A Nightmare
I had a stay in Parkview clinic, on the Irwin Unit for about 8 months. During that time, I found it an incredibly stressful environment and was exposed to a lot of things that I do not feel any person, let alone a child, should ever ever have to hear or witness. I will not go into said things here but please bear this, and the rest of this review in mind, if you are thinking of conditioning your child to this place. It was often short staffed, with staff from agencies having to be brought in daily. These agency staff were clearly untrained and often upset patients with the things they said or did. Some of the regular staff also sometimes didn't act in the patients best interests. However, as a whole, most of the regular staff were great and did their best, all things considering. But, when the way the treatment works is broken, the very system rotted to its core, even the kindest staff can't do much. The consultants there were byproducts of this broken system, incompetence and, frankly, carelessness ran those halls. To be honest, it did feel like the consultants and most of the ones in power there didn't really care. The patient was just another name. Another list of checkboxes to be ticked. If you couldn't or wouldn't conform to said checkboxes or were neurodivergent in any way, like me, then expect a complete lack of understanding. Part of the reason I was kept there for so long was due to this. They kept trying to cage me into this box, this specific way of treatment, that I just couldn't fit in, no matter how hard I tried. The therapies offered there were basically the only mental treatment received, other than being shot full of meds. Which is a shame because many, if not all of the psychologists there, were disingenuous, and did not care. At all. Probably due to the ASD diagnosis, I got treated like a toddler by a lot of these people. This was especially infuriating considering the fact this place is supposed to be one of the leading units in terms of autism. I ended up just not going to any of these therapies, with the exception of speech and language - the therapy regarding ASD. These therapies served to only make me more distressed and did not help anything whatsoever. The rules there were restrictive and only stood to make things harder. Eg: everyone had to sit in one of two communal areas at all times, not allowed any privacy or safespace. I was lucky as I was able to negotiate time to sit alone in my room. This kind of 'privilege' was not given to others. You may not think this is that big of a deal, even a good thing as the assumption is that everyone was monitored constantly. We weren't. We were all left to our own devices. What's even the point of this if we weren't monitored? If you leave a bunch of mentally ill, extremely at risk kids alone together for over 12 hours every day with no downtime, what do you think is going to happen? In summary, the unit was a distressing environment. Often, I did not feel safe there. I felt terrified, on high alert all the time. Alone and without support or the comfort of family, friends and just being at home. This unit is apparently considered to be one of the 'best'. If this is the best, if people PAY to send their children here, god only knows what any other unit could be like.