Mohawk Valley Psychiatric Center – Utica

I was sent here when i was 16 in 2019 and it was very insane negligent place i cant believe this place hasnt been shut down. First of all how are troubled 17 year olds allowed to live with tiny children all living… together? Literally watched a 16 year old girl get in a physical fight with a 7 year old girl. I was friends with a 15 year old girl who had been there for over 6 months who told me she was having some type of relationship with a staff member he told her they would be together when she got out. She showed me a video of that staff member throwing up gang signs in a music video on youtube on the computer when we were at “school”. My question is how did she even know about this music video and she knew what gang he was in if he didnt show her? It had his street name not his real name in it … I witnessed a kid slamming their head against the wall so hard for minutes on end in front of everone while staff members completely ignored it and continued conversating amongst eachother. When i asked them why no one was doing anything i was yelled at. This was all in a 2 week stay.

i loved pinefield it was fun especially with the staff and kids i met, there was staff joe and doctor joe and they were the best staff ever the kiddos in ward 85 certainly petrifying. i remember waking up in the middle… of the night having to take my blood work done, i think the doctor messed it up it completely bruised the whole area and the needle kept wiggling in me

I was here for 20 days and it was by far the most traumatizing thing I've ever done the first night I was there they went into my room at like 3 or 4 am then drew 6 TUBES of my blood and messed up really bad that I had… a bruise for around 5 months, and they let all the children so stuff that I was not comfortable with that I managed to Cry TWELVE times in one day and I was actively having a panic attack and my friend from the facility was calming me down and gave me a hug and we both got yelled at like what the hell? Thought I was here to fix my mental health not make it worse and the codes triggered me REALLY bad. I would cry and shake every goddamn time and there were at least 2 codes for my ward every single day and I got yelled at by adults. But I really liked Amy that's the only thing I liked

I was sent here like not that long ago and all I have to say is that it was terrible, it’s like the staff are unprofessional because there are a lot of times where staff didn’t do anything when they clearly need to,… like this one time another patient was crying because there was something wrong going on with their body at the time and the staff in the room with us which was mr Paul didn’t do anything about it because he thought they were joking. A lot of other times, there was this other patient that was harassing me for no reason like throwing stuff at me and calling me names and again the staff (including mr paul and multiple others who I forgot the names of) didn’t do anything about it. Also the staff here like miss Leslie and mr Joe (the TA) are really insensitive and literally make fun of patients. I feel like Ms. Joyce was the only one who was nice to be around in this place and I’m really thankful she was there for me when I needed help and when I was feeling down.

I think it was this one or one nearby every day was hell afraid a kid might try to kill me this place sucked the food was OK atleast

definitely the place to go if you dont wanna get better

Blanca M Devins was here may 2017

I was taken here for school in the early 2000's and horribly mistreated and abused by the staff. Please don't send your child here. I wouldn't wish it on anyone. They made my life so much worse.

Traumatizing 💀

Been here twice. Would rate a zero if I could. The staff is insensitive and very limited to what they ACTUALLY care about helping. People with ED's are often dehumanized and degraded, even gossip amongst the staff,… whereas people with actual behavioral problems are praised and babied, often getting special treatment just to 'keep the peace', it's humiliating and disgusting. Also it's ALWAYS freezing. The wards aren't separated by age so it's 7-17 all TOGETHER which is baffling and honestly disgusting especially since the females are often sexualized or harrassed. Seperated me from one of the friends I made while I was there during meal times and tried saying we couldn't keep in contact (we do, we even still text) Most of the staff is either uneducated/unfamiliar with mental illnesses and don't know how to react to the patients showing symptoms nor do they care. (Might spell some of these wrong) Ms.Alexis, Mr.Josh, Mr.Chris, Ms.Linda, Mr.Muhammed, Ms.Stevie, Ms.Sam, & Mr.Phil were the only staff who seemed to actually care enough to try to understand you and your problems without judging you and honestly that place doesn't deserve them if I'm being real. Especially grateful for Ms Alexis, Mr Josh, & Mr Chris though, if you're getting sent here then just know you can always talk to them and they won't judge you.

WITH BOUNDARIES

if you have a choice pick any other place, thankfully I was only here for 11 days but this was one of the worst experiences ive ever had, staff was ok doctors were awful (or at least mine was) the other kids are… disgusting and will sexualize you if youre a female. the wards make no sense, how are there 16/17 year olds with 7/8 year olds? overall this place was shitty.

thank you to mr. larry, he was my favorite staff, mostly because of how he was very kind to everyone !

I went here as a child and it was genuinely traumatic. Send your kid to Four Winds if you can because that place actually treats you like a human being. Sucks that your mental health is dependent on whether you can… afford private health insurance. The system is broken and the poor on medicaid go to facilities like this and the kids that can afford it go to Four Winds, and any mental health physician in this state that's honest will tell you that. Maybe this facility has gotten better in the last ten years, but I highly doubt it.

oh my lord this was one of the worst experiences i’ve ever had in my life it made me come out worse than I was before, the staffs are extremely rude and have no experiences with mentally unstable people, they need… better workers PLEASE, made my life miserable and the rules are DUMB ASL like no sitting across from another patient. anyway loved the salad and that was it, shoutout to Mr Brad though he was my fav and helped me through the whole thing, miss him very much!!!

personal shoutout to Mr.Muhammad!! He was so litty and mr.larry and basically everyone on ward 85 or 83 idk i forgot but it’s not so bad there tbh but it’s nothing like fourwinds or any private hospital. Since it’s… state it sucks and you aren’t allowed in your room unless it’s time to sleep. There’s no way to stay tact (there is but it takes a lot of effort) don’t sh while being there, at least not publicly cause they will have someone watch you shower 😭and not like in fourwinds where they at least turn around to give you privacy, they really will look at you. Understaffed often but I only didn’t like two staff during my 16 day stay, one of which wasn’t mean to the kids I just didn’t like how rude she was to other staff who were literally just trying to do their jobs. The food is like normal hospital food because it’s not catered my companies or anything since it’s state. It’s healthy and gross but you do get dessert often which is nice. They lock the dayroom from the inside so unless someone lets you out then you’re stuck inside so be careful when you go in. Shower water is almost always cold and the “littles” always go first which is anyone 12 or under. The wards aren’t separated by literally anything so you could be 17 with a 10 year old on your ward. It’s freezing there and they don’t let you have anything with a hood and yea. That’s my super honest review if you’re considering coming say NO but if you have no choice prepare yourself. They don’t do body checks but they do use a metal detector wand but not very throughly so you could get away with something probably if you hid it well enough. You can have a stuffed animal you bring as long as it’s washable because they wash and dry anything you show up with. Stay safe pookie bears and stay out of the funny farm (unless you can’t) good luck

Personally the place had its ups and downs in my opinion they didn't help at all they are rude to the kids there. They force them to do stuff they don't want to do, they yell at them, there is many fights there, the… only nice staff there is Mr Larry, at a couple others I forgot there names.. the place looked nice, but the chill room and art room for degraded, they didn't even let us use the playground, they tried separating me and my friend, they separated them from a completely different room practically isolation from other people. There was always yelling and screaming and I feel guilty about leaving knowing I left my friend there knowing they have been there fir so long and they obviously arnt getting fixed becuase thay place dosnt help at all, I do love how they have the headphones tho and om not saying I didn't enjoy some of my time there but most nights I just cried myself to sleep becuase this place wasn't anybetyer then my home. I have to thank Mr Larry for being such a amazing person there and caring for me and my friend and actually being a good human. I love doing art stuff there and watching movies the place isn't all bad I just said the bad stuff about it there was stuff I did enjoy but I barly remember becuase of all the bad stuff I ended up crying in gym class becuase i had a huge headache and we were all still forced to go. This isn't the place to go if you want help.

I went to this facility back in 2000/2001 I can't get my records that I been seeking for over 3 years now and I can't find any help anywhere and I don't even remember the names of anyone. Where's my records at, I know I… was there I remember the blue padded room and making friends but it's like a chunk of my memory is gone... Where do I get my records that is over 20 years old??

I don't really know what to put into this. I was 13 when I went to this psych ward. but when I first got there they gave me clothes that were quite nice. a light blue t-shirt with a dark blue very soft sweater and some… black sweat pants that had strings in them!! which I thought was crazy but I never said anything about it. bed time is 9 pm for kids 13 n up and any younger then that is 8:30 none school nights they would let you stay up till u wanted to go to bed... some staff are nice and some staff act like they hate there life which is VERY rude. kids would peel paint off the wall and write there name or this one kid put "help me" in big letters.. one girl kicked down one of the school doors and cut her self and rubbed her blood every where it got all over the ground and ceiling and walls. for me I was terrified which that made me act out and be mad which I would bang on my word door until someone would open it so I could run out, I punched and screamed and kicked the door in my hello kitty PJ's lol.. they truly don't care about you though.

I loved it there. When I got out I for some reason wanted to go back. It felt like home. We heard stories about the old building and it not being the best but the new building was great. The staff were awesome watching… movies and playing games with them were the best things ever. Staff are great at their jobs. Foods actually pretty good. Their chicken reggies was so good. We only had 6 people in my ward during my stay. They were good kids I liked most of them. By the way if anyone found mine and Alexa’s custom uno cards lmk. And harshit is the best staff member by far. That’s all I gotta say

This facility communicated so well, they were on target with each issue. So much attentiveness to my family member. A clean facility full of kind people!!

Not to bad of a place I was there when I was about 14 during school they tried to have me sit with a kid I didn't feel comfortable with because he tried to hurt me and the teacher wouldn't listen to me about it so I… left the room then another staff that showed up do to me leaving the room was very understanding And they were very respectful to me and let me have my own space with music headphones after I got a call from my gram saying my dog passed away Not really that bad of a place like people say it is when it comes to the staff but overall I do agree it's kinda like a prison peaple wanting to fight you I had one kid that wanted to fight me and the staff just let it happen just because she was a female I wasn't going to put my hands on a girl so I was apparently supposed to just take the beaten and rude words thrown at me

I went here as a teen back in 2016 when it was in the old building and it was the most horrible and abusive experience of my life. It was like kid prison. I left and went to Four Winds a couple years later which was… like night and day difference. I don't know if it is still that bad but I would assume so, so PLEASE for the love of god don't send your kids there. Send them to Four Winds or literally anywhere else.

Personal experience with this special person, the best human being, a great sister, works at this center her name is Tricia McClusky! Beautiful heart, lord knows y'all have the best!

There were some parts I did not like there I was 13 years old and with someone who has had a bad experience with me cousin doing inappropriate things to me I would say they should separate boys and girls on separate… wards also I don't think it is ok for the 5-6 year olds with the teens. Also I don't think it is ok that they keep your items that you need for your menstrual cycle in the ward so then when your in the school room the morning staff during the week I had would not let them go back to the ward so I could get the stuff I needed. The evening staff where genuinely understand and were always willing to listen to me say what I have to say and there were a few staff whu would genuinely help me and I could tell that they cared about me

this place is nothing less than a prison. the staff not only doesn’t care about your problems but they also make fun of them with other patients and coworkers. i was here for 13 days and i personally think it made me… worse than before i was in there. the nurse leslie is incredibly rude to everyone there including the staff. the food was okay, i enjoyed the chicken tenders. but they group you with people of much different age groups and problems. i personally think it isn’t right for a 16-17 year old to spend every day with 5-6 year olds who haven’t even matured yet. overall i found this place to be highly traumatizing and i would not recommend at all.