Dr. Karen Lynn Melendez, MD

Has too much on her plate and thinks she is capable of certain areas of practice but is not. Her arrogance and inflated confidence has jeopardized her patient’s care in an inpatient substance abuse detox facility at one time as she was not following proper protocols.

My child has been with Dr. Melendez for about 5 years. At first she was great. We have followed here to each "new" location. The final straw for me is when she joined Support Inc this last time. They never get my appointments correct, we show up for appointments and they are not scheduled, yet, I have a copy of the appointment they gave me. We have to wait for an exstensive amount of time before being seen. her "receptionist" is rude and most of the time on her cell phone when you are there. I agree with the other responses. Dr. Melendez's idea of fixing things is to up the meds. I am currently seeking another Phsyciatrist. She doesn't spend more then 15 minutes with us during our visits and rushes right out. It's like herding cattle. Maybe she gets an insentive from the goverment if she sees more patients. I don't know, but it's not worth our time anymore. We had an appointment one day, first thing in the morning and she called in stating she was in traffic and all of… her patients would have to reschedule. Like her, I have a job I have to go to and I leave early to ensure I make it to my joby. I can't reschedule at the drop of a hat. She can be disrespectful and so can her staff. I would not recommend her to anyone.

Allow me to start off by saying we have no intent of ever returning to this doctor, nor would we ever reccommend her to any other family. On the contrary, we would reccommend AGAINST seeing her. We were told, by her office, that we were fortunate to get an appointment several MONTHS from calling in. Regardless, we made the appointment, knowing how difficult it is to find a Child & Adolescent Psyichiarist with any openings at all. We like to schedule our appointments, being either the first patient of the day or the first patient after lunch, so that there are no other patients before us to delay our appointment. We arrived 15 minutes before our appointment as we were instructed, and the door wasn't even open. Once we were finally through the doors, we waited over an HOUR to see the doctor and we were the FIRST patient of the day. All this and we haven't even seen her. This was not a good sign. We thought "It couldn't get much worse". Were we ever wrong. This was just the… start. Upon meeting Dr. Melendez, she was very condescending and disrespectful. Not once did she apologize for her tardiness. In no way did she present herself like a physician should, let alone the compassion a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist should. Because she was already behind due to her tardiness and no fault of our own, let's just say our appointment was "hurried". We were in and out of her door within 15 minutes with the diagnosis of ADHD and a prescription for a medication with a dosage, that we now understand, is absolutely inappropriate for a child even if the diagnosis had been correct. Really?! 15 minutes to make a diagnosis? Maybe had she spent the appropriate 45-60 minutes that should be spent with any new patient, the diagnosis would have been more accurate. We know there are many parents that are looking simply to medicate their children into submission. We, however, are not those parents. Even if we were, it is unethical to appease those parents. A physican's duty is to their patient and to do everything in their ability maintain the well-being of their patient. We are fortunate enough to have moved on from this experience, and to have found a great Child & Adolescent Psychiatrist. We only gave Dr. Melendez 1 star simply because we couldn't give her NO stars.

Is the worst with children. Has short temper and poor mannerism with my children. Never available when needed. Makes very poor decision for my child. Also was very inappropriate with my husband.. Would not recommend to anyone for themselves or children. In fact I would suggest that she seek professional help for herself.

I was referred to Dr. Melendez by another physician. I have not been disappointed. My child's Psychologist has worked with Dr. Melendez before and gave her high marks. So do I. I am sorry to see that others have not had the positive experience that my family has.

After one visit she diagnosed me with Major Depression and Generalized Anxiety Disorder and prescribed me medication. The medication didn't help and she would just up the dosage. After a few visits she involuntarily had me hospitalized. The doctors in the hospital released me after 2 days because they agreed I didn't need to be in there. There was something more going on with me than depression but Dr. Melendez didn't care enough to find out what it was.

Dr. Melendez opened up her own practice after being with Caromont so we followed her. Because she could not see my son for 4 weeks, she refused to prescribe even a temporary prescription to my son for an anti-depressant and told us to return to Caromont. Caromont is no longer seeing teenagers so they couldn't help us and so we returned to her. After another conversation with her about the sudden stoppage of an SSRI she again refused, stating that we were at fault for not making an appointment in a timely manner. This was during final exam week at school when he was super-stressed anyway. We have moved to another doctor who doesn't place their patients in jeopardy like Dr. Melendez.

My experience with BOTH of my children has been great. Following her to her new practice Lincolnton.

She doesn't present her self as actually caring for my child. I can't beleive she supports young people or even people!!!!She is not available for people when they are in need... you have to come back in a week or even two.

I didn't feel like this doctor could truly identify with what me and my child were going through. As a parent, I get frustrated and scared and I need help but she really doesn't seem to be able to empathize with that. You have enough time with her to get a prescription written out - nothing else. She doesn't seem to be caring or kind at all and is very aloof.