SpringBrook Behavioral Health System

When I agreed to allow my child to be placed at Springbrook Behavioral Health in Travelers Rest, SC I had no idea that in recent years they had 96 reports of abuse. She was a patient from 05/29/14-10/19/14. While my child was a patient two staff assaulted an autistic child on her unit on September 23, 2014. My child had a staff thrown on her in the incident. The entire thing was caught on video. Through over a year of phone calls and complaints filed I was finally able to get people to listen. I am so grateful that the Post and Courier has recently done a series of stories highlighting the abuse that takes place in facilities like Springbrook. In fact, Springbrook was one of the worst facilities in South Carolina with 96 reports of abuse.I agreed to toss out privacy for the sake of safety for my girls and the many children who require out of home treatment in group homes or residential placements or who due to no fault of their own end up in foster care. Our most vulnerable children deserve better treatment from professionals paid thousands of dollars to care for them.You can read the specifics of my daughters incident at the link listed below or search "Warehousing Our Children" on the Post and Couriers website to read the series documenting the abuse and neglect at Springbrook and other facilities.

My son recently participated in the acute autism program. He is severely autistic and is a very tall, large boy with behavioral problems. I was very pleased with the treatment he received there. I know that he is quite a handful and was scared to death of leaving him there because I feared that he would hurt other kids. The staff there handled him very well and kept a male staff member with him at all times (which is what he needed). They adjusted his medication and worked with him one on one. He couldn't have a roommate because of his behaviors so they let him stay in a room alone. Teresa Thompson was wonderful and so were the other staff members I interacted with. I think very highly of this program and this facility.