I resided here in 2010-2011 and though I had some bad times As I was a very troubled teen I have way more hood memories of being here!! I wish I could get in contact with the staff that was there while I was there read more

not good. I was hurt there by one of the patients, people were acting out there. I didnt feel safe not a single time, and it really affected me. and I was very much happy when I left. read more

This place was horrible. I can't even begin to describe it in a short review because of how horrible my experience was. I came here in August of 2024 (14 years old) because of suicidal ideation. My mom chose this place for me because she saw that they "specialized in care for Autistic kids". I was in the Enlightenment unit, and I went my entire visit without being accommodated for, withholding my clothes for an entire week. The only clothes I got were from a staff member who was kind enough to give me some of her own clothes. The food here was horrible as well. It was delivered on a cart every morning and noon, always cold and somewhat undercooked, if it was something that needed to be cooked. They didn't account for anyone's dietary needs (we had a few diabetics and I believe someone with anemia), and I vividly remember opening up my breakfast's box to a whole, raw egg, with cold oatmeal, and a fruit cup. We always got fruit cups no matter what time of day, so I resorted to just eating those because the staff kept watching us. We also weren't allowed to have forks no matter what the food was. They had us recite our "privileges" every morning before breakfast, and they wouldn't even let us use our privileges. One of the ones I remember the most was "you can request your belongings at any time", which was a lie, I kept asking for my phone to talk to my parents because I was in distress and they refused every single time. Instead, we got only 5 minutes every day to talk on a cell phone that was probably about to lose service because of how old it was. I remember standing in a white concrete room crying to my mom about how horrible the place was. Speaking of the rooms, when we were given the night's roommates and went to sleep, I have a pretty hard time sleeping so it takes me a while before I actually go to bed. They would walk in constantly and put lights in our eyes before we actually got to sleep. We weren't allowed blankets, just a pillow and an upside-down mattress. Half the time I couldn't sleep because they dragged the kids out at like 2AM to get their shots and get their blood drawn. My dad warned me not to get my blood drawn, so I refused every single time. They actually ended up holding me down to one of the toddler chairs to force me to comply with them. I screamed so loud that I woke up the entire unit. They ended up giving up because I wouldn't stop telling them no. I got a horrible fear of needles and trauma from it. I remember I got a mystery shot from them and I was light-headed for the rest of my time there. It was this light blue liquid that looked like bubblegum medicine with a different color. I still don't know what it was. Speaking of trauma, a friend that I made there who showed up for the same reason I did. She talked to someone about the trauma she got from her dad (she was 11) and how it caused her to "attempt". One of the staff members joked about her trauma to another staff member, and I started arguing with them about it. I remember vividly he excused himself, saying, "Well if it's not your trauma why do you care?". Mind you, he was talking about a child getting raped. I only go to leave because my parents forced the staff to get me out of the hospital. Do not send your child here. read more

No professionalism staff are not helpful. They don't provide enough information so that you can make an inform decision about your child's welfare. Don't recommend this place. read more

I had been a resident of this place in 2008. The place was in terrible condition. We had only one bathroom available at night to use as they had closed each bathroom that were in each of the dorms. There was a motion sensor light and camera that would turn on when any slight movement would occur; especially if there are 2 or 3 to a single dorm. The social worker and the staff on center had violated the HIPPA on numerous occasions as the staff would openly speak of why certain residents were there for. One time when we had group therapy with the "social worker," he would expose an inappropriate part of his clothing. There was no need for him to do this as it was in the middle of Fall, and a resident had seen what was transpiring when this social worker was doing and he spoke out only to be kicked out of the group therapy session. There was no other adult supervising the group chat and I truly believe that the camera in the tv room was not even working. One of the reasons as to why a surprise inspection had occurred right before I had left was because a family member had gotten a now former Georgia senator involved. They had the health department come in and make a surprise inspection. I had also informed a local news station about the horrid condition that were mentioned in this review over ten years ago, right around the time of the BP oil spill. read more

Just Terrible. Rude to parents and not communicative. I couldn't wait for my family do be out of there.

Terrible no communication and kids not treated well. Be careful selecting facility for your child.

as a former patient I can confidently confirm how absolutely terrible this place is the staff members behavior is unacceptable and honestly disgusting so first off there's always screaming day and night from staff and children because in all honesty they have no idea what they are doing or how to handle patients but now let's go into the specifics because those are the reason I made this review so there was this autistic nonverbal kid who had a problem with keeping his hands to himself and he hit me not very hard but it was kinda annoying so when the staff saw she thought it would be appropriate to slam him against a wall and scream at him in front of us all as he cried in pain.. do better.. and to anyone thinking of sending your misbehaving children here don't because the staff don't care about your kids they are mostly disgusting power driven monsters read more

I was there in 2008 and I have to say it was not the best or the worst I had a lot of issues but the staff just didn't care well besides the main head lady she seem to care or was just good at pretending the counselor that I was seeing seen through my bull crap she did care I could tell because she is one of the reasons that I am who I am today I was diagnosed with PTSD and I met a few good people in there that was residents as well when it comes to the so-called safety meetings I still to this day have the certificates we would get it three times a week or two times a week can't really remember I remember the outings if you was on Green with good behavior I got in several fights there and don't think the staff is going to try to break it up they're going to be betting on who's going to win when you fight and they had this thing called soap check which I felt was very violation of privacy and there's a lot of things that go on behind closed doors in this place I don't know if any of the same staff work there because there was always staff coming and going nothing was ever consistent I remember a boy dying while I was there they yelled code Blue he was an autistic boy he had a lot of health issues but the fact that he died there it was seemed to be coincidental and what about the kid that died drowning not while I was there but right before I came there's a lot of things that go on said with this place some of the staff would talk to you like you're just crazy this place it did however change my life I had my 16th birthday in there the so-called School is not really a school it's in a room above the cafeteria unless they've changed it since then but I remember the teacher Miss Gracie she had an impact on me though even though it wasn't really much of a school she did teach me other skills that I actually used to this day again I haven't been there in for many years so I don't know if the same people were there but you have a lot of staff that work there that really does not care and when you come so called complete the program I still have the chicken noodle soup book that I got when I left read more

I don't know how the service is on the hospital side however staff are rude from the front desk staff on the morning of 11/05/2022 and the staff who brought my child to me. No one says good morning at 09:30am. I had to say good morning 2/3 time to front desk staff to get a half response . And then I told him I was picking up a child for a couple of hours and then he tells another staff on the phone the child is being discharged. I had to repeat my self and correct him. Then the lady who brought the child to me just as rude, she didn't even say good morning and just started talking and attempting to hand me a document. Just rude and UNPROFESSIONAL. read more

I am sure there are people that work here that really care about what they do however, parents are kept in the dark and the left hand does now know what the right hand is doing. Our 12 year old son attempted suicide and he was sent to Laurel Heights by Scottish Rite Childrens's Hospital. It took 5 days for our son to get the bag with his name on it that had underwear and a change of clothes. Our son has been there for 9 days and today they called and said they gave him 20mg of Prozac and are discharging him. tThey are not going to observe to see if he has a reaction to the Prozac. Our son tells us on the phone that he does not want to live anymore and we are frantically trying to get continuing care set up but they just want to kick him out today. If you child needs care, DO NOT TAKE THEM TO LAUREL HEIGHTS. Be forewarned. read more

Believe the bad reviews because they are true. Look at their website completely because it is set up to lure people into their programs which do not exist. There isn's a true residential treatment program and a school. The school does Ingenuity only and they don't care if the kids pass classes or not. I was told on the last day of school that my daughter's score were not high enough to pass two classes. Unacceptable. I put faith in this hospital and school that they would keep my daughter on track each week and have a strong plan to keep her on track with grades. No they don't and then it's the parents' problem when they unexpectedly discharge with a template reason: stable on medication. They do this and the staff is also blindsided because the treatment was incomplete. Dr. Barnes used the words: I stabilized her with medication. She actually did not. She added one smaller dose of a focus medication and changed times on other. That was the extent of it. Then they do not have a planned discharge. It is based on the next admissions they have and will blindside you with a discharge. There is no planning with you at all. In fact the last night before discharge, they pulled my daughter from her room and made her sleep in a time out room on a board with a dirty mattress to accommodate new admissions. The discharge paperwork is a template. They had the incorrect girl's name on the discharge summary and substituted the names out to fix it. They made up appointment dates that were not set up at all for after discharge. They put us on the spot when we came in to discharge our daughter. We waiting almost two hours for their unorganized discharge. They switch therapists out and you have no idea that they are not providing therapy with a seasoned therapist. The psychiatrist, Dr. Barnes, never met with my daughter. Maybe once. Beware of this facility. They use fantastic marketing and a snap admissions team to make it seem as though they have a brilliant facility there. They do not. It's dirty and filled with staff that are mostly inexperienced. They shift staff around to accommodate the deficient staff. It's a scam then you are left to figure it out on your own when they last minute discharge. Don't do it. It's no different than Peachford which is a partner to this incompetent facility. read more

http://www.lifeofbri.com/the-horrific-truth-about-laurel-heights-hospital-in-atlanta-mental-healthcare-for-children-with-disabilities-in-alabama-the-real-truth-part-5/ Read that article. Believe the negative reviews. DO NOT take your child there - especially if they are non verbal. I believe my child was sexually assaulted there. I know he was punched in the face. I know they did not help him. I know I had to beg to bring him home when they would not listen to anything we had to say or his regular doctor had to say. I know that he did not eat while he was there and came home full of anxiety and fear. I never spoke with their doctor. When I called they did not answer the phone or would say he was asleep. You have to set up an appointment to see your child at certain hours of the day, and if the slots are full, you don't see your child. read more

I was a recent employee here at this particular hospital and may I just say I witnessed first hand what a terrible environment this place is! If you love your kids this is the LAST place you want to send your kids to. Take it from me there are so many things wrong with this hospital. For one it doesn't function as 24-7 hospital. They don't even have a therapist on site everyday or not even an on call to address behaviors when needed. They don't even have enough therapist to cover all the units so one therapist is responsibility for more than 10 kids and multiple units and mostly all are PRN and there during certain hours off on holidays and can go home for inclement weather. Uh what kinda MENTAL health hospital is this if you don't even have psychiatrist or therapist on site 24-7 and no they are not there on the weekends either. When they are there I hardly saw the kids in sessions and when I did it was a rare occasion. I mean this is a psychiatric hospital you would think there would be 24-7 therapist on site like they have nurses. The nurses I can say also do not really help. You call a code to do an "assessment" as they say but when they come all they literally do is do what they paid me to do. For example a kid wanted water but couldn't wait so he tied a blanket around his neck. Staff called to get this assessment and all the nurses did was give him water and told him to go back to his room. Like he just tied a blanket around his neck! They treat their employees like straight up trash and give them no support. Good staff who show they care get pushed to the limit to where they either get caught up in some mess "investigated" or go to PRN cause it's too much so staffing is scarce. Two staff for 15 plus kids when there are supposed to be 4 staff. They can't keep anyone due to the horrible environment. I often got left on the unit with aggressive kids who constantly physically assaulted me when going through behaviors and all I could do was do what they "train us to do" call a code. We are taught proper ways to restrain, but I'm a very small person (female) weighing 135ibs when some of the kids (males)are twice my size but yet it could take minutes for them to respond to the code so you are left to deal with it the best way you can (may not always be deemed as appropriate) while other staff that are left there are terrible and do things the camera doesn't see but yet they never get caught cause the kids are scared of them. No matter what the kids do not have consequences for their actions they constantly get their way while staff, particularly the ones who monitor the kids, are always the bad guys. Mind you the people they do hire don't even have degrees in this field so anyone can get a job here as long as you can pass a background check and drug screen. Most staff verbally abuse the kids, yell at them, threaten them, call them names, hurt them purposely in restraints which who ever runs it is stupid for cutting out seclusion so now our only means is to retrain plus they take away their coping skills, but isn't the reason why they are there is to find alternative ways to cope! I have bruises all over and have been stabbed, kicked, spitted on and so much more and they put me on the same unit after I took breather and the next day. Hello give me a break! Absolutely did not care but yet they expect us to have "patience" while dealing with it and to "process with them". I am not a therapist that is what they are for, but sometimes I had to do their job and much more. Mind you I was not perfect these kids really push you to your breaking point and no matter what they are never held responsible and good staff get let go because they were pushed too far and not being supported. Yeah you sign up for it but this isn't my first facility I've worked at. Out of 5 years experience none has been this poorly ran. On another note the conditions are horrible! Blood on the walls, in the rooms, bath rooms, ceilings. Smells like urine and feces. poopy water cause the toilets always clog up. Some kids pee on themselves at night and you think they take the time to bleach it? And this is where you wanna send your kids to? Nope. There is also mold. that place hasn't been cleaned since it's been in operation! please save your life from this place it ran by idiots!!! read more

Laurel Heights Hospital, where do I begin. As a insider I would not recommend this facility to families that are in need. This facility is an imposter perpetrating as a residential/acute therapeutic hospital. If your child is in need I suggest that you RUN the other way. This facility could care less about the health or wellbeing of neither the children nor the staff. The hospital is severely understaffed. As a result the hospital offers unsafe conditions for all parties involved. The staff are often overworked and under paid. The facility has been sued so many times and is working to keep their lawsuits down. As a result, they do not want the staff putting the kids in holds. However, when codes are called you are lucky if anyone shows up. This puts the staff as well as the children an immediate danger! When a child is acting irate and there is no help available and you have several children to protect, you tell me... what would you do? More times than not, the communication devices are broken. Therefore, if you needed to call a code you'd be in danger. Cleanliness For this to be a hospital we would always run out of necessary sanitary products. For example, how does a hospital run out of soap. More times than I can count, the children were forced to complete their hygiene with shampoo. Shampoo was used instead of soap for over a month. If you expect your children's activities of daily living to be complete, think again. This facility would often run out of laundry detergent so the children's clothes were not being cleaned. The older children have an option whether or not they want to wash their bodies. Consequently, most do not. As a result there is always a foul smell in the air. Please do not let get me started on the autism unit. The children are forced to take showers over fecal matter that has been left by other patients. The children sit on soiled toilets. It is very disgusting. The children are rarely changed, and when they are changed, there is always an issue with diapers. The staff can never get a hold of the required supplies. As a result the children are left to suffer. I wouldn't suggest that you sit on the furniture in this place. You can expect to come in contact with blood, urine, and fecal matter. This place is a cesspool of disease and bacteria. The nurses are incompetent and racist. The nurses are rude. When you contact the nurses for assistance they show up 45 minutes to a hour later. Furthermore, the nurses have the staff pass out medication, which is illegal! If you ask them questions concerning the children they are rude. The units are dirty and they stink! They love showing off the Acute Unit. This is false advertisement. The other units do not look this way. As far as Acute is concerned, there is absolutely no structure going on over there. As far as the boy units are concerned, there have been rumors of sexual assault. The dayrooms in which the children are often confined are extremely small. If you child wasn't crazy before, they will be when returning home. The Children When your child arrives you can rest assure that your child's medication will be changed. Your children's behavior will take a turn for the worst. The facility will play with the children's medication in order to see an increase in the children's behavior. When the children display increased behaviors the treatment team will postpone or delay the child's discharge day. Please understand, your child is nothing more than a dollar sign. As far as therapy is concerned, what therapy? If you send your child here just tell the world you needed a break. Your child will not receive help. Why do think LHH accept the kids that nobody else wants? Well it is because of the money. This place is not a good place to be. Seriously, if you want your children to actually get better, reconsider and send them some place else. For the most part, staff will do the very best that they can. However, with little to no support from the higher ups, there is really little that can be done. Staff has witnessed their patient's health decline on so many occasions. Staff would report the information. However, the information would often fall on death ears until the patient(s) becomes gravely ill. It's really a sad situation. If you are considering working here, don't. If you do, you have been warned. The employees are catty. Everyone gossips so keep your business to yourself. There are no such things as friends at LHH. Not everyone is treated equally either. If you work here know and learn your enemies. This place has a high turn over rate. If you survive more than 90 days consider yourself tough. read more

I was a "patient" here. This place cares about money, and that's pretty much ALL they care about. Keeping you in the system, and keeping you or your insurance paying them. read more

As a parent the hardest thing to do is to admit your child to an acute inpatient psychiatric hospital and to realize you can no longer help your child. Laurel Heights saved our teenage daughter's life. She had been suffering with severe depression, suicide attempts, running away from home and effects of past traumatic events. Admissions at other psychiatric facilities and attempts by outpatient providers to help her failed because she didn't want to work through the things she had to in order to get well. Finally we were referred by another inpatient psychiatric facility to Laurel Heights. While there they were able to get through to her. The staff figured out something no one had previously - we knew that she had vocabulary processing difficulties but didn't realize how much it was affecting her emotional well-being. During the 5 months she stayed at Laurel Heights the staff worked hard to make sure her medications were correct and the treatment team took a different approach to help her work through her issues implementing techniques to help her not get overwhelmed by verbal things while teaching us parents how to help her. By the time she was discharged her self-esteem had improved greatly. She went from wanting to die when she was admitted to a strong sense of wanting to live and to help others. Yes there were a few times we got aggravated with staff issues but the administrative team listened to our concerns and each issue was addressed to our satisfaction. We as parents did our part by praying for her recovery and having others pray for her and the team....the Laurel Heights team did their part by listening to us and to our daughter, critically analyzing her to figure out how to help her and the end result was a successful treatment time. read more