West Niagara Mental Health Program

My experience here has been positive overall. Given the work that the people do here is not easy (many individuals will struggle with mental health regardless of care), that being said I would say they have helped me greatly and I would recommend them to anyone.

The drs here do not give accurate assessments, very clinical and in my opinion not open minded. Need culture and diversity training as well as LGBT+ competence training. Poor atmosphere and overal demeanour of staff, absolutely would not recommend someone here.

Where do I begin. As my DBT journey comes to an end, I reflect on what a positive experience this was, not only for myself, but my family and friends. DBT has given me another chance. Another chance to finally live my life worth living. I need to thank my team, because without them I would not be where I am today. To Peggy, you are truly a comforting individual. You always made me feel welcomed. To Dr. Rutherford, thank you for not "sugar coating" things and for believing in me. To April and Jackie. You are both the faces of DBT. You taught me how to believe in myself and also filled my life with so many valuable tools. And last but not least, to Chris. Wow. You are exactly where you need to be. Words cannot begin to describe the gratitude I have for you. You have empowered me along this journey of recovery. I've got this! To anyone who is reading this, please believe in yourself and in this wonderful team at WNMH. Let them guide you down your road to recovery.

Had to call and cancel an appointment for this week because I'm a supply EA and work just pops up. After being off for 4 months on stress leave I couldn't afford to take any more days off. When I called to reschedule Peggy said "sounds likes you don't even need us". How rude. What gives you the right to say that to someone, especially when dealing with people that are suffering from mental health. You have no idea what I am going through, just because I need to reschedule.

This will be the most comprehensive review I will ever make to the public so be prepared to read lots, as you should since you will be here for a considerable amount of time if you choose this place to receive medical treatment for your mental illness. Just to clarify before I begin, I have seen 3 therapists before my social worker I saw whose name was Chris so I have an idea of how the "typical" therapist acts and behaves. As a disclaimer, if you mention a name "Mike Hawk" you will not receive an answer from Chris as for #1 he can't give out patent details due to a confidentiality clause and #2 He never treated anyone named Mike Hawk as it's an alter ego. Chris was a true savior in every sense of the word. His skills in medicine, philosophy (even though we disagree in some areas), and general wisdom was something to be grateful for. His skills are not only welcome as a patient but his skills are necessary for the future of field of psychiatric treatment. He followed strict regulations and procedures for various cognitive treatments he used on me as well as the in-house program that they are currently working on. I don't wish to disclose any information in fear to breach some kind of confidentiality clause that they are under since it's still in work in progress/research. Please ask Chris or other social workers here and they would be glad to tell you about it though. The program follows CBT pretty closely anyhow. Chris saved my life with the help of friends and family. At the end of our sessions I wished I could say we were friends, I really did. But I know that it's very against their code of conduct to make a relationship outside of practice with a patient. He cares about you and he makes it clear that he does. He really tries to be as unbiased and as nonjudgmental as possible. Even when dealing with a very specific illness and somewhat rare, he was able to identify and treat it with the help of the other staff members there. He's also currently in further study in the field of medicine (2019) and a teacher at McMaster University. Ask him about it! Ok enough of how cool Chris is, essentially what will happen there at least in my experience with the outpatient treatment there is that they will first ask you what's wrong, take some measurements asking you about your mental health like how suicidal are you or if you can't relax after work etc. Then he will go back and ask Psychiatrists if this is the right treatment if needed or he will just say this is what we are going to do since I've seen 1,000 other cases like yours before. I really recommend you ask as many questions as possible to your provider here so not only you can be more comfortable each session but so you can learn more about yourself and how others psychologically operate. Your knowledge you will learn here will eventually make you into your own "little therapist" to make it sound cute which is exactly what they want when you walk out of the building for the last time. I hope before I left I thanked him enough to make sure he understood how important he is as a human being. He may not be perfect especially in regards to understanding philosophy (which is arguably not entirely problematic) but If you see Chris you're in good hands. Go do yourself and everyone around you a pleasure and go see this man or at the least someone at this clinic if you need help with a mental illness.

2 months after doctor referral to get an appointment, 90 minutes to get a tentative and very reasonable diagnosis, was given a counsellor to meet with monthly and put on a 1 year waitlist for treatment. No fault of the people working here, they were great, just be prepared to wait as with most mental health treatment.