Albert Road Clinic

Just appalling. The facilities are dated and it's like being in a cheap hotel for $1,200 a night. You come here to rest but the single rooms are always taken. The nurses won't give you enough medication to sleep "because the doctor hasn't signed it off to that amount"'. Come on nurses - be bold! Let us sleep! Nurses spend more time writing notes than helping patients. A real let down. I didn't see any quality patient care at all. Go somewhere else, maybe the Melbourne clinic?

I've been hospitalised here twice since 2012 and bar a few nurses most I've found most to be kind and helpful, as well as inpatient workshops.

Their DBT program seemed pretty effective though they seemed unprepared that I was at the time too disruptively anxious to attend them productively. It's unfortunate this was after I was denied an inpatient referral while I told Dr. Wu I was suicidal and being abused in my workplace.

I must note I'd been referred previously by a different doctor and have never been offered applicable help from Dr. Wu to equal the grief she caused.

I was told that inpatient was effectively a vacation and asked 'what for? ' after she was aware that I'd been unable to attain sick leave for months without risking my job and qualifications and after begging my employers.

I'm confident I would have thrived in DBT were I not bullied out of my career, and I am now legally unfit to work from c-PTSD among other preventable ailments.

I stopped attending sessions as she was cold, argumentative, antagonising and unwavering when I expressed discomfort. I've since found a new psychiatrist elsewhere who is assertive and frank whilst also being kind and encouraging.

I would recommend admissions in inpatient, personally. They benefitted me well when I was allowed them, though be prepared to be assessed unfairly and if you have poor assertive skills, vocabulary or executive function I'm certain these will be exploited by your incredibly wealthy and academically-proficient psychs.

After many, many discussions with inpatients and outpatients alike it seems clear that Albert Rd psychiatrists in general are snotty and rude with little regard for their patient's emotions. Not one patient I've met has felt comfortable recommending their doctor to anybody. I hope you have since hired new and better psychiatrists.

Though this review is of my experience. Albert Roads psychiatrists seem to follow a model that their doctorate excludes them from the human expectation of further developing their own psyches and mental health. I don't know what her demons are but they do not belong in my financially crippling sessions. I would call her malicious, though I believe true malice is rare in humans. It is laziness, it is ignorance, it is complacency. It is negligent exploitation of the disabled for profit.

C'est la vie. Whistle while you work. Another day, another dollar.

I'm interested to know why I shouldn't see things this way. Will I get a refund for the discrimination and trauma I faced from Anne Wu? Will I get an apology for the way she fought with me, condescended to me, then asked /why/ I was crying? Will Albert Road dedicate itself to making their services accessible to patients without carers? I would like to be convinced otherwise but cannot risk contacting the clinic alone without FIRM ASSURANCE.

The strides I have since taken in building my own resilience without her negating any and all of my anecdotes of feeling triumph or pride are far too valuable. My health is too valuable and thus this review is my only respite. My only justice and my only voice.

TL;DR: Sex workers avoid this doctor at all costs. Hour long appointments are unproductive, insulting and halted after 45 minutes or less.

Ps. My genuine compliments to the Chef.

I found the medical (ie; the doctors and the nurses), staff at this clinic to be very dedicated and caring. With the administration it's somewhat different. It is true that Albert Road Clinic does have a somewhat official and corporate approach to money, which can be off putting. For example, you may have to wait to see a doctor or a nurse (if you're an inpatient), which is just a fact of an overstressed health system. But when it comes to the money you owe them, they are extremely efficient in coming up to get you and making sure that you pay at that precise time - no waiting at all! I don't like this aspect of the organisation, and I think that there is a big difference between the management of the corporate side of the organisation and the doctors. I think the doctors are wonderful, caring people who shouldn't be held responsible for the organisation behaving like some kind of merchant bank, as opposed to a caring hospital. Having said that, I don't believe "Elizabeth Taylor's" review on here, about being told that she (or her parents) would have to pay in cash. That is just not true. Albert Road Clinic takes payment through all the usual kinds of card payments, and does not insist on being paid in cash.

I've been interacting with Albert Rd for over five years, and have attempted to work through the difficulties with the service for most of that time, but at this point in time, do not feel safe enough to return. The staff are not adequately trained in trans and gender diverse healthcare, and constantly let blatant transphobia fly from patients and staff alike. Abuse was swept under the carpet and disclosures of emotional and sexual abuse dealt with poorly. None of this is okay. We deserve better, and ARC needs to be held accountable.

Each time I am an inpatient at Albert Road Clinic I get the right treatment, all staff are wonderful and caring
When I leave I feel so much better. Mote able to cope with life, be offered suggestions to help myself. It also amazes me how many doctors come to the clinic (mine does) on the weekend
they are so dedicated. All in all I
find the clinic to be an excellent facility.

I've seen dozens of doctors at several clinics and organisations over the past 21 years, and my experience here was by far the most shocking, dreadful and gut wrenching time I've had during an initial overview of my situation. I was only 16/17 at the time, and spoke to a woman with short cropped hair, and a short temper and brutal manner. After only 20 minutes of being in my presence, she said I couldn't possibly receive weekly treatment and my only hope for EVER getting better was to remain there as an inpatient, or I may as well not bother. My parents were with me and we were all shocked by her dismissive, matter of fact manner when we'd made it clear we could not afford the inpatient therapy, and she said "Well seeing someone once a week isn't going to do it. " and basically left us with an ultimatum. As we had no money we had to leave. But not before paying for the session, which was an insisted cash payment, so my parents had to leave me there shaking and crying as collateral while they went out and searched for an ATM. While I sat and waited, shocked and devastated by being told I'd never get better and crying uncontrollably, the girls at reception laughed about jokingly stealing office furniture until my parents returned with the cash so we could get the hell away from there. This single worst and most traumatic experience in "treatment" I've had in my life and none of us will ever forget it. It left me feeling more hopeless than ever before and I became seriously suicidal within the following few days, looking into a bleak pit of realisation that without money, no one cares until you're dead.
Turns out people do care, but not this place.
For anyone under 25 I highly recommend ORYGEN Youth Health.