Saint John of God Hospital in Dublin

Photos of Saint John of God Hospital

Customer reviews about Saint John of God Hospital

•  

  Wayne Stakem Added 20/01/2018

  ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆
  I spent a short period in Saint John of God Hospital's Ginesa Suite as a teen back in 2008 having been transferred from an unsuitable HSE-run adult psychiatric unit on the grounds of St. Loman's Hospital in Mullingar, Co. Westmeath, where the treatment was degrading and anti-therapeutic. The staff at Ginesa Suite were very respectful, polite, patient. Unlike HSE-run adult facilities (which are unsuitable for adolescents and children and seem to rarely be complaint with law), the staff at Ginesa Suite will not rob your child of their dignity and human rights. The atmosphere was very warm and welcoming. Your child should feel very safe. The facility is very clean and the food is great.
  
  They get two stars for the above, but not for the competence of their psychiatrists. I do have my criticisms. It was appropriate to administer drugs causing weight gain to an adolescent with an eating disorder. They also failed to diagnose my eating disorder, despite my attempts of dieting while medicated. A member of their staff talked to me about my reluctance to eat properly and I went into detail about my weight concerns and previous dieting behaviors. And they wrongfully diagnosed me with "autism" and didn't take my suicide threats seriously.
  
  A psychiatrist with the HSE fabricated information. I had told him, when he asked me to describe the effects of solvent abuse, that I would hear "noises" (e.g. tones repeating and in patterns) and have involuntary body movements (e.g. head swaying, limbs flopping) during intoxication. Those effects would stop within minutes of ceasing solvent inhalation. He twisted this to "hearing voices and abusing solvents", which disgraceful and reckless. Saint John of Gods did admit that I did not have the mental illness which the HSE were claiming, and they discharged me quite soon into the treatment, while still pending court permission to.
  
  There was an incident in which a female member of staff told me I was not allowed to use a phone. I explained to her that the male member of staff walking out the door had given me permission, but she refused to consult him. She abruptly hung the phone while I was having a conversation with my mother and extremely emotional. I was in the middle of discussing the recent events and if there was any update on when I would be discharged and taken off medications. That female member of staff was a rude, but the rest of the staff seemed nice. I was under a lot of stress, with the weight gain, being falsely imprisoned, having the consent of my family and I taken away, and my real issues ignored, while blatant lies were being perpetuated about me. I had an emotional reaction, ripping the phone out of the wall and kicking a chair over. However, I did not pose any physical harm or threat to anyone. It was an *isolated* incident, not a pattern of behavior, and not representative of my responses to usual situations. It was not me that was the issue but rather the environment and conditions I was put under. It was torturous. And I think my side have been taken into consideration, instead of psychiatrists using this as justification for medicating in his rationalization. The male member of staff (a British man named Stephen), hearing the commotion, came back into suite, and dealt with the matter very well. I was also tormented by a female patient for sometime and tried keeping my clam but eventually lashed out.
  
  Although I would have preferred to have avoided psychiatry and being admitted to a hospital altogether, and did not find psychiatric drugs helpful (they exacerbated some of my issues), if I had no choice but to go through treatment and had to choose a hospital, this would be a much better option than what the HSE has to offer for minors. Based on everything besides the psychiatry. I think many of their faults, but not all, were largely due to the HSE misleading them.
  
  They should not have suggested continuing medication. The HSE neglected my eating disorder upon discharged. I have been suicidal for years because of the treatment.
  
  Two stars for being nice, not psychiatry.

Add review