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Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform => Facility Question and Answers => Psych Hospitals => Topic started by: iamartsy on August 24, 2008, 05:58:56 PM

Title: Timberlawn Hospital - mid 80's
Post by: iamartsy on August 24, 2008, 05:58:56 PM
I was in Timberlawn Hospital from 1985-1986 for nine months. I still have nightmares about it. Is there anyone else out there from that period? I was on a really skanky unit with a nurse from HELL. We called her Nurse Wratchett. People never believe what I saw.
iamartsy
Title: Re: Timberlawn Hospital - mid 80's
Post by: Anonymous on August 25, 2008, 01:53:21 AM
Seriously, you guys, I am looking for other who went through the abuses at Timberlawn. If you or a friend went there or started out there please post it. I have wondered why I am the only person anywhere who talks about the abuse I witnessed. Timberlawn was much like the first year at New Leaf except I was 21, and my big offense was being gay and artsy. And I dabbled in drugs back in high school. I started out in PDAP and DAPA in 1982 in Houston. PDAP was where Carol Burnett sent her daughter. It was very much a cult. Everyone was greeted with, "Love ya, man". I learned about much harder drugs there. But Timberlawn wrecked me. I really should not even write about it this late. It gives me nightmares still (20 years later).
IamArtsy
Title: Re: Timberlawn Hospital - mid 80's
Post by: Anonymous on August 25, 2008, 02:04:26 AM
Seriously, you guys, I am looking for others who went through the abuses at Timberlawn. If you or a friend went there or started out there please post it. I have wondered why I am the only person anywhere who talks about the abuse I witnessed. Timberlawn was much like the first year at New Leaf except I was 21, and my big offense was being gay and artsy. And I dabbled in drugs back in high school. I started out in PDAP and DAPA in 1982 in Houston. PDAP was where Carol Burnett sent her daughter. It was very much a cult. Everyone was greeted with, "Love ya, man". I learned about much harder drugs there. But Timberlawn wrecked me. I really should not even write about it this late. It gives me nightmares still (20 years later).
IamArtsy

P.S. This is an accurate account of what took place there.

http://http://tinyurl.com/5d9oo3

Quote
It has been nearly thirteen years since my admission to a private, for-profit mental institution.  My parents
placed me on the adolescent girls ward of Timberlawn Psychiatric Hospital at the tender age of fifteen.  I
had been suffering from severe depression, anxiety disorder and suicidal tendencies for many years even at
that young age.  But that was not why they put me there.
        I was a nuisance to them, as were many of the other girls on the unit to their own parents.  I was
in two short-term psych wards before my admission to Timberlawn, to 'hold me over', as they told me.  While
I was in Brookhaven, my doctor came and spoke to me at rounds, and told me where I was headed.  I
asked him, "Why are my parents sending me there?  Don't you have a treatment program of your own?"  
You see, I had discussed this program with the other teenaged patients of this ward, and had been told it
was a good program, taking about six months to complete.  It had taken me some time to adjust to the
thought of being exiled from my home and family for such a long time.
        But my doctor was about to blow that idea out of the water.  "Because," he informed me, "that's
the only place that can keep you for a year to a year and a half."
        I thought he was joking.  You have no idea how wrong I was.
        I was incarcerated there for two years, two months and three days.  It was a death sentence, as
far as I was concerned.  And unlike the other girls, I had done nothing wrong.  They had all been involved
in various forms of juvinile delinquency, premature sexual activity, drugs, running away... you name it, they'd
done it.  In fact, none of them was really mentally ill.  It wasn't a hospital at all.  It was a prison.
        I had never done any of these things.  I'd never even had sex.  The worst of my sins seemed to
amount to not doing my homework or helping with the housework, and taking an overdose of Tetracycline
at the age of twelve.  But that had only been a wild attempt to get my parents to wake up and smell the
coffee.  I'll go back in time to shortly before that happened.
        I was a scapegoat in my school.  I was the one and only scapegoat.  I was hated and despised
by all, and I couldn't figure out for the life of me why.  It started in the  first grade when my family moved to
Dallas, Texas, and just continued to worsen as time wore on.  Old kids left, new kids came in.  The old kids
remaning indoctrinated the new ones, informing them that I was untouchable, and that to associate with me
was to become me.  So I was adrift, alone, in a sea of enemies I had not earned.  
        As if that was not bad enough, my parents were also very abusive toward me as a child.  I am
perhaps unusual in this respect, but there was no sexual abuse in my past, and very little physical.  The
abuse in my family was psychological, verbal, emotional, situational...  But I can assure you, it was severe.  
I remember wild rages, streams of profanity, accusations, threats, (idle, thank God), faces red with hysteria,
voices shrieking at the top of their capacity until they sounded not so much human as like hawks  diving at
their prey.  My only salvation was that they ignored me most of the time.  But when it came to my problems
at school, this was a disaster.
        I don't know how many times I told them that I was having problems that went far beyond the
norm, problems I had tried to solve but found totally out of my control.  I was unable to influence the
behavior of my peers no matter what I did.  I was a social leper.  I was viewed with disgust and abhorrence.
 This treatment was unbearably painful to me, which was the only reason I bothered confiding about it in
Mom and Dad.  They prompty ignored me.
        They made up every excuse in the book.  I asked for a transfer to another local school.  They
never even looked into the possibility.  I continued on my collision course with insanity.
        My father started forcing me to see psychiatrists at the age of nine.  But you've got to understand
my father.  He didn't give a damn about my feelings.  He wasn't trying to help me with the depressions or
the panic attacks.  His only concern was knocking me into line.  He was obsessed with education;
thought it was the cure-all to the universe, because it had rescued him from his childhood in poverty.  
He couldn't stand having a child that never did her homework, and waited until the last minute to do
class projects and papers.  "That little ----.  Goddammit, I'm not gonna put up with that kind of behavior.  
She'd better well shape up..."
        He saw psychiatrists as a sort of police of the mind.  It was kind of like sending me to the
principal's office.  And I knew it.  I tried to refuse, and he got belligerant in true fashion.  So I went.
        Three years later, they looked into putting me in a private dummy school for kids with learning
disabilities.  The resident psychiatrist misdiagnosed me with "mild depression".  I didn't know what I had,
but I knew damn well it wasn't "mild".  My mother asked why that diagnosis; the good doctor said that it
was because "severe depression usually involves a suicide attempt."
        I thought  that was the key.  If I tried to kill myself, and failed, my parents would have no choice
but to admit that I was severely depressed, and get me some real help.  Wrong again.
        I woke them at one in the morning, after they came home from being out to eat, leaving me to
babysit my younger brother and sister, and mispronounced the name of the antibiotic I had taken fifty-two
of.  "That's stupid!  Why would you do a thing like that?"  As if I had conjured the whole thing out of thin
air.  "Stupid."
        The next evening, they left me alone with the kids again, as if nothing had happened.  What I
thought they couldn't possibly do, they did.  It would turn out to be a pattern with them.  It never even
occured to them that they had driven me to it.
        And, as I've said, three years later I found myself locked up against my will.  I've spent many a
sleepless night wondering why, oh, why did I sign those papers willingly?  Why didn't I fight back?  And the
only answer I can come up with was that I thought it would have been useless.  I believed that, since I was
a minor, the lack of my signature on those documents would make no difference whatsoever.  And I had
already been put away for seven weeks.  Seven weeks to chip at my stubbornness, and wear away my
resolve.
        The next two years were so horrible I can't really descibe them.  All I can do is make a long story
short.  The unit was filthy, tiny, and roach-infested.  The carpet was dingy, fifteen years old, and smashed
down, and you could tell that it used to be purple with green and yellow and orange stripes.  The wall was
plastered with orange burlap.  
        It was an environment of terrorism.  Punishment was the norm.  Relief from it was a rare
exception.  The doctors spent perhaps a total of five hours a week on the unit, each, on a good week.  
You never saw them.  You only saw the angry, vicious, vindictive yet totally untrained "mental health
workers" who were assigned as jailkeepers of sorts.  Upon entering the hospital, the patient is deprived of
everything human; here are only a few examples.  
        The first thing they told me when I entered the unit was that I was not permitted to leave the "Big
Lounge".  But that was really only half of the room.  There was an imaginary line drawn down the middle,
dividing a 20' by 30' space into two parts, the "Big" being the portion closer to the nurses' station, and the
"Small" being the farthest away.  It seemed ludicrous, shocking, unnatural.  But I had no choice but to
obey.  I had a bad feeling about what would happen to me if I didn't.
        The next thing they did was to put me on "Suicide Precaution" (SP), and lock everything I
owned in my closet.  I had to be accompanied by staff everywhere I went.  They even made me leave the
door open a crack as I went to the bathroom, or took a shower, or changed my clothes.  In all honesty, it is
the most degrading thing I had ever experienced, especially since it was totally unneccessary and uncalled
for.  I felt violated, as if I were being raped.
        The hospital was merely a continuation of the abuse that I had experienced at the hands of my
parents, and in that way these "mental health workers" were rubbing salt in my wounds.  I was in a
constant state of pain and terror.  If I made the slightest mistake, even if it was totally innocent and well
meaning, I was punished.  Every moment of our time was regimented.  It didn't just stop at being forbidden
to cross a line.  I was forbidden to look at the television, even though it was in full view, or to ask someone
to change the station on the stereo, even if it was bothering me, or to sleep, lie down, close my eyes, read,
write, eat, drink anything but water, except at meals, and then you could only eat the disgusting, greasy
food that came into the unit on a metal cart.  I was given so little time to do my necessary things;
showering, shaving, putting on makeup, doing my homework, eating, cleaning up my room; that I had to
hurry like the world was ending to get them done.  Then I had to go out and sit on "privilege".  That was
part of the abuse.  They wouldn't even let you call it a punishment.  I had to sit there for hours and hours
with no diversion, dying of boredom and anxiety, unable to think of anything but the fact that I was being
watched every second, and that any moment now, I would make a trivial mistake, and receive cruel and
unusual punishment in return.
        The hospital controlled the girls so well because of their free and lavish use of restraints.  
Five-point leather restraints.  I spent a grand total of two days in restraints, and by the time it was over, I
was dying to get out of them, because they tied me down so tightly, I couldn't sleep.  This, even though I
had never shown one single violent tendency in the entire time I had been there.
        Why was I put in restraints, you ask?  For getting up off my chair and walking peacably back to
my room and lying on the bed.
        I knew in advance of doing that that they would restrain me for it.  I had been hoping they would
put me in my room where I could be alone, unwatched, unharrassed, in peace and darkness so that I could
finally rest.  But I didn't know what I was getting myself into.
        It was that knowledge, that we could be put in restraints for unlimited periods of time simply for
open, deliberate defiance of the rules, that made us follow them so religiously.  The rulebook looked more
like a telephone book, and the rules were ridiculously strict.  But we followed them.  The staff pitted us
against one another.  We turned each other in for going one minute over a ten minute snack break, an
offense for which the punishment was twenty-four hours on chair.  Chair is precisely that.  You sit on it,
back to the table.  You don't move.  Don't talk.  Don't look at anyone.  Don't divert yourself in any way.  
Keep one foot on the floor at all times.  And you could sit there for hours.
        At the worst things got for me, I was spending as much as twelve hours a day on chair.  I was
deprived of all activities, even on-unit, which meant that I sat with my face in the corner (like a dunce) while
they watched movies and played table games.  They told me their reason for doing this to me was because
I was "stuck in my treatment".  I didn't understand what that meant, and they wouldn't explain it to me.  I
was supposed to figure it out on my own.  They were angry, condemning and critical all the time.  They
harped on me for "isolating", as they called it.  I had tried for months to comply with their demands.  I sat
around the small round table trying to "shoot the bull" with the juvinile delinquents, but I could never get
myself to do it.  The very thought of joking around in this horrible dungeon, and fraternizing with people
who would subject me to twenty-four hours on chair for leaving a fork out of arms' reach was repugnant to
me.  Instinct always won.
        They put me back on SP.  They took away my reading break and my two ten minute snack
breaks.  Then they started withholding my mail and the gifts my mother had been sending me.  I never saw
any of them.  They made up some lie about sending them to the dry cleaners, and left it at that.  When I
asked, no one knew anything about any dry cleaners.
        Then they started forcing me to take psychotropic drugs.  I was terrified.  I had heard of long-term
negative effects of said drugs.  Loss of motor control, trembling, flashbacks, zombism.  I started to have a
nervous breakdown.  I had never had one before entering the hospital, so I had no idea what was
happening to me.
        My whole body went rigid.  I had terrible difficulty eating, sleeping, moving, walking, talking,
writing.  My body was alive with pain.  When I sat in a chair, I felt as if I were going to fall out of it.  My eyes
started rolling back into my head.  I couldn't keep them on a page well enough to read it, but I was still
expected to go to school as if nothing were wrong.  I tried to make it go away.  It was like having rigor
mortis.  But I couldn't will it away.
        I don't remember half of the drugs they gave me.  He'd put me on one, and when it didn't have
the desired results, he'd switch me to another, and another, and another, and so on, as if I were some sort
of guinea pig.  I only remember the three that were most important to me.  The first was Mellarill (pardon me
if I have misspelled it.)
        I took it with my nine o'clock meds.  The next morning I awoke nauseated and lightheaded.  
When I got out of bed, everything went black, and I thought I was going to faint.  I complained to the head
nurse.  She got my doctor.  When he came, she ordered me to stand up and took my blood pressure.  The
muttered something about it being dangerously low.  "I can't understand it," said Dr. Grover Lawliss.  "I
gave her a very small dose."
        The next drug was Navane.  That was what drove me over the edge.
        I had seen other people who had been put on Navane.  I have one word for them.  Zombies.
        I lost it.  I was wild with fear.  There was no way I could not take the drug.  Those who resisted
ended up in restraints for six months or with a year and a half added to their "treatment".  I had to take it.
        I lost sixteen pounds in two weeks.  That's the only physically concrete thing that happened that
proves that what I was going through was legitimate.  And to anyone who may be thinking I was anorexic; I
was not.  I had always been a compulsive overeater.  When my nervous breakdown started, I was 5' 2"
and 128lbs.  I now weigh fifteen pounds more than that.  This was very unlike me.
        Things started getting better when he took me off the Navane and put me on Valium.
        That was my salvation.  I thought, "Whew!"  What a stroke of luck.  I knew valium.  Valium was
harmless.  Valium was the koolaid of drugs.  Not only that, but it would help me to get some rest at night,
and feel less anxious during the day.  I knew this was it.  I had to make damn sure he kept me on that one.
 I knew his style.  As long as I was thriving on valium, I knew he wouldn't put me on anything else.
        But that didn't change the fact that I went through a very serious medical phenomenon which
went ignored.  I was never given a medical exam.  I was never given any help, aside from the valium.  I
wasn't even permitted to go back to my room and rest, which was what prompted the restraints thing.  The
worse things got for me, the more they punished me, and the more they told me to just knock it off.  As if I
were just doing it deliberately to manipulate staff.
        The same thing all over again.
        I was totally brainwashed.  I bought into their story.  I really believed that they were helping me,
and that I deserved all that I got.  It wasn't until six months after I had left that I started realizing how badly I
had been abused, and feeling angry about it.  Then I had nowhere to turn.  The kids I ran into who had
been there either didn't agree with me or didn't care.  They seemed to want to run from the subject.  Or they
looked back fondly on the experience.  I couldn't understand it.  Was I crazy?
        I'm not really sure, even today.  I wish I could find other people who have been through what I
have been through.  People who will bond with me to put these places out of business.  I want to lobby for
the rights of children not to be put in places like that unless they have been convicted of a real, honest to
goodness crime.  This is medeivalism.  This is like the days when you could get someone locked up just
because they owed you money or, God forbid, because you didn't like them and had the money and clout
to make it stick.
Title: Re: Timberlawn Hospital - mid 80's
Post by: iamartsy on September 01, 2008, 05:17:31 PM
Excuse me the URL for the above piece is as follows:
http://tinyurl.com/55osdj (http://tinyurl.com/55osdj)
Whoever wrote deserves full credit, not me.
Title: Re: Timberlawn Hospital - mid 80's
Post by: Ursus on September 02, 2008, 04:46:55 PM
Quote from: "Conrad"
I started out in PDAP and DAPA in 1982 in Houston. PDAP was where Carol Burnett sent her daughter. It was very much a cult. Everyone was greeted with, "Love ya, man". I learned about much harder drugs there...
IamArtsy
Of possible interest: http://www.thestraights.com/articles/meehan.htm (http://www.thestraights.com/articles/meehan.htm)

Quote from: "Wes Fager"
Bob Meehan, Palmer Drug Rehab and ICECAP

In 1971 Bob Meehan, allegedly a recovering alcoholic and heroin addict, co-founded the Palmer Drug Abuse Program of Houston, Texas to treat teen addicts. PDAP received national attention in 1979 when People's Magazine did a story on Carol Burnett's daughter Carrie Hamilton who was being treated for addiction at Palmer. In 1984 Meehan wrote the book Beyond the Yellow Brick Road: Our Children and Drugs the foreword of which is written by comedian Tim Conway. Today Bob Meehan presides over ICECAP--International Coalition of Enthusiastic Chemical Abuse Programs, an affiliation of treatment programs in Arizona, Georgia, Colorado, North Carolina, and Missouri. Reputedly, Bob Meehan is the self-proclaimed "Father of Drug Intervention." But now there is a web page for former clients from Meehan-styled treatment programs. Startling allegations from the web page sound strangely familiar to Straight-styled synanons. According to the page Meehan also operates a nonprofit, tax-exempt counselor training program under the name Meehan Institute which charges about $4000.00 per person for his 6-8 week course. Please read Emmis on Bob Meehan (http://http://www.ontheemmis.com/about_meehan). Also visit On the Emmis (http://http://www.ontheemmis.com/) and The Founding of PDAP (http://http://www.pdap.com/aboutus.htm).
The relevance of the mention of Tim Conway is that he was a personal friend (as well as frequent collaborator) of Carol Burnett.

=-=-=-=

Meehan Programs--Past and Present
http://www.ontheemmis.com/meehan_progra ... nd_present (http://www.ontheemmis.com/meehan_programs__past_and_present)

Programs and Organizations Currently Under Meehan's Control and/or Heavily Influenced by Him
   

Programs and Organizations Formerly Controlled and/or Heavily Influenced by Bob Meehan    

Disclaimer: The programs and organizations listed here are either no longer in existence or are no longer associated with Meehan. It should not be inferred that these programs and organizations are currently destructive, abusive or cultic.

Title: Re: Timberlawn Hospital - mid 80's
Post by: iamartsy on September 02, 2008, 05:13:09 PM
After HIH closed Medical Arts and Deer Park Hospital became PDAP associated. This guy ran Deer Park: http://www.dapahelp.com/ (http://www.dapahelp.com/)

Dr. Sharma had Medical Arts and Laurelwood. There is some dirt out there on Laurelwood. I think someone died trying to espcape. Dr. Baron is now associated with West Oaks in Houston. Meehan, I don't know where he is. PDAP lives on: http://www.pdap.com/ (http://www.pdap.com/) PDAP is run by a CEO or something. Same people from Meehan days were still involved when I moved back here in 1996,but they were overthrown a few years ago.

Now we have this http://www.cornerstonerecovery.org/ (http://www.cornerstonerecovery.org/) and they are called APGs. Alternative peer groups, and they still run around saying "luv ya", I think. Really don't know much about it, though. I hear from ex-PDAP friends though. We support one another on some of the old tapes that still play in our heads.

Oops, left this out: http://www.lifewayusa.org/site/index.htm (http://www.lifewayusa.org/site/index.htm)

Iamartsy
"
Title: Re: Timberlawn Hospital - mid 80's
Post by: Antigen on September 02, 2008, 06:24:49 PM
Hey Artsy,
  Welcome, glad you came along. I've put out feelers on the Meehan programs a couple of times but never got anything back. Was just talking w/ a friend about it and your post and about ontheemmis having a closed forum. Seems like Bob Meehan is yet another of the satanic clones stamped out of a secret underground base near DC along with Chuck Dieterich (Synanon) Art Barker (the Seed) Joe Ricci (Elan)  John Gould (Hyde) Lester Rolloff (Rolloff Schools) David Wilkerson (Teen Challenge) and whoever else I'm forgetting. Tell your friends. We'd love to hear from ya'll.
Title: Re: Timberlawn Hospital - mid 80's
Post by: psy on September 02, 2008, 06:36:43 PM
Quote from: "Antigen"
hoever else I'm forgetting
Mel Wasserman (CEDU, and clones, father of "emotional growth"), Robert Lichfield, Ken Kay, and David Gilcrease (WWASP), Steve Cartesano (Challenger, et. al.), Sue "your ass off" Scheff and company (Mark and Cheryl Sudweeks, Bernie Farrow, Izzy "shamoo" Zehnder), Len "Mr. Hands" Buccellato (Hidden Lake Academy, NATSAP), Jayne Selby Longnecker (Benchmark Young Adult School)...  and whoever else i'm forgetting.
Title: Re: Timberlawn Hospital - mid 80's
Post by: Ursus on September 02, 2008, 06:52:49 PM
According to an old Annual Report, Timberlawn Hospital was acquired by Universal Health Services, Inc. (of more recent CEDU-reborn fame?) in 1996:

Quote
UNIVERSAL HEALTH BEHAVIORAL CARE
BEHAVIORAL HEALTH: DIFFERENT MARKET CONDITIONS. A SIMILAR STRATEGY.

In the Behavioral Health Division, the UHS strategy is much the same as that used in the acute care field. That is, to acquire properties that are or can be the dominant providers in their local markets, and then improve their clinical and operating procedures.

However, one important point of difference in this market is that most psychiatric hospitals in America are already under private ownership, and therefore do not involve the community issues encountered at Northwest Texas Hospital.

A recent example of the UHS behavioral health strategy is Timberlawn Hospital located in Dallas, Texas, one of six psychiatric facilities acquired by UHS in the past two years.

Founded in 1917, Timberlawn has long been the premier behavioral care center in the Dallas area. In fact, it was recently named one of the best psychiatric facilities in America by U.S. News and World Report. However, under its previous ownership, Timberlawn had serious economic difficulties.

When UHS acquired Timberlawn in 1996, the company immediately invested in much-needed improvements to the physical plant, upgrading patient rooms and public areas. UHS also worked to make the facility more responsive to the needs of its staff and patients.

To strengthen the financial position of Timberlawn, UHS has moved aggressively to build stronger relationships with managed care providers. This is an increasingly important factor in the behavioral care field, since managed care companies are now the largest source of reimbursement for patient services.

UHS also acquired four behavioral health facilities in Pennsylvania. Together with the Company's Keystone Center in Wallingford, Pa., these facilities compose the UHS Pennsylvania Network, with facilities in several key areas of the state: The Horsham Clinic in Philadelphia; The Meadows Psychiatric Center in State College; Clarion Psychiatric Center in Western Pennsylvania; and Roxbury in Shippensburg.

Another way that UHS is putting its behavioral expertise to work can be found in the UHS Management Services section of the Behavioral Health Division. The Management Services team creates and manages psychiatric care units within existing medical/surgical hospitals generally in suburban and rural areas where there are few behavioral facilities available.

By doing so, UHS Management Services offers community hospitals the opportunity to provide an important service to patients. At the same time, it relieves them of the need to develop the special resources and expertise required to open and manage a psychiatric facility.

UHS currently has nine Management Services units in operation, and plans to expand this highly targeted service in the years ahead.

    -=-=-

I wonder whether Pennsylvania's Rick Santorum (on the BoD of UHSInc.) had anything to do with that year's haul of Pennsylvania facilities...

Rick Santorum
Consultant to the law firm of Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott, LLC, Washington, D.C. Senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, Washington, D.C. He served as a United States Senator from Pennsylvania from 1995 to 2007, and a U.S. Representative from 1991 to 1995 representing the 18th Congressional District in Pennsylvania. From 2001 to 2007, he served as Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, where he directed the communications operations of Senate Republicans and was the third-ranking member of the Republican leadership.

Nominating/Corporate Governance Committee
http://www.uhsinc.com/about_board.php (http://www.uhsinc.com/about_board.php)
[/list]
Title: Re: Timberlawn Hospital - mid 80's
Post by: Antigen on September 02, 2008, 07:17:53 PM
Psy, I was trying to name off all the 1970's era spooky probably all government funded Syanon spreaders. Mel Wasserman was one, of course. I think all the rest you name came after--next generation.
Title: Re: Timberlawn Hospital - mid 80's
Post by: Ursus on September 02, 2008, 07:48:10 PM
So... I checked Universal Health Services, Inc.'s current Texas lineup (http://http://www.uhsinc.com/hospitals.php?location=tx) to see if Timberlawn Hospital was still on there (it is), and came across another familiar face: Meridell Achievement Center in Austin. Wasn't that where Kristin Stattel went?
Title: Re: Timberlawn Hospital - mid 80's
Post by: iamartsy on September 02, 2008, 08:55:26 PM
You guys,

Thank you so much. I still cannot figure out how you found the info. UHS fits right in with their treatment. They fix gay teens (ha, ha) or did at the time I was there. I also noticed that RAND corporation was involved at one time which is odd. Lots of articles of the types of patients they looked for back then. Amazing they had criteria. It was in one of those Google books.

As for old Bob Meehan,  he was a trip. I only met him once at a Round Robin, where you go for 24 hours and talk about your sins sobriety, war stories, etc. When he spoke everyone listened. Odd, odd, odd, man. He  got alot of people sober from heroin, but boy did he get rich doing it. John Bradshaw also had close ties to PDAP as did Og Mandino.

As for me, they kept me brainwashed and sick for 4 years. I missed four years of my early 20's. First it was PDAP, then Deer Park, then Raleigh Hills, then a legitimate hospital in Houston, and then Timberlawn for 9 months. The shrink at the legitimate place told my dad that I would need at least two years at Timberlawn to be "fixed". Boy did they fix me. I saw more abuse in the 9 months I was there than I have in a lifetime.

Thanks you guys.
Title: Re: Timberlawn Hospital - mid 80's
Post by: Anonymous on October 29, 2008, 12:26:55 AM
I was in Timberlawn from Oct. 1984 - August 1985. I was 17 when I was admitted but was placed in Burkett I unit, an adult unit. My first bad experience was my 2nd week at Timberlawn when I found my roommate dead of suicide. He had hung himself using my belt and the AC vent to thread it through. That shut down the entire campus for 3 days.The only other bad experiences that came about were brought on by my own behavior. I was lucky to be on an adult unit because I know what a shithole the adolescent unit was. It was nearly impossible for an adolescent to ever achieve the privledge level of "Grounds" during their entire stay. I had achieved "Grounds" within 10 weeks by being in an adult unit. My observations of how the adolescent unit was run could be compared to a bootcamp with the single file lines on the way to school or an event and the "sounding off" for a head count. My stay there was very helpful to me and would recommend Timberlawn to anyone who needed inpatient therapy.
Title: Re: Timberlawn Hospital - mid 80's
Post by: iamartsy on October 29, 2008, 03:21:23 AM
Burkett might have been that way but not most the other units. The other units doled out level increases quite guardedly at best. I kept wishing I was on Burkett, because you guys had hot water, private phone calls, bathrooms with showers in your rooms, and you actually got level increases. The older units for the most part did not  and most other units you came in on Suicide Watch, Large Lounge, then Large Lounge + Cafeteria, then something I can't remember (Classes?), then partial-USA, USA, Grounds, and was there an Off Grounds or Towns (can't remember). I got USA right before I got out. Our unit was ridiculously primitive in its facilities and its uses of levels and rules. I think Burkett even had a ping-pong table, right? The only person I would refer there was a total enemy. Actually I guess now I would have to refer them to a more rigorous program like one of the wilderness camps.
Title: Re: Timberlawn Hospital - mid 80's
Post by: elizabeth on May 23, 2011, 12:28:50 PM
Hi! Im Elizabeth!I was in Timberlawn in 1983, I was 15, the girls adolescent ward. I had come out of baylors Adolescent ward before I came to Timberlawn, baylor was so strict and rigid that I had tried to commit suicide but really didnt want to kill myself, just thought that theyd send me to another institutkion if I caused enough trouble, anyways I tried it 3 different times, and Baylor kept me tied down to a bed in restraints for 6 months. They had me so drugged up with Thorazine that by the time I got to Timberlawn, they put me on a  couch in the big lounge and layed me down and told me I wasnt gonna do anything but sleep and eat for the enxt week. I had to sleep off all the drugs I had in me from Baylor.I had alot of the smae experiences at timberlawn as well strict and ahrd yea well, but I was so terrified of being put into restraints by that time that I was almost perfect by the time I got to Timberlawn. So I didnt get into much trouble at Timberlawn, and I was one of the lucky ones who got grounds privaleges early and was able to go to PE and we walked 2 miles a day everyday and went to the Canteen on Saturday the little store they had for us. We also had patio parties and dances with the guys alot. Itw as very strict and hard even with the parties and all that, and I have to say that alot fo people didnt have the privalges of going to dances and parties. One person was my roommate, K. she and I were real close. She was only 13 and had run away from home with her boyfriend and her parents threw her in to Timberlawn and she was scared. I was scared too and we took care of each other and showed at group meetings and stuff and sat with each other at meals times and other places alot. I suspected then that some were saying we were gay and whats interesting is that they started demonizing her to me. She was 5 feet one inch and 95 lbs and looked like a little girl and its like guys liked her naturally you know which was no big deal but they made a big deal out of it constantly accusing her of being sexually permiscous all the time and they were always putting her on guy retriction and tried to convince me that she would take my boyfriends away from me and what not. I had a boyfriend and a guyfriend and at parties I was so scarwed shed get into trouble with guys that she and I hung out together with my BF, so wed all hang out together, and I just know they were making it into something  nasty that it wasnt. The whole thing with them being paranoid about Gays and Homosexuals, i really think they were paranoid about me and my room mate because they kept demonizing her to me.Anyways if anyones interested in talking to me pelase dont hesitate to write me at [email protected]
My name is Elizabeth
Title: Re: Timberlawn Hospital - mid 80's
Post by: iamartsy on May 23, 2011, 06:28:51 PM
I was there from 1987-1988. It was even stricter by then. I was on Unit for 3-6 months with 3 classes, I think. Eventually I got to the next level whatever it was. I never got to grounds. I left "At Patient's Request" and my parents. They were often dismayed by my treatment and the lack of health care. At one point I had untreated bronchitis while they were visiting. People were in restraints for MONTHS on end! It was crazy. I tried to go unnoticed most of the time. I do still have nightmares about the abuse I saw. Then there was room and chair, for life it seemed. Look up the book Bedlam. It speaks about what we went through. http://http://www.amazon.com/Bedlam-Profiteering-Mental-Health-System/dp/0312104219/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1306189601&sr=1-7

Much of what is in that book happened right after my incarceration at Timberlawn, but resembles the abuses. Please stay in touch on the board.
Title: Re: Timberlawn Hospital - mid 80's
Post by: elizabeth on May 23, 2011, 06:49:18 PM
It probably was way stricter there by the time you got there, however we did have on girl who was in restraints all the time there, and I of course wa sin restraints all the time at Baylor, sounds like your Timberlawn experience wa smore like my Baylor experience.However Timberlawn had alot of us on hard back chair restriction as well I know it was very hard and strict but probablya lot harder by the time you got there.

I have to admit to something here I left something out because Im emabarrssed by it.But uh if you guys didnt get patio parties and cook outs and dances maybe it was in  part the fault of our ward.Yea Ive got a little story to tell you.
Well we had dances like evry weekend, and back then it seems like there was a young adult ward and an adult ward and for some reason who knows why, not only did the guys have dance with us, but ALL Units were allowed to have patio parties and dances and uh,we got invites from other units to go to dances. I just started remembering this her eof late and it scared me too. Uh, yea well the Young adult mens wards started sending requests for adolescent girls to have dances with them,
this is abit long so Im splitting the page in half tobecontinued
Title: Re: Timberlawn Hospital - mid 80's
Post by: elizabeth on May 23, 2011, 07:01:26 PM
Anyways, it neevr occured to the staff taht we were underage going to dances with older men. So we were invited and theyd invite us and nobody else,so it was just us adolescent girls with young adult men. I remember being scraed the first time or two, I think it was only once  amonth so maybe 6 times the whole time I was there. I was scared and me and my roomamte went together the first couple of times,we were toegther and danced together and tried to stay away from the guys sort of. But like the second time or so dont remember if she was on guy restricted and restricted to go or if we both just loosened up, but I remember the men telling me to come over there and talk to them,they said " hey baby dont be afraid come over here and talk to me". So I went over and we wer eon the patio i think and I sat at the table next to one or two and talked to them all night, and , we slwo danced together and at the end of the night got hugged and kissed good night, it scared me because I was afraid of older men, and when I remembered it this weekend, I remembered feeling seduced by it, like I was scared at first then when they got me to loosen up and not be afraid, I relaxed and felt like I was being sort of sophisticated and mature for dancing with and hanging out with older men. rthey called us nasty names to our faces and made up nicknames for us that were sexually oriented like young s**ts and baby H&s that type of thing.

Well by my last month I was there, we the girls had just about enough of it, some of us were saying'Its wrong tehy shouldnt be talking to us like that its not appropriate". So some of them went to some eladers at timberlawn and also to their parents and told them about it.

Now I left right after that, so dont know what happened. Now maybe just maybe if you guys wernt getting parties and dances, maybe thats why!Maybe thats why they got so strict?However I have to say that nevertheless even though i didnt have quite the hard time you did, I still had it rough, hey I was 15 living 6 months against my will away from my family and parents inside a psychaitric unit so it was still very traumatizing. Also like I said Baylor physwically abused me while I was in r estraints so oru experiences between Timberlawn and Baylor sound similar anyways.It stole my youth away I was in almost 3 years all together it was scary and horrible. Thanks for sharing with me.
Title: Re: Timberlawn Hospital - mid 80's
Post by: elizabeth on May 23, 2011, 07:03:41 PM
Sorry about the mis spelled words
Title: Re: Timberlawn Hospital - mid 80's
Post by: elizabeth on May 23, 2011, 08:01:54 PM
iamartsy Im so sorry, if they got hard and crazy strict on yall because of us going to those parties I feel I should apologize for soem reason, it wasnt our fault but still I feel like Im responsible in some ways. We did have dances with the guys and I slow danced with my boyfriend and we cuddled together, maybe they thoguht our whole party thing was out of control or something maybe it was our fault?i hope you know I sympathize with you after comingt out of Baylor I know its scary terrible to be treated that way . But Im glad I remembered that whole young adult men thing this week maybe thatll give you some answers as to why they were the way they were.
Title: Re: Timberlawn Hospital - mid 80's
Post by: elizabeth on May 24, 2011, 02:44:56 PM
Well Im gonna be off the net untill Thursday ir Friday, my computers down and Im getting wireless for this computer to take over to my apartment. Anyways before I left today justw anted to say and I know this may sound stupid and goofy;But when I was at timberlawn I got use to getting hugs from people all the time everytime I turned around ti seeme dlike I was askign for a hug or someone was asking me for a hug. So if anyone wants an internet hug Im sending out internet hugs for anyone and everyone on this thread.............who wants one......... :hug:
Title: Re: Timberlawn Hospital - mid 80's
Post by: elizabeth on June 10, 2011, 12:40:40 PM
The thing about the situation with the older male patients is this. I never felt violated or abused or traumatized by ti sure it was scary at first but in the end I sort of liked it it was ok. However and I was in Timberlawn in 1982 not 83 sorry got my eyars confused. The thing about Timberlawn in 83 is that it really seems like the staff uh made it more into a  party and turned the other way and really kind of englected us more or less.The parry with the older male patients wasnt that big of deal but obviously tehre was some sexual insinuations going on that they invited us only wioth noone else, the fgact that the staff laughed it off and looked the other way is that they really put us ina  dangerous situation,now luckily nothing happened to traumatize me I wasnt abused, but I lucked out it couldve happened, so the fact that they ignored such situations put us ina dangerous situation.

The fact that they ebcame much more abusive and stricter in later years tells me this. they were still the same old staff that didnt want to take responsibility for didley squat and didnt want to work for their low wage paytcheck and they just did this. They said well weve been in trouble for letting thinsg slip out of control in the past such as the sutuation with the dances with older men and adolescent girls and so they got into trouble for it and they still didnt want to do their job, so what did they do, well we'll just put everyone in restraints and on hard back chair restriction that way we can go back to what we were doing before which is nothing but laying around on their buts not working for their paycheck and sense their all tied down in their rooms they dont have to worry about them getting into trouble and such! thats what it sound slike to me sorry.


Thats my take on the situation!
Title: Re: Timberlawn Hospital - mid 80's
Post by: Ursus on June 13, 2011, 01:26:59 PM
Quote from: "elizabeth"
Anyways, it neevr occured to the staff taht we were underage going to dances with older men. So we were invited and theyd invite us and nobody else,so it was just us adolescent girls with young adult men. I remember being scraed the first time or two, I think it was only once amonth so maybe 6 times the whole time I was there. I was scared and me and my roomamte went together the first couple of times,we were toegther and danced together and tried to stay away from the guys sort of. But like the second time or so dont remember if she was on guy restricted and restricted to go or if we both just loosened up, but I remember the men telling me to come over there and talk to them,they said " hey baby dont be afraid come over here and talk to me". So I went over and we wer eon the patio i think and I sat at the table next to one or two and talked to them all night, and , we slwo danced together and at the end of the night got hugged and kissed good night, it scared me because I was afraid of older men, and when I remembered it this weekend, I remembered feeling seduced by it, like I was scared at first then when they got me to loosen up and not be afraid, I relaxed and felt like I was being sort of sophisticated and mature for dancing with and hanging out with older men. rthey called us nasty names to our faces and made up nicknames for us that were sexually oriented like young s**ts and baby H&s that type of thing.

Well by my last month I was there, we the girls had just about enough of it, some of us were saying'Its wrong tehy shouldnt be talking to us like that its not appropriate". So some of them went to some eladers at timberlawn and also to their parents and told them about it...
What a nightmare. Allowing and enabling older patients, ostensibly in greater command of manipulating the social dynamic, to verbally and psychologically demean younger and more vulnerable patients is never okay. Moreover, the fact that this went on in potentially dangerous circumstances, given the apparent lack of supervision, indicates a flagrant dereliction of duty on the part of staff. I'm surprised this place didn't get sued, whether or not anything really bad happened.
Title: Re: Timberlawn Hospital - mid 80's
Post by: iamartsy on June 16, 2011, 04:11:29 AM
First off who is the gatekeeper? Getting back to the dances, we had one at Halloween on the unit. The staff was thrilled that an older man kept asking me to dance. That night i used dancing to manipulate them. I did not care about him. They all were ready to let me date him. Me, I was like, eh, whatever?The place stole my youth too. We did have chair time on hard chairs and controlled bathroom usage. It was insane! IAmArtsy.
Title: Re: Timberlawn Hospital - mid 80's
Post by: Mr. B on June 16, 2011, 11:47:53 AM
I was there 1986-1987 ( 1 year to the day) and lived first on Bloss then was transferred to the newly completed adolescent unit. It was a surreal experience for me and i try not to think about it much, however the memories do circle back from time-to-time. I was sent to Timberlawn after a series of bad behaviors and poor decisions as a 17 yr old kid with average problems. In hindsight, it was probably a good place for me at the time, however, we all agree that my parents got caught up in the 1980s chic of inpatient therapy. They also had great insurance ( another topic).  I was there too long and spent way too much time in the wrong treatment plan.

Drove by the place not too long ago after a very vivid memory of my stay there. Place has change so much in 25 yrs.
Title: Re: Timberlawn Hospital - mid 80's
Post by: iamartsy on June 16, 2011, 09:16:15 PM
There was no newly constructed adolescent unit that I recall because the adolescent unit was  attached to Chevens. Burkett Was the only new newly constructed unit at that time. Burkett 1 & 2 were adult units.
Title: Re: Timberlawn Hospital - mid 80's
Post by: Mr. B on June 16, 2011, 10:09:00 PM
Well, my mistake on the new construction comment. The unit was the "newer" building located behind the white house... boys on the north side... girls on the south. At any rate, it was nicer than Bloss. It might have been a waiting list or age issue behind my being placed in Bloss from the start.  Dr. Madigan  was my attending PhD. on Bloss and Dr. Ackerman once I transferred to the adolescent unit. No complaints about either doc other than the indoctrination they were under in the 80s.  Anyway, thanks!
Title: Re: Timberlawn Hospital - mid 80's
Post by: iamartsy on June 18, 2011, 01:14:48 AM
Mr. B.,
I had no idea that was a newer building. i thought they were all as old as Cheavens. Cheavens had no hot water and 1 bathroom for every 8 women. Dreadful. Simply dreadful.
Title: Re: Timberlawn Hospital - mid 80's
Post by: N.O.S.O.B. on March 08, 2012, 01:13:50 PM
Title: Timberlawn is shutting down
Post by: Oscar on January 23, 2018, 01:59:15 AM
Quote from: CBS 7
Dallas mental hospital to close before state shuts it down (http://www.cbs7.com/content/news/Dallas-mental-hospital-to-close-before-state-shuts-it-down-470305843.html)
January 20, 2018, CBS 7 (AP)

DALLAS (AP) -- A psychiatric hospital in Dallas says it is voluntarily closing its doors just after state officials threatened to shut down the aging treatment center because it was too dangerous for patients.

The CEO of Timberlawn Behavioral Health System, James Miller, wrote Thursday to staff saying the intention to close the facility comes after "completing a comprehensive, careful review." He told federal health officials the hospital is expected to close in February, the Dallas Morning News reported .

Miller said the hospital made the decision to close back in December, before the state threatened to confiscate its license and fine it $600,000. The hospital is appealing the sanctions.

He cited a decreased patient population and the cost to refurbish aging buildings on the campus as reasons for the closure. He also said management thinks Timberlawn has fixed its safety problems and now complies with federal regulations, though the results of a Jan. 10 government inspection aren't yet available.

Investigators found that in recent years the hospital has faced a series of safety issues. In 2014, a suicidal patient was left alone and killed herself. In 2015, a female patient reported she was raped by another patient. Last year, a teenager who was a victim of past sexual abuse reported another teen patient entered her hospital room and raped her.

The owner of Timberlawn, Universal Health Services Inc., operates a number of mental health facilities in the country and faces many government investigations. The company since 2012 has closed two residential treatment centers for adolescents that faced regulatory sanctions in Virginia and in Illinois.

A 2016 data analysis by the Dallas News found that more than a quarter of over 150 Universal Health hospitals were facing serious safety problems. A spokeswoman for the company did not respond to multiple requests for comment by the newspaper Thursday.

Colette Riel, the sister of the Timberlawn patient who died by suicide, said the hospital's closure means no one else will get hurt at the facility.

But the closure is just "a drop in the bucket," Riel said. "What about the parent company that owns all of these hospitals nationwide and their record and recklessness?"