"Foresight Mental Health is a private practice with several locations in California that claims to want to improve mental health services through technology. I was seeking treatment with a former employee of theirs (Lindsey Hockridge, an MFT) a little over a year ago, and that person ended up causing a trauma that has completely uprooted my life. She knowingly declined to coordinate care with my other providers, despite repeated requests to do so. She knowingly neglected to help coordinate a higher level of care from outpatient when it was needed, used treatment interventions that lack evidence-based legitimacy, and repeatedly made me feel guilty about how much of a burden I was to her from a professional liability standpoint because of the severity of my diagnoses. Eventually, she ended up calling the police one day, making a series of false and misleading statements about me, and demanding that they march me in handcuffs to the emergency room. To ensure I stayed there, she called hospital staff before I arrived and reported demonstrably false information about me and my mental illness, to ensure that I would be held against my will for several days. I have never been the same; I no longer work (though I loved and worked hard for my career), I live with family, I have no friends or hobbies, I spend thousands per month on psychiatric treatment that is ineffective, and I feel ruined. As you can imagine, involuntary hospitalizations leave behind paper trails that are damaging and humiliating. In this case, they also leave behind falsified medical records, and a mess of a lawsuit that I have to take up against the hospital where I was kept against my will (not affiliated with Foresight). The “history” I now have with police makes my next encounter with them life or death, because they’ll come into it primed to subdue (maybe even kill) a “crazy" person. People are welcome to think whatever they like of breaking down the stigma of mental illness, but it means nothing if it still exists in our institutions. My ask of Foresight, however, was very simple: I just needed them to contact my abuser, and get her to sign an affidavit that confirms the statements she made to authorities in order to hospitalize me were untrue. That’s it. I just wanted closure, healing, and my reputation back.In response, Foresight’s HR department has systematically ignored, delayed, and denied my requests for information related to this ordeal, which has gone on for months now. Last week, an attorney they retained (Alexandra Martino from Kjar, McKenna, & Stockalper) contacted me to let me know that Foresight has retained counsel, and that they have no intention to help me right this wrong. The attorney has gaslit me, refused any kind of resolution, and appears to be more concerned with silencing me. She also made clear that Foresight would refuse to sign a statement on Lindsey's behalf, even though I never requested that.Since then, I have reached out to Foresight's board members and angel investors, including Gary Swart, Duke Rohlen, and Stephen Hays. I have requested that they attempt to reason with Foresight's CEO, Matt Milford, because otherwise, they are all silencing abuse victims and in essence going against what their organization is supposed to do. I’m not trying to force Foresight to pay me. I have plenty of evidence of my abuse. I don’t need them to act on Lindsey’s behalf, and I don’t need their pity. Right now, I just need them to do the right thing, because what their doing right now is completely against what Foresight is supposed to "stand for." I am being hurt and broken every day that this continues to go on. I know that when we think of problems with mental healthcare, we tend to focus (and rightfully so) on substandard access; however, we need checks and balances in place to ensure that the access is actually therapeutic and not causing further harm. Right now, Foresight lacks a mechanism to regulate that, and I’m living proof.
Online, there are many other stories of people being harmed by Foresight's providers but little evidence of them taking accountability for it or making attempts to resolve problems. I will not let them continue to cover up abuse and get away with it.
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