St. Helena Hospital Center for Behavioral Health

My adult son was transferred to St. Helena in Vallejo from a nearby ER Psychiatric Unit. With my son’s consent, staff there kept us informed. My husband and I live in another state. The social workers in charge of his case, Mary Ann and Kimberly communicated frequently with us. Their knowledge and professional manner instilled confidence that our son was in good hands. They went out of their way to insure that he got home safely to us. A special thank you to Dr. Stoddard who was in charge of his treatment and stabilization. And to Merna, the discharge nurse who was a surrogate mom, going over in detail what my son needed to do to get home. Thank you to all the staff who cared for our son.
S. F.

It was a pretty traumatic experience. The bed and restroom were adequate (but that’s because I was given my own room w/​restroom). There were a few nice-​ish staff, but the rest were extremely rude and never treated me with any decency. If you act like a robot and do anything/​everything they say, they’ll leave you alone and you’ll be released. However, act out and you get dosed up with drugs. Either way you leave over medicated or the same before you got there. None of which are good.

My Daughter has been to nearly every psychiatric hospital in Northern California and this was by far the best. The environment is warm and friendly and you are treated like a member of the family and not like a customer. The customer is not always right at a psychiatric hospital and I was pleasantly surprised to just be treated like a human being. Unlike Kaiser and Burger King where you can «have it your way.»

So basiclly iv been in many facility’s and this is by far the worst. I was embarrassed to let my dad come see me. It’s a short stay facility. But the staff are rude and have no patience. The patients are scary. One tryed to get in bed with me. And it’s dirty. I can’t belive it’s still open. I needed a one to one cause I felt unsafe with my self and they didn’t do anything at all. It’s basiclly for people who have medicare and no insurance my dad said. Anyway I don’t recommend this place for anyone cpecially young kids.

Had to visit someone here. can’t believe this place is allowed to be open. Filthy grounds, rude staff, real life hell on earth for these patients. Shutter everytime I drive by this place.

Hello folks, well for starters. I can say that this place was fine. The staff was kind to my Grandson who was in for 10 days, the food was good, and the place was clean, and I’m a cleaning fanatic. My boy had a one on one with Greg, who was a sweet heart, you know the kind of guy who really gives a darn :)) it’s not easy dealing w/​folks w/​mental problems, they are different, the patients you need, is great. Please get better everyone who was in this facility, and don’t forget to Pray. cause it’s really the only thing that works. Lov Ya — Aloha

Pure evil. The nice people who work are there to cover up for the evil people who work there. My psychiatrist here Dr. Fred Stoddard admitted he does this job simply to ruin peoples lives with the drugs that he admitted have no curative properties, with side effects worse than what they treat. Im just reading his letter he wrote attempting to get me put in a locked long term facility where he specifies that if this dream of his occurs I should have my mouth checked to make sure I take the pills. He’s former military and the hospital runs on military time, I’m not kidding. Yeah the nurses are evil and rude, some of the staff are cool and my best time there was chit chatting with some of the cooler staff. Some of the stuff I saw here was totally nightmarish, like old women being chained to beds and forced to take drugs that made them totally lose their minds when they were doing nothing wrong except complaining about the prospect of having to take that drug. «Ugh I can’t take that drug!» «oh she’s resisting! chain her to the bed and lets give her that exact drug!» Another woman was totally sane and really smart… well she was really really old and little kooky but that’s perfectly normal for someone her age, and they just held her there for sooo long drugging her and it was painful watching her personality slip and start to shake from all the drugs they gave her.
Oh, and I disagreed with one of the people behind the desk three times in a row and she said «you’re being defiant and I’ll have you injected.» I said like one more thing to her while the thugs with the needles got prepared, one pounding his fist into his other hand getting ready for the hold you down inject you in your ass thing and I overheard him say «Time to put down the dog» to his colleague. yeah, treatment at this place is joked about as equivalent to euthanizing animals. Also Fred Stoddard in his written attempt to have me long term committed used political facts that he just chooses to disagree with as justification. This place is watered down mk-​ultra, for real.

Good to know:
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accepting from baby to adult clothing. :)

I was 51−50ed after slitting my wrists when i was in high school. I was sent to this god-​forsaken place by court mandate afterwards, i went in with some severe depression, and an eating disorder, came out much worse off than when i started, this place is absolutely horrendous, filthy, crapped, outdated, poorly staffed, i could go on and on. There were things done to me i am quite sure are not legal. I simply wish to urge people never to go… it is an awful place, it has scarred me mentally for life,
They treat patients like numbered animals, and do not seem to give a sh*t about our general well-​being,
I was forced to stay in this hell-​hole for over a month, where even my legal guardian did not have the authority to get me out, it was the worst experience of my life. I would not wish a stay at this ward upon my worst enemy.

OMG I have the same crappy review as James H. They mistreat the adolescents and nurses have no respect. I’ve complained to the manager but I doubt that he even cares, thats BS! I was on the phone for a min., nurses hang up on me. Happened more than once. Really they hold each patient longer than a week just to make money. Place is dirty and so are the staffs/​nurses. I would never recommend anyone to be admitted here, it shouldnt even the the last choice. You’re better off just seeing a therapist weekly.

One of the most shitties crap hole of a hospital that I think even the employees (nurses, staff, doctors) are high on drugs. There idead of treating the mentally ill is giving them high dosage of anti-​psychotic drugs to sedate them into zombies!
This is a as psycho as a psycho hospital can get. I have vague memories of this awful, dirty, crammed, ancient and when I say ancient I mean ANCIENT. It is almost like a what I would imagine a state hospital or psychiatric ward of a prison would be like. Three beds in a room and no bathroom in the room. So what does that mean? It is enough to deal with a roommate if you are in a bad state yourself, but 2 roommates? Then shared bathroom. I feel so contaminated when I was here a couple of years ago and I don’t even know how I ended up way up in Vallejo when I live in San Jose. Damn insurance!
Here is a day in ST Helena’s– wake up, eat nasty food, the evil nurse says «If you do not take your meds (pulls out a LONG ASS NEEDLE), then you are going to get a shot in your ass!!» wicked ass grin. HA! And I guess at one point everyone refused, because I could of swore I was having a decent conversation with one of my roomy and I swore he played there crap piano like a guy full of talent — but after they gave him those damn fucking drugs and shot, he was zombied out. He couldn’t even play the piano! Damn those fuckers. Excuse my language but I don’t like being given shots or meds that make me look and feel and act like a zombie.