I was a mental health patient at Breachside Rehab last month (May 2023). At the end of my first week, after they had abruptly cut my antidepressant dosage in half, I experienced an episode of what can best be described as “mania”. Understandably, emergency services were called. By the time Police and EMS showed up, my meds had kicked in and I was calm and coherent. EMS left because they recognized that their services were not needed. The officer I was speaking with said it didn’t make sense to him to take me from one mental health facility to another and his lieutenant agreed. However, the staff at beachside stated I needed to go so I could “be cleared by a psychiatrist”. Unfortunately for me, this happened after business hours on a Friday, and Beachside had no psychiatrist available. The staff promised me I would just be gone for the night and be back the next morning. I voluntarily left with the police officers. During intake at the facility I was brought to I was informed that I was being “Baker Acted”. I was then locked up with much higher acuity psychiatric patients for the weekend. During this time I was afraid for my life. A tech was assaulted as well as another patient. I was sexually assaulted. My husband was desperately contacting anyone he could to try to get me out. Beachside directors told him there was nothing they could do. When I was released and returned to beachside I had to go through a 4.5 hour intake process as I had been discharged. Apparently this happened because I was gone for more than 24 hours. I made the choice to stay in hopes of being able to treat the recent trauma immediately. After a few days and multiple failures on beachside’s part to make me feel safe, I ultimately left AMA after being yelled at by a director. “We’ve done everything to make you feel safe!” was her response to me having an emotional breakdown. Crying, but calm and controlled for fear of being sent away again. They assured me that what happened to me had never happened before and that major changes were being implemented to prevent such a horrific failure from happening to another patient.
