Aurora Charter Oak Behavioral Health Care - Covina, California

Michael Guzman Hernandez

I would strongly advise against having your family members admitted to this behavioral health facility. My brother was recently admitted, and our experience has been incredibly frustrating. Despite multiple attempts by his primary care physician to contact the psychiatrist for a transfer request, there has been no response. This lack of communication is unacceptable, especially when we are trying to ensure the best care for my brother.

We have already identified a facility that would be a much better fit for him, where patients are closer to his age, and we are working to facilitate the transfer. However, the level of inconsistency at this facility has been alarming. The case managers' communication does not align with the orders provided by the doctors, indicating a serious breakdown in communication. While I understand they may be understaffed and overwhelmed, this does not excuse the lack of updates or transparency, especially when my brother has given written and verbal permission for a family member to be involved in his care.

Due to these ongoing issues, we are now seeking legal advice and have notified my brother's health insurance about the concerning situation at this facility. We are taking action to ensure my brother receives the care he deserves.

If necessary, we are prepared to escalate this issue through social media and other platforms to make sure this is addressed (I HAVE THE NETWORK FOR THIS).

Once I have a clear, written step-by-step process for a successful transfer, I will share it here to help others avoid the challenges we’ve faced.

PS: I wanted to give the benefit of the doubt to the reviews, but the negative reviews match our experience.

Monica Bellamy

Do not come here at all especially if you’re seeking mental health support or a voluntary 72-hr hold... They treat you like garbage especially if you are black woman in C unit . I witness very unprofessional and low quality care as I’ve experienced very discriminatory and biased treatment with The psychiatrist saying what did I do to get assaulted as he looked me up and down and a sexist, and very disturbing manner. I experienced mistreatment from few but most nurse staff especially from C unit who got me sent to another unit for my intentions and try to label me as aggressive after asking to voluntarily sign myself out then they restricted me by having me in isolation room while causing trauma and trying to scare me with needles to “calm down” after their reactive abuse. Their primary goal is to medicate you and not look at your symptoms for wellness.

They truly do not know how to care for patients with trauma. I am really grateful for nurse May and her intervention. She is the sweetest angel in that facility.

They will treat you like a prisoner, and when asking for a certain supplies to take showers, they will ignore you or angry or aggressively certain patients. When trying to call the patient advocate line, the phone is never answered, and I feel like this is done on purpose.

Rosa Ochoa

My daughter was admitted to Aurora Charter Oak in 2022 & held for 51/50. 72 hours. I will forever be thankful to the employees who helped her. I'm surprised to hear all the negative comments. This place was nurturing & caring. She has since been admitted to 2 other facilities & neither compare to Aurora Charter Oak. She's been sober for almost 1 year & returned to school. Her recovery is going well. Thank you Aurora Charter Oaks for ALL you do. Working there is not an easy job, so thankful for you ALL.

Ashley Martinez

Was here about 13-14 years ago. Crazy how they haven't changed much looking at these comments. When I was there, the bed wasn't very comfortable, woke up sore. A good majority of the staff seemed to just be there for a paycheck. My psychiatrist wasn't all that great. Was sent home after 7 days with no medication or coping skills, only spoke to a therapist once maybe twice. I wouldn't reccomend this place, if it's a last resort ditch effort sure. But I wouldn't put this facility at the top of the list by any means.

Joel Hochhalter

I was here a few months ago, hospitals are never really a fun place, but a few things stand out, I was shoved into a wall by another patient and got a bruise, thankfully the staff helped me out and took care of it.My doctor was waiting to talk to me when I was on the phone, I told him and some other people with him to hang on a second. When I got off the phone they were gone and someone told me "they left, I told you they don't wait" guy didn't tell me shit, didn't like the way he was talking to me. A lot of people getting into fist fights there, couldn't wait to leave, felt like I was paying someone to lock me up.

Tiffany Chavaria

Still traumatized to this day. Had to witness a parent go through a postpartum episode when I was a child. This place was NOT the place to be handling such a case. This was back in the early 2000s. To this day I am not confident that this facility has the proper training on postpartum cases, which are complex and differs from person to person. The mental health care in this country is absolute garbage. Cannot believe this place is still being funded.

MAXX O

Very cruel facility.

Showers don't work, and 27 people have to share the two "working" cold showers.

Upon arrival, they lie and tell you that you will be released quickly to get you to sign the intake form.

According to everyone I've spoken with, this is a guaranteed opportunity for them to hold you the 3 days they are allowed to legally hold you

The staff then basically forces you to take medications that they feel you and every patient entering the facility need without even analyzing the patient or their behavior.

If you decline or ask questions, they then say you are being combative and will literally hold you down and force you to take a shot of a medication they will tell you is mandatory for you to take.

A very short man with long hair even screamed at me and cursed at me to take medications upon arrival.

I declined what i was offered because I believed it was my right and this man proceeded to scream at me telling me what he believed i was basically crazy and he yelled at me to lay down as him and 3 other full sized men forced my body into the concrete bed they place you in upon arrival at the facility.

Mind you, I have had a fear of needles my entire life, and I am still recovering psychologically from my very long and unwarranted stay at this facility.

Management has no clue what is going on with patients' mental health, and the communication between nurses/doctors /patients is terrible if it even exists at all.

They do anything they can to keep you here until your court date, then they release you right before.. It's very sad that this facility is not under more scrutiny by whoever owns/manages this facility.

I have made multiple attempts to reach out to this facility in regard to the medications I was forced to take while there, and they refuse to help me at all.

They tell you that if you don't take the medication, then it will delay your stay at the facility.

My operations manager for a project im working on was also stranded in california and majorly inconvenienced do to my stay at the facility.

She had to basically threaten the facility legally in order to have me released from here, but even that took days to do so, and she had to sleep on the bench in front of the property in order for staff to release me and not lie about my mental health and what I was requesting from the doctor and staff at the facility, and she begged daily for me to be released.

Sadly, I suffered a lot of trauma, and my life truly will never be the same after my stay here.

The case manager and patient advocates do almost nothing for the patients because they are assigned way too many cases to overview.

I suffered majorly due to certain staff members' desire to extend my stay there in order to be paid more money by my insurance and myself.

Will never be the same after what I witnessed at this facility. Be very careful with your family and protect yourself if you seek help from this place.

. Most of the doctors don't care about the patient and i know this becausei requested to have my doctor switched 3 times while i was there, but even that took a very long time and I had to beg for it to happen.

*I must note there are a very small select few staff members whom I was able to befriend there who were very kind and made my stay there as comfortable as they could.

It was a pleasure to meet them, and I will forever be grateful for their attempts at making my stay here livable at the very least but being a business owner, it's sad to see that a facility in California is being ran like this.

I am disappointed as an American that I was treated this way and I will make sure that a business like this is not allowed to operate like this in a community I also do business in.

I don't have children, but if I did I would NEVER send my child here.

Unfortunately it is not up to staff who owns and maintains this facility, so most of the staff working here is miserable all day and complains about how they are overworked and underpaid for the services they are delivering to their employer/ Aurora Charter Oak.

LeeAnne Conroy

They hold you against your will as long as you have good insurance. There is no such thing as a "72 hour" hold! The staff is uneducated, unqualified and just downright mean and unintelligent. I was denied my medication that I take daily for an unrelated condition. In the 6 days I was there I saw an actual doctor for a whopping 3 minutes. I was never given a reason why I was being held against my will after the mandatory 72 hour hold had expired. I did everything they asked and only complained once about our shower not working. The scariest part was the fact that it was co-ed in a mental institution. That means any of the male patients could have come into our room while we slept and do God knows what!
To all of you still in there and those who managed to survive it, don't worry. I'm talking with my attorney and action WILL be taken! We're gonna shut it down and stop the abuse!