’t until after I signed them that they revealed I was no longer allowed to leave the premises until a psychiatrist cleared me.
I was not given a tour or a run-​down of the rules of the facility prior to being admitted. Their «check-​in» procedure involved going through my bags in the LOBBY, exposing my belongings and even my underwear to anybody passing by. They wouldn’t even allow me to have a teddy bear! During the length of my short stay my clothes were stolen, and personal items (including jewelry) that were supposed to be kept in storage until my release went «missing.»
The facility itself is a DUMP. It was dirty, uncomfortable, run-​down, and disorganized. All of the furniture is poor quality, the mirror in my room had an enormous crack in it (I don’t even want to know how that happened), the bed linens were thin and cheap, and they had no extra blankets — which was ridiculous because they keep it freezing cold in the hospital even during the winter. They offered absolutely nothing for us to do during «free time» in the day room. We weren’t allowed to talk to each other, touch each other in any way, and were offered only used coloring books and broken crayons. That is NOT how you treat ADULTS.
The employees treat the patients with absolutely ZERO respect. They treated us like animals and criminals. We were given no reassurance for any stress or pain we were experiencing, despite being friendly we were given nothing but apathy and attitude, and they automatically suspected the worst from our behavior and found a false and negative motive behind everything we said or did. Our needs were ignored and disregarded, we were yelled at for supporting each other.
We were woken up for obscure medical tests at all hours of the night and yelled at if we moved too slowly. They drew blood for tests so many times a day that my arms were completely purple from bruising. In the morning we were given approximately 5 minutes to wake up, get dressed, retrieve our belongings bins, brush our teeth, wash ourselves, fix our hair, return our bins, and be escorted to breakfast.
We were only allowed to use the bathroom 2 times a day, and only when the staff said so — NOT when we had to go — and when we did use the bathroom, we were watched. It was dehumanizing and degrading.
I was told I’d be allowed to call my therapist from within the hospital, and once I was admitted they barred her from calling. We were only allowed a short number of minutes for outbound calls and only on certain nights of the week. Incoming calls were supposed to be unlimited, but when I finally got a turn on the phone my family told me that they tried to call several times and the hospital would not let them speak to me.
My psychiatrist (Delia Adridge) was INSANE. She was incredibly negative and no matter what you said she twisted it to try and convince you you were mentally unstable. She would ask her patients a bunch of questions like, «Name the last 10 presidents of the United States» or ask you to do long division in your head, and if you answered wrong she asserted you had «brain damage.» On the day I was supposed to be released to go home, she burst into the room during a private meeting between the hospital family therapist and my parents (a meeting she was NOT allowed to attend) and started screaming at my family that I was insane and should not be released, even though she and the hospital had already cleared me psychologically sound for release. She violated hospital policy, my privacy, and made my family very uncomfortable.
This facility, its programs, its doctors, and its staff is incredibly inhumane, shady, dishonest, and prison-​like. I would not wish a stay here upon anyone. Please, trust me on this one — go anywhere but here.

This place was incredibly damaging to me, and destroyed my mental health for years after I left. In 2010 I was 15, and admitted into the youth outpatient program after a suicide attempt and fairly steady recreational drug use. About two weeks into the program, I opened up to a counselor for the first time ever about how I had been a year before. This could have been a life changing moment, but instead the counselor told me that it was my fault, since I had been drinking. I was told that I needed to «take responsibility» for my actions, and that I couldn’t be discharged until I accepted that my rape was my fault. This type of victim blaming is horrifying, and since this was a person that I thought I was supposed to trust, I internalized all of it. It took me years to even begin to undo all of the damage this place did to me, and I still struggle with it now. Although that one particular counselor (I wish I could remember her name) was especially bad, all of the counselors seemed uninterested and indifferent. It felt strangely like going through some sort of «therapy» factory that was highly impersonal and uncaring.

This places does not put you in line with your kid about working out their issues. Instead they choose to make us combative, which we are normally not in the course of our every day lives. They need to work with the parents too, not just the child. They never even contacted my daughters regular psychiatrist. How are they trying to treat someone when they haven’t even checked her history with her regular doctor? Waste of time and money.

I went to evaluate a client in the Geriatric Psych Unit at Alexian Brothers in Hoffman Estates. The staff was rude, unavailable and unprofessional. They would not meet with me to discuss a potential resident’s needs. The physician was condescending, unethical and incorrect with his approach and knowledge of Alzheimer’s disease. I would not recommend any family to use their service.

Professional, efficient, and caring staff. They took care of my friends family member and it really seems to have made a difference. They’re so happy now, and it’s so nice to see them a happy family again.

Compared to other hospitals I had been at, this place was not helpful.
There is an unhealthy competition between eating disorder patients on the unit and a lot of them hiding and or sharing food, which is not allowed. I saw one girl purging in the open hallway in front of other patients including myself, which was triggering and the thing was– they let her do it! I learned nothing from any of their classes. In fact, I can barely remember anything because they had me on SO many drugs. They lied to my parents about treatments I was receiving. They said I was meeting with a therapist, whom I had never talked to before. My psychologist, I only saw a few times, and I was there for 12 days. The staff lacked knowledge on how to deal with problems and were inconsiderate of past trauma. With my past trauma, I was VERY sensitive to people touching me. They not only grabbed me and picked me up but they pulled down my pants to shoot me with medicine so I would fall asleep when I was having an anxiety attack. They held me down and told me they were putting it into my hip. This only pushed my PTSD further. From staying at this hospital, the only thing I learned was how to hide my symptoms better and tips and tricks from ED patients. If I had the chance to go somewhere else during these times, I totally would have. If you’re thinking about sending your daughter/​son here for ED/​SIRS, I would highly suggest you DONT. My parents would agree. They had no information from the nurses and doctos and the information they did give was false.

I was in the anxiety/​OCD program for treatment of social anxiety and general anxiety disorder.
This program implements evidence based treatment for anxiety, which includes cognitive-​behavioral therapy, Exposure and Response prevention, and they touch on ACT which is Acceptance and Commitment therapy. Although the treatment was hard at times, I made more progress in the first two weeks of the program than in many years of therapy. My only complaint is that I would have liked to complete more of this treatment in a setting like this. I have a lot more to work on and I am not confident I can do this on my own or with a once a week, 45 minute session with a therapist.
There is a fair amount of down time during the day; but the program itself is apparently unique and one of the few programs in the country that do exposure treatment in a partial program. I would definitely recommend this program for anxiety.

HORRIBLE! They bill you for appointments even though u cancelled ahead of time! And they don’t listen AT ALL!

My experience with ABBHH started out roughly, and that was very much my own doing. Participating in the Anxiety and OCD IOP program (from August to October of 2011) was something of a spur of the moment attempt at turning my life around at the time, and I was not happy with the idea. The externs (or interns, if you’d rather), therapists, and doctors are there for one purpose, and that is to make sure that you can do your absolute best. Nobody enjoys facing their fears, or admitting that they have any to begin with in front of other people, but proving to yourself that you can, and are able to is a very rewarding thing.
For the first week or so, I spent a lot of time avoiding bigger items on my hierarchy of fears because I knew that the exposures would be more challenging than anything I was ready to do. So rather than explaining that, I denied that I had problems [with small talk, or interaction with others, for example]. It got to the point where my case manager was ready to have me removed from the program due to my lack of cooperation, and I finally understood that if I wanted to make progress, it was entirely in my hands.
I wasn’t there to make changes that would please my family, or my therapist, I was there to make changes that would matter to me. And it was difficult, watching other people who’d joined the program after me leaving the program after two or three weeks. It was discouraging at times to know that I needed more time than other people. But there was nothing negative about the environment, or the people who worked in it. I was often surprised by the amount of freedom we were allowed, actually, when compared to other hospitals of the sort (yes, it was a group for adults, but /​still/​).
The only complaint I could possibly make is that no one ever seemed to be conscious of how loudly certain doors in the unit would slam, if left to shut on their own. That was something that bothered me incredibly.

My daughter was here both inpatient and outpatient. To say I am displeased is a complete understatement. They had no idea how to treat her. Communication is nonexistent. The assigned doctor was extremely rude and inefficient. The patient advocate never got back to me after promising me she would address my concerns. This facility is supposed to be the best of the best. It says a lot about the sorry state of mental health in our state if this is the case. Parking is a joke, the food is awful and just the general demeanor of this whole place is really, really lacking. It’s not about helping people here, it’s just ‘big business’ mentality.

I was there for 6waking hours and I witnessed the main doctor in the eating disorder ward yell at a less than 90 lb. girl in the main area. It was appalling, I’ve never seen a doctor lose his temper and professional poise like that.
The nurses mumble and talk under their breath in response to questions/​requests. They talk amongst themselvesabout patients like they aren’t there.
I must’ve heard the word «meds» at least 30 times which is alarming to me.
Overall, it’s negative.
And it smells bad like that gross hospital smell and I never got used to it.
Go somewhere else. Go to Edwards linden oaks in Naperville.

My experience at ABBHH was one of the worst I have ever experienced. I was there for agoraphobia treatment which no one there had a clue about how to treat. They decided to treat me as though I had social anxiety, regular run of the mill phobias and PTSD. I was left alone to journal about extremely painful childhood memories and then the day was over. I had to drive home with these painful memories in my head. During the 2 weeks I was there the anxiety I experienced triggered extremely painful migraines the entire first week of the program. The 2^nd week, being forced to write about painful childhood memories triggered a weeklong bout of very watery diahrrea where I could eat nothing but the BRAT diet. I lost weight and was quite sick and weak. The counselors seemed to look upon illness as a reason to skip days away from the program. No one tried to solve the problem. As an agoraphobic, I felt I was being asked to spend too much with too many people soon. I asked to cut back time in the program, but what they agreed to wasn’t enough. I asked to switch to a different program which would’ve meant spending much less time at the hospital. I could switch back to the other program when I was healthier. But they wouldn’t go for my perfectly plausible compromise. They said insurance would have had a problem with it. I later found out that something could’ve been worked out with the insurance company. After only two weeks the anxiety of being in the program became so great that I told the lead counselor that I was leaving the program that very day. I couldn’t take being so ill and anxious and no one seeming to know what to do about it. I filled out the discharge papers, and walked out the door feeling as if a huge burden had been lifted from my shoulders. I continue to see Dr. Christopher Hummel, a psychiatrist, who seemed to know what he was doing. I am no longer in contact with anyone else there. I was right about Dr. Hummel. He has been a good doctor. It took me months to recover from the migraines and the intestinal issues caused from the anxiety from the «Flooding» technique that Alexian Brothers insisted upon using on all their patients no matter what type of background they had come from. I really want my money back. The treatment was expensive. They did much more harm than good.

I’m not sure if these other reviewers have been patients at any other «behavioral health hospitals», but compared to those, especially inpatient units in general medical hospitals, this place is a 5 star hotel. The staff is friendly and helpful (my little staycation here was on 2North), the floors are clean and comfortable (think dorm room– not much to them, but nice) and the restrictions they impose are really quite necessary considering the nature of the hospital. They are put in place for the patients safety.
The counselors and nurses on the floor were great– understanding, compassionate and always available to talk. I do think the visiting schedule is a little too limited (thrice a week for an hour) and «phone-​time» is only a few times a day as well and conflicts with mealtimes, but in general I have few complaints. The food was also very good and you actually do get a choice of what you eat.
I hated the doctor assigned to me (naturally this would be the doctor who held the fate of my discharge in her hands) as she was cold, harsh and pretty ignorant, but I requested to see a different doctor and he was great. (He ended up discharging me). But, that complaint is less about the hospital and more about the doctor herself. The only other «suggestion» I would have is that they have separate units for the «addiction recovery» patients, as they were mixed in with us general inpatients and some of the groups were catered towards their recovery and didn’t apply to us as much.
One feature I found really helpful was the art and music/​dance therapy groups. They were quite relaxing and enjoyable as well as teaching us skills to use at home after discharge. The art therapist was actually the first staff member I encountered once on the floor and she was very welcoming and invited me in to join the art therapy session, which helped ease me into this very new and strange universe.
I can’t speak for the PHP or Outpatient Programs as I was never a part of those, but I can say that the Inpatient Program was very helpful and quite literally saved my life.

My experience with the people at ABBHH, to put in laymen’s terms, was completely FUCKED. In this review, I will list specific and general events and people I encountered during my waste of time experience with this place. Back in September 2010, I was dealing with some interpersonal issues and it was recommended to me, by a physician that I admit myself to the PHP or Partial Hospitalization Program at ABBHH. After doing so, I began what was intended to be a 6 week program, of which I had enough of after less than 2. The staff was all non-​diligent, disrespectful, arrogant, and uncompassionate towards the clients and was completely ineffective in applying any of their claimed knowledge. My advice for anyone needing such services is to seek other options, of which there are plenty of.
My experience began with the program on a Monday at 9 AM. Upon my arrival at the facility, I instructed to pin on a badge the read «Visitor» and walked through a set of locking double doors. I then went to the office for the PHP program in an attempt to receive instruction as to what to do next. At this time, I was introduced to my case manager and she handed me a schedule listing the day’s events in which I was expected to follow. The first event for the day was a small group meeting. I then walked to the room in which was listed on the sheet and would ultimately be seated in a room with 12 — 15 other clients of the program. This event would begin with 2 – 3 staff members instructing us to fill out a sheet of paper by listing our goals for the day and other various items. After doing so, the group would then share what they wrote, provoking feedback from the rest of the group. This took 15 – 20 minutes. After that, the staff would instruct «go over the rules of the program.» This would consist of the small group taking turns reading the rules of the program as they are specified on a document that everyone in the program already read and signed before starting the program. One person would verbalize a rule with an awkward silence of about 15 – 45 seconds following before another person read another. This would take about 10 minutes. I found this to be the most useless part of the program. As this portion of the group would finally end, the group would spend the rest of the time discussing their goals. This group would end at 10:30 AM. Staff involved was all very rude and disrespectful as they constantly interrupted people with various useless statements.
After this portion of the day ended, I would report to the next event of the day in a 20 X 45 foot room with 56 other people crammed in there with me and listen to a therapist conduct a lecture about a mental health topic in a manner similar to a college professor. There was next to no personal interaction by the staff in this portion of the program and the presenters all did a very poor job of presenting material as they did not answer questions raised and did not go into any detail. This portion broke at 12:00 PM for lunch.
After lunch, the next event would be either an art therapy or something of a physical activity in the gym. This was probably the best part of the day as the staff was involved at the very minimum. The last event of the day would involve 56 people cramming back in that small room for another lecture from a staff member who did a poor job presenting and didn’t seem knowledgeable about the topic as they would just read off the screen projected by an overhead projector.
One specific example of how useless ABBHHs PHP program was is an event that occurred on «Alumni Day». Alumni Day was a day when a former client of the program would come back to show others how well they were doing and how effective the program was. However, the Alumni that came to visit my group was doing so poorly after being discharged from the program, that she would actually state that she was suicidal and was later admitted to the inpatient unit at the hospital. If this isn’t enough to show you had bad the services at ABBHH are, I don’t know what is. Another incident I encountered at ABBHH involved a staff member, after reporting to the 1^st morning group 15 minutes late, grabbing my arm forcefully and commanding me to leave the group due to the fact that I was falling asleep as a result of some cold medicine I was taking for a sinus infection I had. Another incident, in conjunction with that one was when I was ordered to take a breathalyzer test. As I stated before, during by time with ABBHH, I had a sinus infection and head cold and was taking remedies to treat it, making me very drowsy, therefore, in the professional suspicion of the staff, I must have been drunk, as I blew all 0s on the breathalyzer test.
The most ironic thing about the staff at ABBHH is the fact that almost all of them would at some point boast about possessing an advanced degree, however not one of them was the least bit effective in applying any of their knowledge.