Burrell Behavioral Health's Online Review Report Card

I guess I expected more from the biggest mental health agency in southeast Missouri. This isn't necessarily a bad review, just my experience in case it helps others. I have struggled to find counseling that I can afford and I was excited to learn that Burrell would take my insurance (Ambetter) and it would be basically free. They got me in for intake pretty much right away. The building is kinda confusing, but everyone was helpful giving me directions. They took my information and told me they would schedule an intake session but left me waiting for a while before telling me that they actually were going to call to schedule. Then it was about two weeks before I was scheduled for intake. That intake was rescheduled a few times. I loved the girl I did the intake with. I heard nothing after the intake. I called about a month after and they said they would call me when I could meet with someone. I didn't hear anything for 3 months. Finally started meeting with a therapist. I'd met with intern counselors in the past, so I was excited to be with a licensed therapist. She was fine, I guess. I didn't dislike her. I will say that I thought meeting in her office was weird and impersonal. Her office felt kinda chaotic and not really client oriented. It felt like if you were in a realtor's office or something. By week three we were still doing intake stuff... We never got to any actual therapy before I left. Also, just a personal issue, but my main issue is anxiety and she literally told me that anxiety is healthy and we were not going to work on it. I understood what she was saying, but it felt very invalidating.

I give up on getting help for my mental illness. And this place solidified that at the end of the day everything is my fault and all my problems would go away if I just stop being so depressed and a burden to people.

This review is for: LORRI J DARROW, PSYCHIATRISTI have been in contact with Lorri for around 6 to 8 months. I have never seen her. All my appointments have been done over the phone. I had to look her up online to see a picture of her. I don't really like or agree with the phone appointments. It's impersonal and I don't feel like my doctor really understands me. Part of psychology and psychiatry is to read body movements, gestures, where someone is looking when speaking. I feel that an intregal part of my therapy is being missed. I don't know how much she charges for private pay because I'm on Medicare and only pay a $25 co pay. I have searched for an email for her as I need to let her know about one of my medications and the office is closed on Sundays. The Burrell offices don't have a phone message center either. There are no doctors on call on the weekends or holidays. I consider this malpractice. If you want a doctor that actually gets involved with your care, go somewhere else.

I don’t know what is happening with mental health but I can’t get help with my severe anxiety which is causing me physical pain. I went to this facility three months ago. First month I was prescribed blood pressure meds which I can’t take cuz I have low blood pressure. Second month an antihistamine which did nothing. Third month after staying in chronic pain this whole time they told me they’ve done all they can for me and to go to pain management.

EDIT: Not long after this post was made, I got a call saying that out of "courtesy" they'd erase my debt. How kind, but I'm glad this nightmare is over. The clinicians are absolutely wonderful. Dr. Gary June, Kristin Buckley, Paul Schulte, they are saints among humans, and I'd recommend if you have to go through Burrell to go with any of them. I owe a lot to the kind people working here, the therapists and the customer service staff. However where their frontline workers excell their admin and billing departments are abysmal. Just one example, it's been almost a year since my son was tested for Autism and I was told by a Summer (who I have learned no longer works here) that all I'd have to pay, with my insurance, was $114. (My insurance hasn't changed in all this time, by the way.) I paid in full on the day of the testing, and the clinicians were wonderful with my son. Great experience. Afterward, though, I kept getting bills, and I'd then call and tell them I won't be paying because I was told that I didn't have to pay anything else outside of that $114 on the day of my son's appointment. The billing department kept bouncing me around before finally saying "Oh we'll run it through insurance again." Then I'd wait, twittle my thumbs a bit, and get another phone call, asking me to pay the remaining balance only for me to explain the situation again. Then the cycle continued. And I feel like it will never end. I wish my clinicans were private practice. They are positively incredible. Burrell, as a whole, is horrendous, and it's kind of sus that all of their previous reviews have suddenly *disappeared*. Hmm.... Makes you wonder...

My appointments kept being canceled. My initial appointment, a walk in, went great, but when I tried to make appointments afterward they kept getting canceled. This was true starting because each appointment was a month or two out from the original. The cancelation has happened more than once. It is so frustrating and disappointing to me at this point that I am looking at other options other than Burrell.

Stop. Look down. What do you see?Six reviews. ALL of them ONE STAR!Why?!?? Well, read them all and find out.This place is a NIGHTMARE!!!!The last thing someone battling a mental illness wants to hear is someone forcing a diagnosis on them that's not valid. The next thing a person battling mental illness doesn't want to hear is these beautiful lines I have been witness too..."I'm not going to give you an excuse to hurt someone.""Just because you saw it in a movie doesn't mean...""Just because you saw it on the internet...""Sure you would think that because it's cool to think...""Your just having a flare up."I came in because I was suicidal I have bipolar disorder one and I haven't taken my medicine in over a year I went through the process I saw a shrink I got scheduled for therapy and a psychiatrist I went to therapy for over a month before realizing that these people had describe me as having PTSD. Nothing else.There plan was to get the bipolar dropped and get me off medicine all together.Why on gods green earth would you be telling someone who had been off their meds for a year and suffered almost catastrophic results because of it that you want them off meds for good!???!??!!!!??If you have a loved one going here please PLEASE tell them to stop going and go else where. No one should have to walk through their doors and listen to their BS. The only saving grace was my tele-health guy. He knew what was wrong and asked for a certain therapy, to which the people at burrel ignored and then said his only job was to sell medicine. Yep. That's burrel. I can't imagine how many people took their own lives due to their total lack of compassion and understanding. 95% of these people SHOULD NEVER!!! And I mean NEVER WORK with people with mental illnesses. It's god smacking that no one investigates this place for malpractice. Long story short avoid at all cost!!!

Couldn't even get in during the walk in clinic while I was in my transition of moving and on sample packs on medicine I was about out of. I had to go to back home just to make sure I didn't run out my antidepressants because if it was for this place I wouldn't of gotten in in time to get anymore I would've had to of stopped them. Which is obviously the biggest no no to do. I was disappointed. If someone really needs the help, help them. I wasn't that one.

I spent 6 months trying to get EMDR treatment for my PTSD here. I never got one treatment. They said they needed to get to know me better. After 6 months, my psychologist just left. Without telling me that my psychologist was gone, they let me sit in the waiting room for 30 minutes and rescheduled me for the next week. Again, no psychologist, this time they told me I would have to start over from scratch, still with not even one EMDR treatment, so I was fed up and left.So I still have PTSD, and now I'm getting divorced. So I decide to try again. After a 2 hour scheduling appointment I finally get an appointment set a month out, but the scheduler wrote the wrong date down. I end up missing the appointment, and I'm told that I need to go to a no show clinic now to try to get another appointment. So I'm faced with needing to spend another 2 hours to just get an appointment scheduled. By the time I'll see a doctor, my divorce will be finalized next month. This place is such a black hole for sucking out time, and I'm not sure of one positive thing I've ever got out of them. I'm now looking to go outside my insurance coverage, because I don't see the sense in using a place that makes you jump through hoop after hoop when all I'm looking for is someone to help talk me through a stressful time. All they do is add to your stress.

I've had three different therapists through Burrell and have not had good experiences with any of them. Two of them were obviously uncomfortable with my sexuality as a queer woman. When I explained my concerns with coming out to my family, the first therapist talked to me about how conversion therapy was no longer practiced. Yeah... no kidding. A therapist's office is the last place I needed to be shamed about who I am. The next lady I had told me to combat my depression by doing things that make me happy when I'm not depressed. Then proceeded to tell me that she didn't care if I took her advice or not since it's "not her life." That's a great thing to tell someone with PTSD from emotional trauma that is triggered my rejection. She then moved out of state and didn't tell me about it until three days before she was leaving. It took about two months to get into the third therapist that she referred me to. The third therapist told me that I may begin to like men more (romantically) if we dealt with the issues I have with my father. I just looove being treated like my sexuality is a symptom of my mental illness... I decided to try giving number three a chance even after that little gem. Unfortunately I was unable to make it to an appointment. Then I got anxiety about going to the next appointment and missed that too. She then sent a letter saying that all my appointments were cancelled and to call in if I wanted to reschedule, which I tried to do. I was rerouted four times before I got to her office. Then was rerouted again after someone tried to schedule me only to be told that my file was closed and I would have to see a new therapist. I called the referral office to get an appointment with a new doctor and was told that I would have to wait TWO MORE MONTHS to see anyone. That's just fabulous since I'm having suicidal ideation and the impulse to self harm is getting harder to ignore every day. Honestly, I feel more alone and hopeless now than I did before I ever began my journey with Burrell. If you can go anywhere else, I would.