I spoke to a worried parent whose son was recently admitted to the 109-bed Retreat Behavioral Health after she says he overdosed on fentanyl.
Cynthia Craig says her 21-year-old son was told to leave Retreat Behavioral Health in Palm Springs Friday afternoon, and hop in an Uber with another patient.
He borrowed the Uber driver’s cellphone and left a message.
“Mom, I’m going to call you back here in about 15 minutes,” it said. “It’s an emergency. A real emergency, I’m being dead serious. I’m going to call you back in 15 minutes, please pick up.”
“I was heartbroken,” said Craig. “I was scared, I didn’t know where to get him.”
Then she got a text from her son: “[Retreat] kicked everybody out, people were breaking into the med office and fighting etc.”
Five days after leaving Retreat, which abruptly closed over the weekend, Craig got a call letting her know her son is in a rehab facility in Miami. But she’s still worried about him being in an unfamiliar place.
“He said, ‘Mom, I don’t trust anybody, I don’t know what to do,'” said Craig.
While her son has been placed at another rehab facility, she says he was forced to leave Retreat Behavioral Health without his belongings.
“He told me, I said, ‘Did you get any of your property?’ He said, ‘No, they were throwing stuff in dumpsters. They were throwing stuff out,'” she recounted.
For the past two days, WPTV’s investigative reporters have been trying to contact Florida’s Department of Children and Families, which regulates facilities like Retreat Behavioral Health.
We wanted to find out what happened to all the Retreat’s patients, and if all have been placed.
DCF’s press secretary emailed us: “My team is continuing to work on your request.”