I sit here writing this review to any parents that consider sending their child to Carrier Clinic in Bell Meade. I am an 18 year old who recently a patient at the facility. This review will be longwinded, honest, and thorough. Upon arrival, the clinic looked nice from the outside. As we are doing the intake, which if you attend either voluntarily or involuntarily you can no longer withdraw at this point, things that were not mentioned began to peek out. I was told I was allowed to keep a sheet of paper with the phone numbers of my close family and my boyfriend, and a list of all my medications. In reality that paper means nothing because your child will only be able to call their parent or guardian. They may not dial the number themselves, they must ask a technician to dial their mom through the nurse station while you wait outside for it to ring. The phone is located in the open hallway at the end by the nurses station. the maximum call time is fifteen minutes. Moving on, they do skin assessment where you strip completely naked while they assess any marks, scrapes, or bruises on your body. You are put into a reused (washed) gown and pants while they wait to search through your stuff. I came in with an entire tote bag o things. Nothing harmful, a few coloring books, some crayons, basic clothes, and a essential toiletries eg. shampoo, conditioner, bar soap, toothbrush, and toothpaste. I ended up being able to keep the shampoo and conditioner in a locked cabinet that I had to ask to access. The rest of my things were put in storage. I was also able to keep one t-shirt, and a pair of sweatpants which they pulled the drawstrings from (understandable). I was also able to keep two coloring books which they told be to keep hidden so people wouldn't steal them. My crayons I was not able to keep. They did however provide broken dirty peeled crayons in the group room to use. The first night I was understandably distraught. I was shown intense self harm scars, shared horrific trauma, and the nurses did not seem to care about either behaviors. I asked to call my mom, they said they attempted twice in the nurses station and she didn't answer. My mother is not the type to not pick up the phone, she always answers for her children. I asked three nurses sobbing to try again and they did not care. They asked if I would like my anxiety medication. One technician, Katie saw how distraught I was and asked me to explain the situation. She then went and personally called my mom and my mother picked up immediately. I can not thank Katie enough for doing her job with empathy. Which you think would be the norm in a place caring for mentally ill teenagers, but no they are few and far between here. While I called my mom, someone ran up on me and began to rub my arm. Physical contact with other patients is strictly prohibited so I asked them not to touch me, and they backed off. That night I slept on a small foam mattress with a sheet, a rugged towel and two plastic pillows. I woke up several times during the night to hear the nurses laughing and having a great time in the nurses station. That morning started the issues with food. I have ARFID, a restrictive food disorder that only allows me to eat the foods I know I enjoy. We had clearly stated that around five times during the intake. My parents sent me with six ensures which they kept in the fridge. The food there was absolutely inedible. The chicken was pink, the beef was grey, the eggs were like rubber. It is absolute slop. They have a juice machine in the cafeteria, but they did not restock any of them for weeks apparently, there was never juice when I was there. I left at the start of lunch to get my ensure. I waited outside making eye contact with around FIVE nurses, for THIRTY MINUTES. I missed lunch, they asked me as my group went back "what do you want". The people there are unbelievably cruel and incompetent. They roll a snack cart around at 2:30 and 8:30, by my third day there they said the pantry was empty and they had nothing to give us. The only water we are allowed to drink is from a water jug dispensing station nailed to the wall in the group room, you drink out of paper cups. On the fourth day, our water jug had ran empty. When we asked for a new one they said we had to wait, because we were "probably wasting and splashing it around" when we waited for two more hours we asked again. They said they were all OUT of water jugs. We did not get a water jug until the next morning. That is absolutely insane and inhumane. What do you mean you're out of water? It is your job to get a new one, call someone, go to the store. We are stuck here and can't help you. Water is a basic human right? and it is your job to fulfill that. The care you recieved here is few and far between. You talk to a social worker and a psychiatrist for 5 minutes a day, once a day if you are lucky. There is no one-on-one counseling. The only "counseling" is the group therapy in the group room three time read more
