Natchaug Hospital Inc – Danielson

The lack of understanding of basic mental health issues from what is supposed to be a trained staff was astounding. No professionalism when dealing with families. A staff member either lied to me all week or lied in a… meeting with her boss to fit their narrative. But my biggest concern was the lack of care and empathy, families coming to a place like this are in the hardest days of their lives and are looking for help and to be treated with such callous disregard was the worst part of all of it. I felt like they are just there to facilitate a program and get paid, the focus isn’t on the kids. I should have listened when multiple professionals told us to avoid the place but we were in a desperate position willing to try anything.

I used to recommend the Joshua Center. I don't anymore. After trying to reach Dr. Shuman for over a month, she didn't contact me until I was done making many attempts to get in touch. When she did call it was after I… took him out of the program. She tried acting like she was still able to help with my son's care and tried blaming it on my voicemail box being full. I checked my phone call log and didn't see her trying to reach out. When I asked if she could tell me when she tried reaching out, she shut me down and said she didn't have time for that. I used to trust her. After being lied to and blamed for a lack of commincation, I will never bring my son back to this center. This was so disappointing.

I am extremely disappointed in this place and I know they could have done better. When I first had a tour of this place in June I thought it was a really nice program and I thought the staff here were legitimate. My… first day for this place was on August 29th and it was going good so far. But unfortunately problems started coming in just a couple weeks after starting. I found out that they have a thing called a Friday note where if you don't bring it in they make you Off Level System. Now I thought that when you were Off Level System (Ols) you just have to spend break in the classroom you know class punishments. But it's far deeper than that because when you're OLS you don't get snack and you're not allowed to speak to anyone when Off Level System. But I also found out when you're Off Level System they humiliate you on a board calling you an animal locked up in a cage. That is absolutely sickening just for forgetting to bring a note in. But this is just the tip of the iceberg When you're in the hospital Ok so when you're in the hospital you may think that they will excuse the work or put it under missing but it turns out it's the complete opposite. Instead of excusing the work or putting it under missing they actually grade your assignments in as a 0/100 if you don't make up the work in time. The thing is they would lie and say stuff like they would give me a few more days to make it up or they'll put it under missing. But BOOM! My grade in English went from an 88/100 to just an 85/100 because I couldn't make it up in time because I got sick at the end of the quarter after getting out of the hospital. Then they will just say more stuff like that I had enough time to make up the work when I didn't. But there is more to this dark depressing place you guys need to know about When a parent doesn't call when a child is absent they take it out on the students. Now yes parents should absolutely call when a child is absent but the approach they take is just so wrong. So when a parent does not call when the student is absent what they do is put in 1 of their days in as a 0 which means their week would rather out as no more than an 80. That would not be likely though because of how hard it is not to lose even a single point. So yeah they can take many others approaches like questioning the parents or just talking with the students with what was going before making a student humiliated on a board for being off level system or something that is potently not the students fault. The points system is pretty crappy. An analogy I like to use for the point system is this. Trying not to lose a point in the point system is like trying not to step on a landmine. This perfectly explains the point system and truly how bad it is. For an example I accidently asked the same question twice because I forgot I asked it and I lost a point for "Accepting feedback" because my teacher Ms. Turner (Lisa) said we were reading a new book on Monday. Then she gave me a snotty attitude saying that "She changed her mind" and that "I need to be flexible" I'm extremely disappointed by all of these things so far. But here is the final nail in the coffin that made me feel sick when I realize how this place is run. The staff set me up to put me in danger. So I have ADHD and ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) and because of that I have freakouts a lot that are hard for me to control. But my teachers had plans to use my disability's against me. Basically me and the school were going to go to Salvation Army on Thursday and I was thinking I was going to go. I really wanted to go to pick out gifts for my family so I asked them about the trip. But then all throughout Wednesday the Education Assistant for the school kept on saying "We'll talk about it later" repeatably. But then Thursday morning first thing I walked in the door they said that I couldn't go. Surprises like me are triggering for me. So then they set me up and put me in danger by getting me really angry and leave and want to get hit by a car just so they can get me admitted to the hospital.