Nationwide Children's Hospital Behavioral Health Services — Mental health service in Columbus, OH

If I only left a review based on the treatment from the staff and clinician, this would be five stars. However, anyone who potentially needs this center for a mental health crisis for their child should know that it will be AT LEAST half a days wait before you actually get your child in to see a clinician. We arrived at 8:45 am, went through triage, then we were escorted to a private room where we waited until 2:30 pm before a clinician was able to see us. When your child is in crisis (and therefore YOU are in crisis), this is unacceptable. We were told that they have a shortage of clinicians, which I understand and it’s not the staff’s fault. But the hospital as a whole MUST DO BETTER if they want to continue to promote this place as highly as they do. I don’t know whose fault it is that they only had two clinicians working, but someone needs to fix it because this place is useless if your child can’t handle waiting. That said, Shannon was wonderful. She spent an hour with my son, then time with us as parents, then together, and came up with a solid plan to get him help. The end result was positive, thankfully, and he is in much better shape. But if we need immediate help again, we’ll call the MRSS line instead.

We are extremely disappointed with our experience with Dr. Benjamin H. Albrecht. The delays in communication have been unacceptable, leaving us feeling unsupported during a critical time for our child. Instead of fostering a sense of partnership, Dr. Albrecht’s approach has often felt dismissive and unhelpful. One recent interaction was particularly disheartening, as his response to our concerns came across as not only unhelpful but also somewhat arrogant. This lack of empathy and understanding is especially difficult to accept when our child is suffering daily at school, both emotionally and academically. We are witnessing his academic progress decline day after day, and the lack of meaningful guidance from Dr. Albrecht has only exacerbated our frustration. Parents seeking timely, compassionate, and collaborative care should strongly reconsider before entrusting their child’s well-being to this provider and Health System.

IF YOU HAVE A TROUBLED CHILD, PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU MAKE A DECISION FOR BEST CARE!!! I've read through a lot of the negative reviews and if you look at it through a lens of people who are really going through a major stressor, you'll realize that most of what they have issue with is actually just the care team trying to do what's best for the child. I read one review where someone said they couldn't believe that they were calling the patient kiddo and really I think that that's the least of your worries as a parent if your child lands here. I feel like the care that we received was amazing! Every staff member was top-notch and I know how hard it is to retain staff that really put the patient first especially when the patient is a troubled child. Again please try to remember that most patients are here at the lowest time and the parents oftentimes feel like it could be their fault and therefore may feel more negative due to that fact.

When I saw that Nationwide children's crisis center had such a low score I was completely shocked. Reading through some of the reviews I see now that because tensions are high in a situation that lands you at the crisis center. It appears that has caused people to use their tension to cloud their judgment. I work in human resources and the amount of professionalism, care, kindness, and ability to make tough situations a little better that I have seen from the security guard at the very beginning to people cleaning the restrooms to the person at the gift shop, is something that shows amazing leadership. Please read this review and realize that the negative reviews generally are people who were in a stressful situation and that clouds their judgment. Everyone we have dealt with has had only the children's well-being in mind with any interaction they have. I would recommend this for any family who has a child that is going through a tough time.

We went into our visit with low expectations because of the hospital's reputation among first responders. BUT, we were extremely impressed with the care our daughter received. The wait for a room is long - but that is due to the depth of attention and care being given to the patients who are in those rooms before they are discharged. During her stay, the clinicians were able to get our daughter to talk about things that even her therapist and closest friends did not know. And they were able to provide her with the words and tools she needed to understand and discuss her illness moving forward. We have referrals to a number of outpatient programs that we intend to pursue and we are so grateful for the support we have had from all of the staff. You guys are doing the work that matters!

Where to begin? I was taken here after I ran away and thought about killing myself. I waited for about 3 hours, they told me I was going to be admitted, okay that's fine. The nurse grabbed my WRIST and forced me to show it to her. I wasn't allowed to see anyone except for my mother and grandparents. They forced me to see my grandmother even though I did not want to. I might add I got into my room at 1:30AM. The mattress is a gym mat, thin sheets, one pillow which is so uncomfortable. You cannot have anything in here, they don't even give you toilet paper. Only thing I liked was the fact the lights could change color and dim. Long story short PLEASE do not bring your child here in case of a psychiatric emergency. Take them somewhere else.

The wait was excruciatingly long. I waited 6 hours for a room. I was locked in a consult room for 5 hours. I got my room at 1AM. The therapist i had was not nice, she would side with my abusive dad and never let me talk. My MHS’S were the sweetest people i’ve ever met! Sydney and Makenna were so sweet! Sydney would go on walks with me and we would talk about books, she even offered to bring me a book :,) Makenna was so sympathetic, after every therapy session she would go and make sure i was okay and go on walks and overall be there for me to vent. I will admit, being sent here didn’t help me whatsoever. All i learned was CBT (cognitive behavior therapy; finding cause of stress and solving it) and we didn’t talk about anything i was sent for. As soon as i got home i relapsed. My mental health team was so supportive (minus that one therapist) I loved all my MHS’S they were so freaking sweet! I still think about them to this day. If your seeing this Sydney or Makenna, thank you so much for being there for me during the hardest days of my life. But if i didn’t have those MHS’S i would rate 1/5. Makes you wait for hours before actually hospitalizing you. They legit do not care. If you’re sent to YCSU, you will be bored out of your mind. the only time i got human interaction was therapy. Other than that, i wanst allowed to leave my room. (btw i was in YCSU for 4 days, they only took me in because i said if they sent me home i would kms. I went back today and they sent me home and i still have the urge to SH and hurt myself. I was there for 7 hours this time. My physiatrist was talking down on me and belittling me for not using my safety plan. i didn’t see Sydney or Makenna if you were wondering :(

Below is my original post. However, I do believe that my experience with the professionals there warrants an update. Despite any issues one may encounter with a schedular or other indirect person, the professionals there that assessed and worked with my grandson in person were awesome. They were professional, expert in their areas, trusted and liked by my grandson (who is a trauma patient). It makes what I had experienced in my attempts to schedule appointments worth it. I cannot speak for everyone's experience, however, ours, once we were in, was great. For those persons and the work they did with my grandson, I have added two more stars. ---------- I did not think that I would ever give a negative rating for this hospital. However, after the intentional attempts of the scheduler in the speech department to keep my grandson from making another appointment, rudeness, and I do believe I heard an inappropriate remark whispered by her , I think that it is a good idea to do so. She clearly represents the whole of those who directly work with her (but not the whole hospital) as they behaved similarly. First, the person that would be in charge of his behavioral concerns was yawning the entire time she interviewed and cut off the speech and occupational therapists who had to reschedule with us. I am taking him elsewhere and as for us, all things do work together for our good. I am not at all disappointed beyond that with their behavior. I am glad that I had the opportunity through no fault of our own to see how dark this could be before it could happen. I would never choose this kind of service and will not do it due to their name alone. I know that wherever I take my grandson for care in this regard, the entire experience will be far better. To them, "thank you so much."

Some of the staff is obviously very young and inexperienced, quite unprofessional (girls that room patients upon intake: Please stop calling teenagers “kiddo”! No 15 year old with anger and mood issues wants to be called that ). But the professional staff that evaluates the patients in depth is great. Unfortunately unless your child is homicidal or actively harming themself you will be sent home. After two visits where we waited 8 hours for help we decided never to go back unless we felt a tragedy was imminent. This Behavioral Health pavilion is huge and beautiful. Very sad that they dont possess the staff and beds to actually meet the needs of the community.

My daughter has been struggling with mental health issues for 6 years. We took her in after her first attempt at suicide. The staff was wonderful with her and with our family. They had a really nice comfortable facility for a suicide prevention unit. And they worked to make sure she wasn't bored as she had to wait 3 days to begin her inpatient treatment with YSCU They gave us more useful tools in our week there than we have gotten in 6 years. Even her therapist was impressed at how much the YSCU had my daughter and our family work on. The reason I have them 4 star is we could really use some follow up. My daughter isn't really any emotionally healthier, we just have some better tools. We could use more resources to help her.