“At the time I was admitted I was suffering from an eating disorder, depression, and suicidal thoughts. All stemming from being repeatedly raped by a classmate and neighbor. At the time I had only told one person, a guidance counselor at my school, the day I tried to kill myself at school. I was terrified to talk about what happened because the boy who assaulted me was more popular and told me that no one would believe me.
A few months after I was hospitalized, I finally confided in my psychiatrist about being raped. I told him it was a classmate/neighbor who lived across the street from me who did it. I remember being terrified. I remember being scared to tell him because of what my rapist said and because I did not want to be kept at the hospital any longer. I thought telling him would help… it did not. He never reported my rape to DCF, so that it could be investigated as required by law as a mandated reporter. He never informed my mother of the rapes. We never talked about the rapes again. He medicated me with medication that made me sick. I have handwritten medical records from my doctor from our sessions to prove all of this. I tried to tell doctors and nurses there that the medication was making me sick, but they just kept upping the dosage. I later found out there was a note on my intake form about sensitivity to those medications that was ignored. The medications made me angry and suicidal instead of helping like intended. I was tackled to the ground by multiple grown men, forcefully medicated, stripped, and taken out to public spaces on our mixed-gender unit. It was humiliating. I was also put in a quiet room for the smallest infraction.
When my mother voiced concerns about my medication and treatment, they misled her (I have records of this.) While I was excited when I finally got to leave the hospital, I found out years later that the hospital never even bothered to put my disclosure of rape in my discharge form, even though they updated my diagnosis to PTSD. For that reason, no one knew to treat me as a rape survivor at other facilities I was placed in. I would have talked about my rape, but I was terrified, and I figured my rapist was right that my doctor did not believe me, as no action was taken the first time I disclosed it. What made it worse was after I disclosed the rape they continued to allow me to go home on pass without any discussion with my mother about the assaults and without having a safety plan put in place; knowing I lived across from my rapist and he could do it again. Years later my rapist stalked me. If I had support in reporting him that never would have happened. I also found out years later he was harassing my mother while I was in the hospital. She had to call the police on him. He had always been sort of a close family friend and my mother would have taken more action to protect her own safety and mine if she had known about the assaults.
While at that hospital I also witnessed small children from other units left in quiet rooms with the window blocked off screaming until they peed themselves. I was threatened constantly that I would not be able to see my mother and would lose visitation for even communicating that I was suicidal. They also misled my mother about the education I was receiving. I have a copy of an old assignment in my medical records. They told her I was doing high school work when in reality they had me doing basic addition type assignments, so I fell behind in my studies. Thankfully that hospital was shut down due to unsafe conditions for staff and kids and possible Medicaid fraud. They were suspected of trying to keep kids in there as long as possible to collect insurance payments.
That hospital may be shut down but Arbour hospitals still operate and are abusive. There have been sexual assaults, suspicious deaths, and possibly coverups of foul play when death has been involved. These hospitals need to be shut down. I am still traumatized to this day about what happened to me during my time there.”