BRAINS

The phone is not disconnected nor have they gone out of business. I was just there with a Doctor last week. So far, the visits have been extraordinarily helpful. I have one more appointment coming up and am anxiously waiting for it. My only concern is that the front desk staff seem unpleasant. No smiles, no greetings when entering. Most have a solemn look on their face as if they would rather be anywhere else. Luckily, the staff in back seem to be more on point with wanting to help!

I brought my son to BRAINS with the hopes that he would be able to finally receive the services that he needs. My son has sensory issues, lower cognitive functioning, and has been demonstrating signs of depression. We had tried individual counseling with another therapist who realized he was unable to meet our son's needs as he appeared to have other things going on that he needed to be evaluated for. The counselor recommended he start on an antidepressant before his depression worsened while we sought treatment elsewhere. His pediatrician prescribed him a low dose antidepressant and we scheduled therapy through BRAINS. His first visit with the therapist at BRAINS made my son cry and he completely shut down and did not want to talk as the therapist was asking me questions about him with him present, which I did not feel was appropriate. The therapist recommended he not take the antidepressant until he could be evaluated, stated she would make an in-house referral for a Neuro-psych evaluation, and she would continue to see my son weekly for therapy. I was told to expect a phone call to schedule the evaluation. On the way home, my son cried and stated he never wanted to go back to that place. He finally agreed to go back if we could get in with a different therapist so we called and requested he be rescheduled with a different therapist. I inquired about the evaluation being scheduled and was told they didn't have any information on a referral and someone would call me back about that. I attempted several other times to find answers as to when we might anticipate scheduling the referral and was always told someone would call. Several weeks later, I called again and inquired about the evaluation and was again told the same thing. I asked to speak with the office manager and was transferred to her voicemail. After not receiving a callback by the next business day, I called again and was told that they still had not received any information about the referral for my son's evaluation and was again transferred to the officer manager's voicemail. When I finally received a call back, the officer manager was immediately rude to me on the phone and stated she did not understand why she was calling me. The officer manager stated that a referral was never sent from the therapist for an evaluation, but instead a referral to a new therapist, at which point, he would have to wait until he met with that therapist to receive a referral for evaluation. The officer went on to state that she is not sure if they want to continue to provide services to my son, and accused me of being rude and threatening, after I had asked to speak with someone in charge that could help me. The entire experience was very discouraging for both my son and I, and as an end result, delayed services for my son. We decided to pursue services elsewhere after a terrible experience with their therapist and office manager. There appears to be very poor communication between the therapists, staff, and clients. Neither their therapists nor staff appear to be trained in dealing with sensitive mental health issues when working with children or parents trying to advocate for services their child, an already trying and difficult task. Fortunately, we were able to establish services elsewhere and have so far been supported 100 %.