About my evaluation- Does this sound right?

klmno

Active Member
I go for my mental health evaluation/clinical interview tomorrow. MST guy is the one who sets it up and decides what info to send to the psychiatric doing it. You all know how well MST guy and I get along and how I have felt autommatically attacked and blamed by many in the courts building. MST guy was in the court that day a couple of years ago when I testified abut my past and therapy.

When I talked with MST guy to set up my interview, he said they wanted release forms to talk to the military and get my entire service record. I told him that sounded a little extreme and asked specifically what he wanted. He wanted all menttal health records from them, plus any disciplinary action but they'd prefer to have the whole thing. Well, since they are going back 30 years but not asking about my school records and can obviously check about a civilian legal record themselves, does this sound more like they are just looking for "bad" things to pin against me? I mean, why asked for any discipline records but not ask for anything that would reflect something good- like discharge status? I don't trust them- as yoou all know- and think it could be an evaluation that ends up only documenting the worst instead of having it in context with "10 thatta girls; 1 messup". And seriously, if they are going back that far in time, why not ask for my school records to see if my family was correct that "I have been messed up all my life"? It seems that they are only looking at one side of things to me. I can't afford an attny but I wish I could.

He got a little edgy when I told him that "talking to them" didn't exactly work so easily. And he thought I could just sign their standard release form to contact that particular branch of the military and that would be sufficient to do whatever he wanted and get whatever he wanted. I tried to politely say that they have long-standing policies and requirements of their own and I doubt they will change them. He asked if I minded if he called and asked them- I don't mind but he doesn't need a release form from me to asked the place that keeps the archived records about this. Well, he wanted to talk to them about my record. That makes no sense. These are people who run a warehouse of records- they weren't people who know about me. Noone I was in the military with or who gave me therapy would still be accessible. How would that help them do an evaluation to determine if I'm doing something that contributes to difficult child continuing to mess up?

What it will show is that I got into trouble, went to treatment, successfully completed that, got out with great evaluations and a good discharge and recommendation, and never got into trouble again. Except for traffic tickets for a while longer, but I haven't even had that in about 9 years. If they are convinced that difficult child only has conduct disorder, I'm not understanding their train of thought. They already know that I don't have any kind of arrests like difficult child has had- not as an adult or juvenile.

My guess is that all this is leading right back to a custody issue and they are really using this evaluation as a means to investigate whether or not I was telling the truth or my family was. After I eemailed my mom about difficult child being in detention again, she didn't contact me for several days even though I'd left a couple of phone messages. Then, remember how a few weeeks ago she was asking if difficult child and I would come there? After I emailed her yesterday and insinuated I might need to call police to do a safe-check on her, she called. We talked and I told her I was probably moving out of the house in 1-2 weeks and she said it was ok for us to come there- either with or without difficult child (if he gets recommitted). Then, today I get an email from her saying she's selling her house and has to keep it spotless and she doesn't have musch money so I might want to reconsider and wait until after she sells her house and moves to another state and gets settled in there, then difficult child and I could come and stay with her if we needed to. Maybe I'm paranoid, but if you can't trust your family, who can you trust?
 
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slsh

member since 1999
klmno - I would not authorize release of your service records (most definitely *not* your entire service record for sure), or anything else going back that far. Actually, I'm not sure I'd authorize release of *any* records - this is supposed to be an evaluation, not a regurgitation. And I'd point out to MST exactly that. Just my 2 cents.
 

klmno

Active Member
She just emailed again and made it pretty clear that we are not welcome there right now. Do you think she's plotting with my bro again- even though she said yesterday that they still haven't been speaking?

And this is the woman who loved difficult child so much that she felt she had to stir all that custody stuff up because she was so afraid difficult child would go to foster care? If she hadn't led to me being discredited so much up here, difficult child probably would have gone to Residential Treatment Center (RTC) instead of Department of Juvenile Justice. And it's ok for me and maybe difficult child, too, to be homeless?
 
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klmno

Active Member
It's a court ordered evaluation. And I previously testified to the stuff I just wrote above. They want to see it for themselves. If I refused I would be breaking a court order by not giving them what they said they needed and it would look like I am lieing. I have typed up release forms with the info the military needs (extensive) to release mental health records and to verify that I was honorably discharged and it was not a result of disciplinary action or physical or mental illness. Also, I prinnted a list of what the public is allowed to obtain on a veteran without any release signed and it includes serious disciplinary actions. So, I figure I'm going to tell them that's all I'm giving, which still will only add fuel to the fire. Then they will get a courtorder to get it. I'm telling you- I'm starting to think they are more paranoid about me than I am about them. Either that or they can't stand it that they can access all civilian records but not military.

See, many of them have been acting like they can't trust me for years but it's to a point where I want to say "where's ANY evidence that you can't or that I've lied or done anything wrong that I haven't already told you about?" That's why they are seeming weird to me- they are adamant that I must be lieing so they keep trying to find anything they can. That's why I hope and pray that my therapist's notes got archived with my record because it will be evidence. Oh- I also ask for a copy of whatever was sent to them, get sent to me too. That way they can't claim something didn't get sent or that it said something differently.

Something stinks about this- I knew it all along. When they evaluation'd difficult child, they talked with him 15-20 mins and reviewed his court record they have there- that's it. They threw out anything any other psychiatrist or psychiatric said outside of their system- even when it was from a psychiatric hospital they sent him to themselves. But my evaluation warrants this when I'm not breaking the law or in a psychiatric hospital or sitting in a crisis center?

Oh- and I have to pay for this evaluation even though it's court ordered to be done by their own person. MST guy always acted like he was investigating more than counseling when he was here for MST, too. And the military starts charging for copies if someone asks for too much so I'm not asking for anymore. If they want the rest, they can get it on their own and pay for it.
 
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KTMom91

Well-Known Member
I would be uncomfortable with not only the amount of info being asked for, but also the way they're asking. Wish I had answers for you, k.
 

klmno

Active Member
Yeah- and they are handling it all this way because they don't have to provide me with a court appointed attny going this route. But they can "investigate" to try to put a case together then try to prove I shouldn't have custody, then that's when I'll get the attny appointed. And it looks even more suspicious knowing this evaluation is supposed to be complete in the near future but my military records could take 2-3 mos to get in.

But Lord forbid I should act paranoid or defensive tomorrow during the evaluation.

The good things are that I didn't lie to them so nothing is there that can prove I lied or that I'm really a sociopath who got kicked out of the military.

And as far as my mom- at least her decision keeps me from the attack of either why didn't I take difficult child there or why would I take him there if I had an abusive childhood.

Two questions- PO is asking judge for a change in parole status or if that can't happen, then recommittment to Department of Juvenile Justice. Does change in parole status mean placement or just level of parole involvement?

Next- If anyone here has had a court ordered evaluation- did you get a copy of the results or ever even get told what the results were?
 
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CrazyinVA

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Next- If anyone here has had a court ordered evaluation- did you get a copy of the results or ever even get told what the results were?

Mine was 20 years ago, but my attorney was sent a copy of my evaluation, as well as a copy of the kids' dad's evaluation. She read mine to me, although didn't give me a copy. She read me my ex's too, but later found out she wasn't supposed to :p

Both were fairly brief statements, not exactly in-depth anaylsis.
 

klmno

Active Member
Well, since I don't have an attny I guess I won't get one. If I end up court ordered to see a therapist, does the therapist have to tell me what the diagnosis is?
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
Well I would certainly think so. I cant imagine having therapy without knowing what the diagnosis is. Just how would that work?
 

witzend

Well-Known Member
The way I see it, you're darned if you do, and you're darned if you don't. If you don't release the records, you have been uncooperative and tried to hide vital information. If you do it's possible for them to interpret them any way they please. The only way to deal with it is to let them have the records and get in front of it. Explain it the way you did here. Things happen when you are younger. If 30 years go by without repeating those things, those things are irrelevant.
 

klmno

Active Member
I think I'm going to continue with the plan of releasing discharge info, mental health stuff, and that incident of trouble. I can't see that more info than that is justified for a mental health evaluation 30 years later. If they are trying to do a legal investigation, it appears this isn't the proper procedure for it. Like I mentioned before, they can get a court order to get the whole thing but they will pay for all those copies, not me. Still, it could take 2-3 mos to get this stuff in. He thinks he can pick up the phone and just ask whatever he's trying to find out. They told me they didn't think they could do that even with the veteran, much less a third party. Then of course, you have people who have never been in the military interpreting things documented in standard military language that they aren't familiar with. Why on earth are these people going to these lengths to get dirt on me? If this was meant to be objective they would be asking for things that would reflect the good as well as the bad.
 

AnnieO

Shooting from the Hip
...What Witz said.

I haven't done anything stupid in a while (I plead the Fifth on how long "a while" is). However - stupid that I was caught for, real breaking the law type - a long, LONG time. If they tried to drag that up now - !!!

Hugs, k. And let us know how today went/goes.
 

klmno

Active Member
Honestly, what I did would not be an arrestable offense out in the rreal world. It would have gotten me fired. In the military, it got me in big truble due to their own laws. I'm not justifying it, just saying that these people act like they are expecting to find that did something outrageous or continuous or something.
 

CrazyinVA

Well-Known Member
Staff member
I do think you're entitled to a copy of the evaluation results, and I would flat-out ask for them. They were only sent to my attorney because I had an attorney, not because she was the only person entitled to see them.

As fo rtherapy, court-ordered or not, a t-doctor would be treating YOU .. you are the patient, and are entitled to all your records/notes/diagnoses. I had a t-doctor tell me years ago that court-ordered therapy was a slippery slope for them, because of confidentiality and willingness of the patient in treatment. Court-ordered or not, if a patient does not want to participate in therapy, the therapist can't "make" them do anything.
 

CrazyinVA

Well-Known Member
Staff member
FYI, I found this on a webpage discussing court ordered therapy and ethics under the APA. This is something my previous therapist mentioned to me, as well.

4.Court Order: Therapists are required at times to disclose confidential information by a court order. In these circumstances, the therapist is ethically bound to state his/her adherence to the ethical guidelines related to confidentiality as defined by the American Psychological Association. Even with a court order, therapists are compelled by the APA Code of Ethics to make every effort to keep information disclosed in the therapy confidential. However, a judge may acknowledge the therapist's commitment to the ethics code and still order the therapist to disclose the information in court. In this case, the therapist would limit the information diclosed only to material pertinent to the court order.

https://web.archive.org/web/2013082...s.ku.edu/~caps/askstaff/confidentiality.shtml
 

klmno

Active Member
I'm going to ask that any order for treatment be allowed to be provided by the VA, assuming my app gets approved. I have faith in them to be objective and provide good treatment and I doubt very seriously they would let a local jurisdiction take over a treatment plan.
 

klmno

Active Member
Crazy, they got around that law last year by ordering me to sign release forms for difficult child's therapist to talk to them. That way, it was my butt on the line if it didn't happen.

They might have already gotten a court order to get my full service record between the time I talked to MST guy and today, I don't know. But I'm walking in there with these signed letters for release anyway and the fax number. If I'd already mailed or faxed them in, they wouldn't have believed me so they can fax it themselves and I'm taking the phone number of the place and the website so they can verify that I'm telling the truth. They are on a mission with thinking I'm hiding something but I think they are starting to act completely irrational about it all.
 
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