I was a youth sent to this god awful facility for a "temporary" placement thanks to KVC. My KVC worker said I would only be there for four days but the moment a work week had passed they kept me there for at least 7 to 8 months. The moment I had gotten escorted past the front desk (which is by far the most peaceful area you will see) I was shuffled into an elevator. Everything seemed commonplace until the elevator opened. The child's unit sounded like a war-zone with rapid banging and incessant screaming. The first kid I saw was slung five feet in a choke hold. He was merely running in a hall. They stripped me of my clothing, gave me scrubs that felt the same as a table cloth and stuck me into a ward. I had had no prior problems but defying authority and no other place to live yet the moment I had gotten there they tried to load me down with happy pills. I refused. I was put to bed in a "boat". I am a lanky fellow and found it an intricate process to get comfortable. The next morning (And every day I was there until I left) we were forced to voice our aspirations and have a new goal. Mind you, while being mentally stable I still despised standing there and having to invent a fake goal for the day. So imagine what anyone suffering from anxiety or any other mental condition felt. If you didn't invent one the staff would slow down the meeting until or you would be penalized for not doing so. All in all fights, poor hygiene displayed from other patients, radical behavior from the severely mentally ill, totalitarian staff who could get away with murder, little food that tasted like dryer lint and a lack of activities too vent the ever-increasing frustrations made things only worse. Everything there sucked. My therapist never saw me often, staff just ignored me, the advent of even worse kids made getting through the day without conflict impossible. Don't send your youth here. They will be scarred and mentally damaged from a place that claims to help them! If I had a dollar for every slur or bias thing a staff has said to us kids who speak up my Bugatti would be yellow. It is better than jail at best. Although it has gave me a great degree of discipline and patience. Send as a punishment, not a remedy. I still haven't seen my record or been reprimanded for their actions. Thank you for reading my lanky review. Message if you have questions. We also never got to use the "scenic" environment.
Finally I have to say that no clients want to be in a treatment facility like KVC. Parents want to see their kids and kids want to go back home. When you have some kids in the facility with more difficult behaviors you are doing them no favors by letting those kids go home where they are not in an environment where they are provided with constant supervision. Many kids are not safe even in their own rooms at home because they self-harm have suicidal or homocidal ideation or destroy property. Many kids are not safe for other people when they are physically aggressive at schools that are not prepared to deal with their behaviors. Many kids at KVC would tell their parents just about anything to get released. Many kids I have worked with will act unsafely to be allowed privileges that other kids don't get by staff that are afraid to put them in a hold for fear of re traumatizing the child. It has even been said that kids were allowed to scratch themselves with their fingernails and that KVC direct care staff does not care. I have several times been in the position to intervene with kids doing this very thing. You will sit right by them and they will constantly pull their arms away from you and ask you not to touch them. If the wounds they are creating are barely breaking the skin, should you take a risk of re traumatizing them by putting them in a safety hold? It is impossible for me to believe that the people on reporting on this are unbiased. I wish that people could be on the unit to see for themselves what is happening. Unfortunately that would be a HIPAA violation.
I could go on for days.... I was so onblivious until I was no longer there... I took everything I knew, saw, all inconsistencies and injustices go head of HR upon my termination and was paid out my full PTO..... who does that if you don’t CLEARLY know you’re in the wrong? I wish I was smarter and had better resources/know how to put this places “dirty laundry” out for the public’s view to review before considering placing or sending a child there. The corporate HR director couldn’t argue with ANYTHING in my 8 page rebuttal letter to my termination. EIGHT PAGES.... and I held back! Again, if you terminate someone, the LAST thing you’re going to do is pay them out all of their PTO.... I demanded it with my response to my termination and after much ado, was awarded it. If that doesn’t scream guilty....... they don’t treat their staff any better than they treat their kids, that’s for sure. (Unless you’re in the “in” crowd of course...the crowd saturated with all of the nasty happenings at that hospital).
I work as a direct care staff at KVC. I have seen many negative posts on this site about the care that kiddos receive at KVC Prairie Ridge. It is absolutely false that KVC staff would "put kids in choke holds" not let kids have possessions on the unit or otherwise mistreat kids. Any staff member that witnessed a kid being put in an incorrect hold would be hotlined for child abuse by other staff. Direct care staff at KVC do not want to hurt kids. Kids do, however, frequently become unsafe in the environment and have to be put in restraints to keep them from hurting themselves others other kids or staff. I can tell you that I have personally worked with a kiddo that has repeatedly punched me on the unit and I did not place her in a hold. I was later told by a peer of that client that she was re truamatized by watching these kids be physically aggressive toward their favorite staff.
KVC is terrible place. It is no better than a prison. The people there are violent, and the staff couldn't care less about patients wellbeing. They are verbally abusive and mean, they force people to sleep in "boats" on the floor and lock people in a glorified solitary confinement for the littlest of reasons. There is constant fighting and screaming. I got hit, kicked, punched a shoved simply for being caught in the middle of fights. They don't reject anyone there (not be altruistic, but to make money) so it's filled with the worst of the worst mixed in with the poor people who just have bad insurance. Nobody there gets any help. When I heard they advertised having a scenic environment I almost laughed because we were allowed out for only 30 minutes a day if we were good, in a fenced in area with no more than 200 sq. Feet. Everybody there was absolutely horrible except for my therapist, who was very kind and sympathetic. Unfortunately, the crazy nurses who took over made sure no actual work got done. They didn't give me my glasses until 6 days into my stay. I asked them several times a day for them because I am practically blind. They repeatedly promised to get them for me but never did, and were incredibly rude time for even asking. I was not allowed to eat snacks or read magazines for home, and they weren't able to accommodate my food allergies so i had to go several days without eating before they finally brought me meal replacement shakes. The nurses constantly made horrible threats that they would keep us here forever, and people were always having psychotic outbursts (rightfully so!) There was absolutely nothing to do but watch tv and color in coloring books, and we had to live in quarters the size of a dentist's waiting room area. The "therapy" they gave us was mandatory and counterintuitive. If we didn't say we were happy, they would threaten to keep us longer. Obviously, nobody there was happy, so it was very jarring to here so much praise at therapy on the first day. It was like living in some sort of totalitarian regime where nobody is allowed to speak of move freely, and you are punished until you obey ever single tiny rule. They didn't care about our problems, and actually made people feel worse by yelling at people for not dealing with their problems well enough. 90% of These people were in the foster sysytem and have abusive parents. Many were also victims of violent crimes, neglect, assault, and rape. The nurses had no idea what it was like to have those kinds of problems. They all had families that loved them, and didn't understand what it feels like to be completely alone in a dangerous situation, dealing with abuse. They basically just yelled at us to get over it. Every single nurse was a jaded psychopath (who should've been locked up- not us!!). Please make sure that if a loved one has attempted suicide that you send them somewhere that will actually help them, like good shepherd in Wichita KS. I've been there, and while it's not a fun place to be, it's infinitely better than KVC. In fact, other psychiatric hospitals use being sent to KVC as a threat. Many patients told me that the had been incarcerated before and that KVC was every bit as bad. One girl told me she had been to 27 residential treatment facilities before and that KVC was by far the worst. To top it off, many people have had to be held there for years to beauracratic loopholes, which an absolute nightmare. KVC is a godforsaken hellhole, and you should hope to god that you never have to stay there.
Don’t take your kids here.
It is important to say that some kids do come in with a lot of possessions and that all that stuff cannot remain on the unit. The more things that are allowed on the unit in these kids rooms the more likely the kids possessions can be stolen by other kids. These are kids with behavioral problems. Kid's possessions that come on the unit are not placed behind locked doors as staff needs to be able to check in on kids at all times. Kids are only allowed privacy in the restrooms because frankly, many of these kids have behaviors that make them unsafe any time they are not being provided both sight and sound monitoring by staff. It must be understood that KVC has a no eject no reject policy. This means that we have clients whose behaviors are so difficult that they may have been rejected from other hospitals. KVC direct care staff try to give the best care possible clients of different levels of acuity. It is noted that some kiddos come in for short stays to evaluate their medications and behaviors. Recently KVC has addressed the issue of kids there for short stays being put on the unit with kids who have been at KVC with more difficult behaviors by separating kids coming in for short periods from those that have been there longer. KVC is constantly trying to make changes to the facility to better serve the kids. It is unfortunate that this is a very high stress job and there is a lot of turnover. Staff that talk inappropriately with other staff when they think kids are asleep or cannot hear, or act inappropriately at KVC are not employed there very long.
This hospital is terribly unprofessional. The children wind up involved in staff drama, the staff are not held to very high standards. They have some great staff but the bad apples far outweigh and are unfortunately the ones in control. There are better psych facilities for children and teens out there, I would never willingly send a kid here as a first resort. They are “no eject no reject” meaning they take anyone in and don’t kick anyone out. They say they take “the worst of the worst”. So never seek out this place until you’ve exhausted all other resources. There’s a reason they aren’t picky about who they take. At first I thought it was a beautiful concept, but after working there I see it’s all about money. The kids aren’t lying about sleeping on the floor, couches, in “boats” or having to sleep in locked rooms if all other rooms are full.
Worst. Just the worst. They ran out of rooms and "boats" for me to sleep in, so I had to sleep in the lock down place. Since I was lactose intolerance they continued to give me things with cheese and milk. I asked for soy milk but they refused. I asked for a different meal but they told me not to eat. It was honestly a horrible place. I hated it with my life. In all honesty I just wanted to kill myself more.
Kvc Prairie Ridge Psychiatric Hospital is a US Hospital based in Kansas City, Kansas. Kvc Prairie Ridge Psychiatric Hospital is located at 4300 Brenner Dr, Kansas City, KS 66104, USA.
Please contact with Kvc Prairie Ridge Psychiatric Hospital using information above: Address, Phone number, Fax, Postal code, Website address, E-mail, Facebook. Find Kvc Prairie Ridge Psychiatric Hospital opening hours and driving directions or map. Find real customer reviews and ratings or write your own review.
Find Hospital in Kansas City