The Brenchley Unit (KMPT) - Maidstone

Andrew

I started the Brenchley by attending outreach. This was a good experience and found this the most helpful part of my time at Brenchley. I then moved onto the Therapeutic community, and my experience completely changed, which has been deeply disappointing and harmful to my mental health. The attitude of the staff and the environment they created felt punitive rather than supportive, with rigid and unreasonable informal policies, such as suspending treatment for making a complaint. Therapists displayed unprofessional behaviour, including shouting at patients and making inappropriate comments about patients. If you feel the need to raise concerns about staff, you are told to bring it into the community, effectively sharing your grievances amongst other patients. If you do decide to raise a formal complaint, your treatment is stopped and you are suspended from treatment. As I raised a complaint because of inappropriate comments heard between therapist about me and another patient, I raised a formal complaint. It has taken 9 months to have a final complaint response, during which time I have been suspended from treatment. They didn't even check in with me, not even a telephone call or email, whilst I was "suspended". I ultimately felt forced to discharge myself due time it was taking to reply to my complaint, and the lack of care and accountability.
I would not recommend this service to anyone seeking compassionate and effective mental health support.
They will also make you feel that the service is the "last chance" for people. This will make you feel that if this service doesn't work, you have no other options. This is incredibly dangerous and harmful. During my experience in the community, whilst some people do complete the treatment, a lot of people leave before completing the treatment. This is because, like I have experienced, they felt unsupported, bullied and didn't receive the right level of support whilst at the unit.
Overall, the Brenchley has caused me more damaged than I went in with, a bad experience I now have to live with. I will escalate my complaint to PHSO and try and find alternative treatment that I am having to seek myself, even though I did ask for alternative treatment which the unit would not offer or support.

Carla F.

The Brenchley unit has massively changed my life. I wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for the most kindest and experienced staff members helping & supporting me through my trauma. I really enjoyed being apart of the community it was a real privilege and one I’ll forever be grateful for.

Like others have said, don’t listen to the malicious reviews on here. You really do only get out of it what you put in, anyone saying negative malicious comments about this place and or specific people / staff members most likely were being resistant towards the process. It really truly works and can have a real positive impact on your life if you want to change and are willing to take responsibility for your own actions.

From my own experience here the therapists were always so supportive of me. I was able to work through conflicts in a healthy way instead of resorting to bad coping mechanisms, I felt understood and accepted by everyone which helped me settle into the community well. My emotions, feelings and thoughts were always taken on board and if I felt otherwise my concerns were always talked about with staff and members alike in the group setting. I was able to work through a lot of my past traumas and feel comfortable doing so with the encouragement from staff and the community members.

The OT therapist and therapy groups such as Art & cooking was amazing. I really enjoyed working with the art therapist who was very caring, kind and had alot of patience for everyone, she also has a very diligent work ethic which made me look up to her as an inspiration throughout my Brenchley process. The OT was very supportive in helping me look for volunteering work and getting me back into practical living skills such as cooking, cleaning, budgeting etc if it wasn’t for the OT I wouldn’t be now driving or volunteering. All the psychotherapists are great in their own ways, they bring new ways of working and thinking to the community which allowed for bigger wider discussions. Every single psychotherapist has played a huge part in my recovery, I can’t thank them enough for all the hard work and time they have put in to support me. I have so much respect and gratitude towards these people who have literally changed my whole life for the better.

If you have a place here or are looking to join here soon for treatment don’t hesitate and try your hardest to put everything into it that you can. Take positive risks, contribute as much as you can and keep going. You got this despite how hard some days might feel just keep pushing forward. There really is hope and my review shows that anything can be possible if you put your mind, heart and soul into it 🙏

Thank you all so much again 🩷

WST W.

The Brenchley Unit has helped me the four months that I was there, just a shame that I wasn’t able to complete the comprehensive service! Members and Staff were goods! Therapy as a whole is a challenge and choice! Definitely a Journey of self discovery and recovery understanding building the tools to get on with life and live it! I personally Didn’t really experience any negative experiences!

Signed (LM) Willow S Twigs!

Amber S.

Please ignore malicious reviews! The brenchley is a life changing opportunity for anyone diagnosed with a personality disorder.
I'm very satisfied with the care, education and support I received from the brenchley staff and grateful to have had the support of the community through my journey. I left the process with a healthier mindset and better relationships in my life. i can manage and regulate my emotions better because of the various therapies offered. There are excellent facilities on the site and everything is run very efficiently with provisions made for diets and accessibility.There's also lots on offer to help make improvements to well being and education through different projects and programmes. I highly recommend taking up the opportunity to join the brenchley process.

Charlotte R.

I was offered MBT here for EUPD a few years ago before deciding to leave the programme. I recently got diagnosed with autism, being told my autism was misdiagnosed with EUPD. Highly upsetting that no one at the service recognised they were treating me for a condition I never had, nor that they never picked up on my ASD.