Reviews of CENTER FOR PSYCHIATRIC WELLNESS (cpw) (Psychiatrist)

Xeracia

Worst experience ever! I had 2 cancelations because I had to have surgery & was very ill & they told me I could see dr Kendrick anymore! They’re office is poorly ran! I had a appointment scheduled that I never canceled & they thought it was okay to cancel it & put another person in my spot & I showed up to that appointment & they told me to leave! Such disrespect & I’ll never go here again!

Pearlsage74119

Previously I had given them 5 stars, however, due to how they handled an incident I'd give them no stars. It was coming up on a big deal anniversary for me and I told the therapist I saw I was having a hard time controlling myself and why. She tells me to call a hotline while we were in our session. No coping exercises just if I feel like I'm going to hurt myself or someone "stop it all ... Bc the head works like that" and call a hotline. The next night I lost control of my trigger in a parking lot. The next day I was in the office getting paperwork for my file and I saw my therapist and told her what happened. She and her colleague proceeded to laugh in my face! My next appointment was for meds and I told who I saw about my therapist actions, she told me I need to talk to the office manager. I did so, while going without therapy waiting for her decision.. "continue to see Tara or we can give you a referral to wherever you want....but we can't garuntee how long you will have to wait to be seen" said the office manager. Huge lack of compassion, professionalism and integrity of the service their educated personnel give to people seeking help for mental health. Who laughs at their patient that just told them their PTSD was amped because it was the anniversary month of the event? Who doesn't take the behavior of this "professional" they employed more serious due to possible triggers leading to even more violent behavior? Who would expect someone to maintain trust in this professional and want to continue to see them? How do you rationalize shuffling them off when they obviously are in a state of needing guidance and counseling from a professional and not someone with "that" piece of paper that lacks the ability to not act like a high school student towards their patient when approached and told about the fear they expressed prior to the incident? NEVER have I had someone who was supposed to be a professional of any type make me feel like she did that day and I hope, for the sake of others, she doesn't do this to anyone else. OH! And Tara tried telling me she wasn't educated in trauma our first session and the office manager said ALL the therapist were trained/educated in trauma when I went to talk to her about being laughed at, in my face, over my triggered episode. They had 5 stars from me and one person in the office changed my entire opinion. However if not for this I wouldn't have found Perspectives and Dr Baker and my therapist, John, that I have now. They get ten stars if I could give that many!

Lauren Robertson

Always a great experience ????

Kelly

I was seeing Dr Gattis and he is fantastic! However my insurance changed. My new insurance paid them $25 less a visit and so they dropped me as their patient because they weren’t going to get enough money out of me anymore. These people are greedy and care more about money than their patients

Abby Williams

Long story short. Receptionist was rude and continually provoking mental ill. A shining example how someone with her disposition should not be allowed to work in mental health profession.

Serenity Wood (iiRenity)

Awful receptionist and manager. Couldn’t make it to my appointment on time due to a bad wreck blocking the ways to get there. I informed them I would be 10 minutes late. I was welcomed with the response of “we will only allow 5-7 minutes” and that I would be billed for missing my appointment. A three minute difference. They’re willing to lose a long term patient who has always paid everything on time over three minutes. This place is clearly more concerned about money over mental illness. 0/5. No stars. Would not recommend.

Constantine Nunzio

Love Dr. Gattis and Dr. Kathy...both have been exceptional, patient and kind. I gave 4 stars, but would have been 5 with the exception of one incident. It wasn’t terrible, but made me feel like I was being scolded. I called to cancel due to my job on day of appointment. It was last minute, but couldn’t be helped. I was met with a somewhat rude response. She scolded me for the last minute cancellation and said if it happened again I would no longer be a client. Anyway, I’ve been afraid to make an appointment since because of my job I may have to make a cancellation later in the future. This normally does not happen, but I also have clients who aren’t always on time, move up appts, cancel or just don’t show up. I understand how it goes but I’ve never been rude or threaten my clients that I would no longer serve them. I’m not mad or upset. I just thought it was unkind. We come for help. Not a scolding. My job causes me stress and anxiety as it is. My doctors are wonderful! Five stars for them! A kind contrast to whoever receives calls.Probably just having a bad day??? This was the first time this has happened. The other lady (??) is very nice.

Brandon Fox

Great people, worked to help me. Caring and understanding.

Clay Thomas

I started my journey with CPW seeing Dr Baker on January 11, 2019, and it was also his first day working for CPW. He ended up retiring in January 2022 which sadden me to see him go I was still on journey with my mental healthcare. So put that in mind I started seeing James he's an APN there and he's awesome! He has helped me see things in a different way in my mental health care journey which I appreciate greatly. He has been the only mental health care worker that has ever been able to get me to see a therapist, So that shows you how great it is. I started therapy and I love my therapist so I thank him for getting me to do therapy and I'm so glad that I started therapy for myself and I love my therapist so far LOL. The only thing do have to say is that sometimes the office staff they have aren't very knowledgeable and they're not always very nice. Other than they're great. I would recommend them to my family, my friends and anyone reading this review. I've received nothing but the best care from my medication maintenance staff and my therapist that I have! I have went into great detail about my review because it's important for people who have mental illness or illnesses that they go to a good and respectful clinic to get good care which is hard to find when it comes to mental health care. The staff there STAY! You don't have to worry that in a few months you're going to get a different therapist because they've left that clinic to go work somewhere else. So I could put so much more on here but I'm going to have to end it because I don't want It to take you 30 minutes to read my review ????

Charlie “Charlie” Fowler

Would rate zero if it was an option. They have been treating my 19 year old daughter. The entire process has been terrible. They ignore her calls and haven’t done anything to help her however they did put her on an antidepressant. The whole staff is rude and she will routinely call 12+ times to get an appt with no return call. Today they would not give her a refill of her medication because she couldn’t make an appt. So, we have a 19 year old with mental health issues walking around unmedicated cold Turkey because they are incompetent. What kind of DR does this to anyone much less a young adult?!?! I know this story sounds crazy and I honestly wouldn’t believe it had I not been involved. My next step is to file a complaint with some sort of medical board because I am FURIOUS!!

Robin Lynn Ashley

I've been going here for about 5 months. I started when I got out of treatment. They have been very helpful . I have not had any bad experiences here.

Trenton Pennington

I loved everything about CPW. The woman at the reception (I can't recall her name) was always extremely sweet and helpful. I had quarterly visits with James Gattis for medication refills and what I refer to as checkups. He was a perfect fit for my needs. At some point, I had taken it upon myself to abruptly stop all but one of my medications. I told Gattis about this change and he offered to for me to see a psychologist. Because I was coming off of an antidepressant, I opted to see Kelly Webb. For a few months, I was seeing both Gattis and Webb. Both of them were fantastic in my opinion. I was in the process of moving out of state in 2020 and they made it easy for me to get my file/paperwork to give to my new doctor. Wish I could still see them.

Sean Mcfeeters

My husband has been trying since Thursday to get his prescription refilled, not knowing the office was going to be closed 4 days for Christmas and then today finding out the Nurse Practitioner is out until next Monday. So he is now without his medication and no one seems to care. Terrible patient care in my opinion.

001 C

Karen the receptionist has always treated my husband badly, coldly, and with a hostile attitude. She has repeatedly spoken down to him and seems to think she is important. She is indeed a Karen— avoid her at all costs and (if you’re the praying sort) pray that god heals her heart. The entire time he has gone through this business (because that’s what this is, a for-profit business making money) he has not once spoken with a real psychiatrist, only a nurse practitioner (Tara Norris). Tara Norris failed to warn him that the medication she prescribed him could cause high blood pressure, and he has had several hypertension crises that landed him in urgent care and the ER before we finally found out from his mother(not any of the health professionals!!) that the Cymbalta Tara Norris prescribed him can cause high blood pressure. The therapist he was seeing, Kelly, turned from actual therapy sessions to using a “tapping” method; this kind of therapy is billed at a higher rate to insurance and is not much appreciated by the friends we have who tried it out. My husband felt that Kelly would benefit from additional training in the method, and because she has pivoted to this “tapping” method instead of the cognitive behavioral therapy that was helping him, he ceased his visits with her. As the spouse of a person who is trying to deal responsibly with their mental health, I cannot recommend this place to other folks. They are overtly greedy, hostile to patients who stand up to their bullying tactics, and overall a shame to the psychiatric profession. I actually now believe that it’s healthier to do street drugs than to trust these people with your mental health! (Only saying this to emphasize the lack of adequate health support this place provides; please don’t use illicit street drugs!) Buyer beware: this place is sick and full of bad people trying to take your money while providing inferior services. Also, to the MDs who left glowing reviews— your sycophancy is showing. I now have misgivings about your practice since you seem to be either ignorant of CPW’s practices, or possibly complicit in funneling patients to them for some perverse incentive.

Michael Smith

I’ve been going to Centers for Psychiatric Wellness for about 5 years now. So I’m a seasoned patient. I’ve been seeing Tara Norris (for medicine management) and I used to see Kelly Webb for counseling. My first complaint, Kelly Webb is very nice and kind person. I saw her for a few years. Loved our talk therapy sessions. Felt like they really helped me, Then she started getting into this new form of treatment called EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) where you think about traumatic events and move your move your eyes back and forth while tapping your feet or fingers. I’m not saying that EMDR isn’t a valid treatment, but it isn’t for me. I didn’t find any use in it. Kelly really kept pushing it. In fact after a while that’s all she wanted to talk about. Finally she refused to see me any longer unless I participated in weekly EMDR sessions which would end up costing me $100 per session according to my insurance. So I finally stopped going. I had recommended friends and family to go see Kelly, and they had the same experience as well and eventually stopped going as well. Now on to medication management with Tara Norris. Tara prescribe me medication for general anxiety and depression. After a few months on this medication I noticed a sizable spike in my blood pressure. In fact the nurses aid who checks blood pressure for office visits let me know that I had an issue with blood pressure, when I never had previously. I reported this to Tara Norris who reassured me that this was definitely not caused by the cocktail of meds that she had prescribed me, she encouraged me to loose weight, eat healthier, exercise, etc. I did all of these with no success in handling my blood pressure, so finally after this trend increasing and having horrible symptoms including splitting head aches I went to a primary care physician who alerted me that the medication that Tara Norris prescribed me is known to cause issues with blood pressure; and even after being prescribed a cocktail of 3 different drugs for my BP it’s only helped to lower it a little. The issue is that the Cymbalta that Tara prescribed is an SSRI. This means I can’t just get off of this medication. If I stop taking this medicine I have horrible symptoms including “brain zaps”, heart palpitations, trouble swallowing, and night sweats. When I mentioned these issues to her, she let me know that to get off of Cymbalta after 5 years would probably require rehab. So a drug she initially called: “safe and effective” is now being called dangerous and you need rehab to get off of it, even though it exacerbates my blood pressure. She didn’t act concerned at all. Last but not least, the last at the first desk is one of the worst people I’ve ever had to deal with. When I called her today explaining how I needed to talk to Tara or the nurse because I’m in process of moving out of state and need to know what to do to manage my medication, she literally said “your not our patient anymore” and hung up the phone. When I called her back and asked for clarification she said: “Charles if you have moved out of state your not our patient anymore and this is not our problem”. She’s a horrible excuse for a human being, and shouldn’t be allowed around people who are seeking mental health services. Don’t even get me started about the billing issues. So over all I would not recommend Center for Psychiatric Wellness. I know options in Fort Smith are limited, but I would look elsewhere—perhaps in Fayetteville. These people don’t care. They’re simply there to make money off of you and your insurance company. If I could give 0 stars I would.

Aiden Hull

If I could give this place a 0 I would! I witnessed my son shoot himself, 5 feet in front of me… of course there is so much going on.. 4 months later my husband had a widow maker. I loved my therapist, but the RECEPTIONIST WAS SO RUDE AND HEARTLESS she up front said I could not see the dr. First time I canceled an appointment (lots going on) 2 weeks ago I went to the office 8:30 am and apparently my appointment was the day before. I know I have brain fog but for a mental facility to drop me! I showed up, was the day after but obviously I had my days mixed up or I wouldn’t have been there at 8:30 that morning!!! I HAVE TOLD ALL MY FRIENDS THAT “IN MY OPINION THEY ARE HORRIBLE “ KNOWING I WITNESSED MY SON DIE. What’s wrong with them?!? I NEED A THERAPIST/psychiatrist more than ever and you dropped me over this?!? UNREAL!!! HEARTLESS! I tried to explain why I’m a mess and if I could talk to my therapist and let him know the reason I wouldn’t be back… she said “No and I’m busy” talk about caring for someone that recently witnessed their son take his life in front of his mother… you can only imagine what horrible images replay over in my head! In my opinion they have no compassion… all the receptionist made clear is I needed to pay 50.00… I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS PLACE AT ALL!

Tina Delph

In the four years I was a patient, I was treated with little to no respect. My first appointment, the woman running the front desk scolded me and made me cry for being late.If you can’t work a front desk without making someone cry, you absolutely do NOT need to be in the mental health industry. Whether your daughter is the head doctor there or not. How wildly inappropriate. Under Dr. Kristi Kendrick’s care, I did feel much better, as she found a combination of medications that finally helped. Once I began to feel better, I was handed off to James Gattis, who immediately began changing my medications. For months and months, I requested to be put back on the initial medications, knowing what helped and what didn’t at this point. Time and time again, my requests were ignored and I continued digressing in my mental health. After at least six months, James agreed to try the combination Dr. Kendrick had used. Only for him to drop me as a patient less than a year later. Why? Because I had missed 3 appointments over a FOUR YEAR time span. No one here cares about mental health. This is a business. They care about making money, not about helping the mental health of their community. Countless times did I pay $150 for a five minute phone call in which James refused to listen to me as I requested my former medications. Do not go here. Do not recommend people here. There’s a reason this place has two stars on google for reviews. If you’re wanting genuine help and for someone to listen, this is not the place for you.

Angelina “Maggs” Magee

Very poorly ran. My insurance considers them out of network. I have out of network benefits with my insurance. They refuse to accept my insurance and let me use my out of network benefits. They are attempting to make me pay cash and not file with my insurance at all. If I were to do that everything I pay would not go towards my insurance deductible.

Michael Dream

Would not listen to me about my medications I was having problems with.

Jennifer Steed

If you’re judging this place on the reviews I just read, think again! All these negative reviews were from people that did not want to be accountable for their OWN tardiness, lack of ability to pay, lack of planning, etc. I brought my TWO foster children here for several years. Dr Kendrick, and his staff, have never shown us anything but respect, kindness, concern, and a willingness to accommodate our busy schedules. Oh, but then..we treated THEM in the same fashion.

Nancy Lennier

I was very nervous by some of the reviews, but did not find that I had the same negative experience. I came in a bit too early and was willing to wait till my appointment time, but they were kind enough to find a way to get me in earlier. If you have anxiety, please don't let your disorder or the bad reviews keep you from trying to find some help. I'm glad I made myself go.

B Bell

I went for help for my psychiatric problems. I have other medical problems as well. I was told that all my problems are due to psychological problems and that I didnt need to be on my other meds and somehow treating my anxiety and depression would somehow cure all my other issues. Its ridiculous that they think they know better than any other doctor.

Wayla Ramsey

Tiffany Diaz has been nothing, but helpful! That aside, it’s almost impossible to get your call answered or returned. This has happened to me more than a nice since coming here. Last Tuesday I left a message for the nurse concerning my anxiety worsening (possibly medication related) and asking if we could try something new. No one called me back so I called again Friday. I received a call back and the nurse assured me I would have a call back on Monday because my dr wasn’t in. Monday rolls around and still no call so I call again. The nurse calls back as if this is my first time calling and tells me she will call back. Apparently they tried calling me yesterday, but I have no missed calls. I call again today and leave a message at 9am. No call back. I call the receptionist and explain what’s going on. She disregards that it’s been over a week and I’ve heard nothing and sends me to the nurses line again. NO ANSWER of course, so I call back and ask to speak to someone in charge. This woman was nice, but said she would get back with me today. Nothing. Now, they’re closed for the holiday and weekend. I’ll probably end up in the Er if this panic doesn’t go away.

Jordan W

When specializing in something as important as mental health there is a certain level of compassion that is standard. The receptionist for this place makes it impossible to even rate the doctors, who can treat people this way and be okay with it knowing they are suffering with something mentally? HORRIBLE.. stay away from here.... you won't get help, matter of fact they make it worse without even offering to help!

Charity Sanders

Went here for a short time, stop going when I was told to pretty much get over it when I was having a psychotic episode, that the meds they gave me isn't working and the side effects are making me feel worse. I would give -5 stars if I could, you should always listen and take your patients serious. It's a clinic for people who have mental disabilities/illnesses, you're suppose to be there for us, not the money. I would consider seeking treatment elsewhere.

amie wilson

I don't get all the bad reviews on here. I personally love kelly my counselor . She's amazing and she has been a true blessing to me. Can't wait to see what more therapy brings .

Elijah Hammond (Elijah)

I’m only giving this place a 1 because there isn’t a 0 option. I was told to “get over” difficult life situations and that my feelings were “wrong”. This place only makes things worse.

Patricia Weaver

My wife had to re-schedule two appointments in June because she is taking care of her terminally ill mother... In (Batesville, Ar) they dropped her as a patient. After asking the business manager why, she said it was the therapist call only. The therapist told us that she does not do that and it is a "policy". I think before a patient is dropped, especially in this field a little better care should be taken!! Not just a "letter" we never received!

Jessica Wheeler

I have an appointment here on the 1st. These reviews are scaring me half to death though. Im conflicted...as a person with mental health issues the last thing that I need is to be scared if Im 10 minutes late. I have so much anxiety now.

pamela ireland

Dr Baker is a great doctor

Robert Baber

I feel they've worked hard to make sure I was well and comfortable. I've not been treated as less than or been dismissed. I'm quite satisfied with the care I've received in their office.

Carissa Mantooth

Receptionist service was unacceptable.