Dr. Stephanie S Richards, MD

I have been seeing Dr. Richards for 5 years. I have found her to be caring, compassionate, accessible, and extremely knowledgeable. I am grateful for her guidance and support.

You want a partner in mental healthcare, not a disciplinarian. Nothing was more humiliating than the ways she treated me as a patient.

Dr. Richards is the most caring doctor I have ever seen. She is compassionate and kind and sees you as a whole person, not just your diagnosis. She never rushes appointments and truly listens to you. I feel so thankful to have found her. She has saved my life. She's not easy to get an appointment with, so if you get one, GO! You'll be so happy you did.

Dr. Richards isnt on their portal making communication non existent. She let a pre licensed doctor at the time, Dr Elizabeth Ferro conduct my treatment. She graduated 2 years after I was removed from this practice for their own negligence. Her behavior is predatory and meant to exploit the underserved not actually serve them…one of the ways to actually support her patients as whole people is to simply and in a timely manner submit paperwork requested of you for their life services and benefits that keep them able to meet their basic needs. On the other hand a way to hinder their recovery or progress is to betray their trust and also add force and a loss of rights and adult status. She on two separate occasions within the same year did not submit paperwork I needed for government agencies like SSA in time for them to be considered. She sent police to my house for an involuntary hold without one word to me or my partner. Not my psychiatrist, but the pre licensed physician Dr… Elizabeth Ferro filed a petition to have me locked in a psychiatric unit. Even more mortifying…she attached messages I sent her about child abuse I experienced on a petition that two young police officers read without my consent. I’ve never felt so violated and diminished in my life. I felt so humiliated and angry and horrified at the situation of my powerlessness. It is traumatizing and inappropriate way to treat an adult woman. Involuntary holds are a form of systemic abuse that incurs significant debt, significant trauma from being forcibly removed from the community, and for me the worst part has been the isolation from the shame of the lack of control. I’m fearful everyday. She doesn’t advocate for her clients well, in fact she adds to more stigma and hatred to having mental health diagnoses. She is least capable of treating people with severe mental health disorders, including AUD and borderline. She’s a very disengaged provider who makes a lot of excuses as to why she cannot complete simple tasks for patients, but can so aggressively and with no collaboration involve police forces in my mental healthcare. Dr. Richards is too set in her ways to see from my perspective…that of a low income woman of color. She spit on me. The entire protocol of involuntary commitment is based on a lack of trust. I consider anything that ends in handcuffs as a degrading experience. It has constrained my ability to see future possibilities. Partnering with the police violates the healthcare workers code of ethics that sets their patients safety, self determination, and autonomy as paramount in treatment. She doesn’t respect patient health privacy even remotely. She bashed me to my ex employer and left a disgusting taste in my mouth from the betrayal, lack of ethics, and lack of empathy for patients suffering from mental health issues. Dr. Richards is a deceptive and arrogant doctor.

I have PTSD and anxiety from extreme trauma (documented in my medical records) an ENT gave me a two week long 60 mg a day dose of steroids after a botched surgery. Besides all the other trauma (cancer, two hospitalizations and two surgeries in 18 mo.) the steroids activated my PTSD and anxiety. I tried everything I could. I exercised (with tears rolling down my face), got an inappropriately chosen medication from my PC, I was trying SO hard and did everything I could do. Almost a year later I still was not ok. If you can’t recover from steroids in a year, it is quite obvious there are underlying issues that need to be dealt with. I called this office. The receptionist “Becky” gave me an appointment. She gave me an actual date and time and said “ok, we’ll see you then”. She also collected my name, address, phone number, insurance policy number, and all pertinent information. Then she asked who my referral was from. I said I don’t have a referral, but my insurance doesn’t… require one, and in the event there was a problem I will be responsible for any payments. The next day “Becky” left me a voicemail saying “I’m just calling to tell you that Dr. Richards doesn’t have any room in her schedule to see anyone. She has no appointments available”. I called her back and said “you gave an appointment, why are you saying that she has no room in her schedule”? She then told me that I didn’t “actually” have an appointment. She was just going to “check” and see if the doctor could see me. This is ABSOLUTELY not true. To gaslight a patient who is in the condition that THEY KNEW that I was in and tell me that I didn’t have a “real” appointment is just beyond the pale cruel. She OBVIOUSLY had room for a patient, but this “caring” psychiatrist decided that she wouldn’t see me? How could she possibly know what help I needed? Who is so callous and dismissive of a person in crisis? It’s stupid enough that we are reduced to the level that we supposedly don’t know if we need help or not, only a “referring” doctor would know. BUT IF that WAS the issue (I don’t know because her receptionist just chose to lie me) they should have just said “we don’t care if you are in dire straits, we don’t care that you have insurance, we don’t care that you said you would pay for anything that wasn’t covered, we only will see you with a referral Why lie? Why try and mess with someone’s mind and tell them what happened didn’t happen? Yeah, next time you see a commercial telling you “if you need help or are in trouble, just ask someone”, don’t believe it. This is our system. This is how patients are treated. This was immoral and unethical and cruel. This WAS URGENT and nobody helped. This is a broken system with a broken attitude towards people in need.

Dr. Richards is the best doctor I have ever seen. She has been working with me for almost 13 years. She has literally saved my life, my health and my family. I can't thank her enough. You are in such good hands with her. She is patient and caring. It doesn't get much better than Dr. Richards.

very pleasant doctor but does not return phone calls/cannot be reached between appointments

She's great, takes time with patients, listens well.

Dr. Richards has wonderful bedside manner. She never rushes your appointment.

she is the best psychiatrist ive ever had in all of 15 yrs. shes very caring and willing to listen no matter how long it takes. only problem is trying to get appointments and speaking with her outside of scheduled appt,--her staff is not good at giving her messages at all.