Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health

Mrs Trez

Diane Crerand is truly a horrible person. I pray God leads her to him. When I worked at Devereux, I was a BHP and I interviewed for a scheduling coordinator position when their original scheduler retired. The original scheduler recommended me for the position based on my perfect attendance, performance, and willingness to help out on all shifts without complaint. I spent so many hours away from my own children while working over 64 hours per week at Devereux. But instead of getting acknowledged and maybe a pay raise, Diane Crerand pulled the job I interviewed for and initially got fairly, just because she did not like me for whatever her reasons were. She told other upper management that I was manipulative and uneducated. She told me that I had no degree so she couldn't give me that position as a scheduler. I thought that was ridiculous considering the original scheduler only had a high school diploma like I did at that time. When our coworker passed away, we all attended his funeral and Diane Crerand was even rude to me at the funeral. I was polite and greeted her while she gave me a dirty look, looked me up and down, shook her head, and walked away without saying a word to me. It is okay though, Diane, because that "education" you were talking about, well, I'm a doctoral candidate now. 😉 Currently, we are considered equals with our master's degree but I'm still above you in education based on my current status. In less than 6 months, if we ever cross paths in this field of behavioral health, you will refer to me as Doctor. Have a great day!

Sebastian Ramirez

(here during the majority of 2020) As far as long-term behavioral inpatients go, it's not bad. Cons/personal grievances: Most staff don't know how to deal with children with needs that don't align with their perception of mental illness. I had severe OCD while I was there and most staff basically just acted like I was being intentionally difficult, including claiming I was simply faking it because I didn't have the organizational symptoms most associated with OCD. They also allow a lot of bullying as long as it's not overt i.e. I have sensory processing issues so the other kids would sneak up behind me and touch my back, leading me to freak out. The kids at most got a warning but nothing was ever actually done because it wasn't a recognized bullying method. Also, we would regularly earn incentives for being well behaved, but only got a small amount of whatever it was (Oreos, ice cream, etc.) And the staff would get the rest. Not that big of a deal just slightly infuriating while inpatient, especially with COVID-19 making visitors unable to bring food. Pros' The majority of staff were very gender affirming and tried their best with LGBT+ stuff. You can develop a friendly relationship with most staff leading to more leniency for your particular issues. You have a cue sheet with your legal name, preferred name, pronouns, triggers, and coping skills, so you usually don't have to explain everything to every staff member you meet. They do offer some accomodations if you can get it approved through your therapist. For example, I didn't have to wear the school uniform shirt because its unpleasant texture and clinginess made me have a breakdown. They used to (I think they stopped it because of COVID) offer a culinary arts class you could take to earn a food handlers certificate. You also got to keep the food you made. They have 2 daily snacks(after afternoon goals group and after meds), along with 3 meals. You can have incentives where you get something like extra outside time or a food of choice if you improve a problem behavior. The showers and bathrooms are group showers/bathrooms on the adolescent co-ed dorm (Cholla) and boy's dorm (Ocotillo), but you can get an exemption to shower/use the bathroom by yourself if appropriate for your needs. The girl's dorm (Agave) and young children's dorm (Saguaro) have two single bathrooms. You are allowed to watch age appropriate TV (while I was there they had Netflix, Hulu, and Disney plus) and occasionally go to the computer lab where you can listen to music or play games.

Tacca Chantre

So they don't have enough security and yet it's like a prison? No they don't have barbed wire and electric fences. So yes when 2 teenage boys wanna punch and attack staff and then climb the gate before staff has a chance to even get up and grab him they're gonna leave. Protocol is to chase until they can't see them anymore and then it's the police's job to find them. Everything gets reported and yet y'all still find a way to complain. Honestly from having multiple friends work there they try their best to stop this. But these are average people who receive restraint training. They aren't fighters who can defend against your kid who just came from Juvenile Detention. Maybe instead of bashing the place where staff are underpaid to get beat up by your kids, you should learn to parent? J's

jason ward

I went to that place not very safe there were staff not doing there job I was there for 6 months and learned nothing