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CPEP @ ECMC: AKA: Welcome to 3 Days of Hell
I was in CPEP 5 times in 2019 and it is a horrible place to be. People admitted there are made fun of and basically ignored. Staff are distant and cold and in an inner office surrounded by thick, clear plastic. If you knock on the door or window to say, get a glass of water, oftentimes you are ignored. There are not many beds there and they are usually taken up when you arrive so none are available. Usually a few will open up in 24 hours, but until then, you are given a blanket and you have to sleep on the floor. Another option is pushing two heavy, uncomfortable plastic chairs together and try to sleep on them, but it's impossible to sleep. The chairs are hard and uncomfortable. Besides, all the lights are on, the TV is blaring and people are laughing, yelling and otherwise carrying on, so next to no sleep for 3 days. That alone will ruin your mood.
Also, when you first arrive, nurses tell you that you cannot have your psychiatric medications because "the psychiatrist may put you on a different medication." This is bulls*it. Total bulls*it. I was there 5 times and while I spoke to a psychiatrist every time (you have to wait 3 days to see one), the psychiatrist never, ever put me on any different medications. Never. Within 24 hours of being denied psyche meds, you go into withdrawal and your symptoms, such as anxiety, panic attacks, depression, aggression, kick in full blast and you are there for three days (72 hours) average. The meds help you feel better because they help keep you mentally stable. That's 3 days without your psyche meds. A girl that was there was begging the nurses to give her her nicotine patch, but they refused. I have never smoked, but I can't imagine having to bear nicotine withdrawal for 3 days.
So you are stuck in a large room with about 20-30 people, all of which are off their psyche meds. This makes people even more agitated and unsafe. There are security guards there, but they're usually busy congregating in the corner and making fun of the patients. They called one man Frankenstein. I was made fun of once when I was there as well. The nurses in the station there made fun of me once there myself. I was trying to call a supervisor to complain about the conditions. The number to call is on a poster on a wall IN CPEP. There is one phone on the wall there and everyone has to use it, not unlike being in a prison. I got transferred around and then I spoke to someone. I heard someone say, "Turn around — turn around!" I did so and it was one of the nurses in the station. It was she I was talking to. So in other words, if you want to complain about conditions, good luck. Everyone in the office laughed at me.
So I was off my meds and was terribly depressed, crying over and over again. I was torture. I begged nurses to give me my meds, but they refused. At one point, I threw a pillow at the plastic-surrounded station, startling them all. "This is abuse!" I yelled at them. When you arrive, you are wanted and anything on you that can be used as a weapon - shoelaces and such — are taken from you. This is a good idea, but if someone who is off their meds and walking around possibly deranged comes up behind you, all they need to do is grab your head and yank it — hard — instantly snapping your neck. One man I spoke to who was there was very nervous. "I've never felt so unsafe," he said. This was because a man was walking around, yelling, "at 11 o'clock I'm gonna kill you all!" The bathrooms oftentimes have no toilet paper or no soap. I have to be desperate to take a shower there because you have no idea if the mentally ill person before you without their meds, pissed on the floor. I saw a man in CPEP put his hand down the front of his pants and he kept it there. He then approached the bathroom and turned the door's handle, using the hand that was just down his pants.
Also, you have to wait up to 24 hours to be discharged — or longer. Imagine if you were in the ER and they told you can leave, but then you're stuck in the ER an additional for 24 hours? But in CPEP, things are "different," one of the nurses commented. "Different" my lily-white all-American [censored], yes. You are treated "differently" from other human beings, apparently.
This is just one or two stories. I was so disturbed by my experiences there that I called channel 4 because I feel the conditions and the treatment of patients in CPEP are terrible and the public needs to know about this. The treatment of the mentally ill there, who are there because they were experiencing a mental health crisis, is unacceptable.
The channel 4 volunteer I spoke to about this issue told me about an incident that occurred while he was a security guard there. They were called in to CPEP because someone was being attacked. When he arrived, it was too late. A nurse was laying on the floor, unconscious. These are kinds of unfeeling, scary, unsafe conditions you have to endure for three days. Again; unacceptable. The channel 4 volunteer encouraged me to speak to an investigative reporter and I'm thinking of doing this soon. I am thinking of contacting channel 2 and 7 as well. CPEP is an appalling place for the suffering mentally ill. I go to a day program for the mentally ill that I have been going to for over 2 years, and I have spoken to many people there about their experiences in CPEP and all of their stories are heartbreaking. Another option I can take is to call the New York State Department of Health and I guess they can come in any time and do a "surprise" inspection. A nurse that was actually a patient at CPEP told me about calling the Health Department, but she warned me: "Don't mention the Department of Health while you're in here — they don't like to hear that." Interesting...
If you or anyone you love has been in CPEP, and feels they were mistreated in some way, please come forward to stop the conditions there. I know you are out there. CPEP is not safe emotionally, physically, or mentally. Go public. Don't be afraid. Do it for all of us mentally ill people — you'll have hundreds of people behind you and supporting you. I know I will be! I'm going to post my story in other public places online as well. Good luck.
My recent experience September 2023 at CPEP Erie County Medical Center.
Here is another example on how people are treat in CPEP that are brought in.
A lady who was there had a problem with a contact stuck in her eye and her foot was swollen, red. she was very concerned that her foot had an infection in it and no matter how she tried she could not get the contact lens removed from her eye. She repeatedly complained to the staff of CPEP about these two issues nothing was done for hours. Eventually she was taken to ER to get the foot looked at and to address the lens contact stuck in her eye. She comes back to CPEP and told me that nothing was done about the foot as they didn't think it was infected and they could not do anything with the contact lens because they didn't have suction tool to remove from the contact lens because the ER did not have a suction tool to remove an eye contact.. The patient contacted somebody that she knew and asked them to bring the contact suction tool to CPEP. Again, a long time went by before this happened. The required tool was brought and the nurses dragged their butt to do whatever needed to be done to get the contact lens removed. The contact lens was successfully removed from the eye using this special tool however it took hours and a lot of complaining by the person to make this happen. There is absolutely no excuse for this and I even spoke up about it. I told them hey you got to do something about this having a contact lens stuck in an eye is not good. Unbelievable...
The room accommodations where everyone is kept is ridiculous. First of all I can understand you want the area of the room open in order to keep an eye on everyone - I get that. But if they designed it better it would eliminate a lot of the stress and anxiety and reactions by the patients who are in there. Along the wall of the perimeter of the room there should be cots with one chair and then a half wall divider for each person. The room is large enough where you could easily get 30 or 40 cots with this divider and chair and one cot. You could even then have eight cots in the center section. Then tables. What this will do is encourage the patients just to lay down on the cot and either go to sleep or rest then they wouldn't be walking around the center of the room all agitated. The half walls would then provide some privacy but it would be open enough where the staff could see the patients. Also, have video cameras in the ceiling looking at all the cots to keep an eye on the patients. I could come up with a half a dozen different better designs for the room that would eliminate the anxiety and out lashes by the patients.
Erie County Medical Center CPEP is nothing but a joke that tortures the patients. The CPEP unit should be shut down.
There is no resolution to how the CPEP unit works at ECMC. The unit should be shut down.. I have no idea why it is part of the hospital. That type of unit should be a completely separate facility.
My recent experience september 2023... I was brought in under a 941 police order... Something tragic happened and I wanted to end it for myself. They dragged me in to CPEP at Erie County Medical Center Buffalo. Removed all my things except my clothing. They did let me keep my shoes on... Put me in a large room with other people. The room was cold. hey had some lay down pieces of furniture but not a cot. Not enough of these were available for the people. Many people were on the floor or sitting in chairs trying to get some rest. Wrapped in blankets because it was cold in the room.
Hours went by before initially seen by someone. I was not initially seen in two hours. The next day waited all day. finally I was seen by the doctor... I was fortunately released but it was very bad experience... People said I was lucky to be released so quick only a day and a half.
This is how the CPEP unit plays their game. They have staff people that sit at a table within the room with all these people who were brought in. The staff closely observes the people taking notes of the people and to take count making sure everyone is there that are supposed to be. No idea where people are going to escape to as it is one large open room with nowhere to escape...
I struck up a lengthy conversation with the staff workers in the room and even complain about how people are treated and they themselves are afraid to be in the room with all the people who are brought into the CPEP.
My question is what is the purpose of holding people in captive? They do not provide help. Makes no sense. SOme people who are brought in are bad. I will agree to that. These people need highly specialized personalized care. CPEP cannot provide that. Pointless. and being in CPEP drives people crazy. One person started pounding the glass and kicking the doors screaming. Another person started screaming to get attention. They came and sedated here with a shot of something. The person who was pounding on the glass and kicking the doors was removed out of the room. Who knows where they took him. You try and get any type of status answer the staff tell you they do not know or they lie to you.
There is nothing nice to say about CPEP.
I completely agree, I'm a minor and i have been to cpep over 25 times. Out of those 25 times I've been admitted to their adolescents floor twice. TWICE. if you ask me I think that is ridiculous. I've been laughed at by doctors, and talked about and laughed at by nurses in the nurses station (the thick glass wall). We are forced to eat frozen sandwiches for the time being we are down there. The meat on the sandwich is so dry to bread sticks to it. Its awful. I f*cking hate it there. I was there last week in cpep for 5 days. 5. all because they were to god damn lazy to send Brylin a referral. I'm now actually at brylin and its not much better than ecmc.
Ecmc dental clinic and oral dental clinic
We were sent to dental clinic from er they would not help us because they close at four the nurse even took our paperwork from us because shed fill it out I was to slow and she had places to be unexceptionable nothing was done then sent to oral three days later the resident and oral dr were rude didnt care about patients pain nothing told us no opening s for dental surgery till 2022 etc etc I will never go there again they shouldnt even have a license to practice