klmno
Active Member
has become a royal pain. The first- and only- therapist I saw at (you already know where) was obviously out of her league and made me want to pull my hair out for a few reasons. After that I went to the walk-in-clinic, was waiting to see the person on call, who ended up telling me the first therapist (I'm going to call her therapist-1) wouldn't authorize me to speak with anyone else. WHAT? How would she have the authority to do that? No answer- it has to go thru therapist-1 because she's listed as my therapist. Never mind that when I saw her, she told me she was only doing an intake before assigning me to a therapist to see longer term. The therapist on call said that therapist-1 was the only person who could see me under those circumstances and therapist-1 had said she didn't have time to that day. (That's how I ended up with a second appointment with her.) At the second appointment with therapist-1, I tactfully tried to stress that I thought I needed a PTSD specialist and someone who had a little more understanding of the intensive therapy I'd had before. She tried to tell me they didn't have anyone there like that- well I knew that was BS giiven the type of facility this is. I asked then if she could just listen and let me get some things out before I completely lose my mind. She said NO- do you believe it? She said I shouldn't be thinking about things like that, I had other things to worry about and that no outpatient therapist would deal with issues like that on an outpatient basis. BS and I know it. Anyway- I didn't say BS to her but said I wasn't so comfortable with this and didn't think it was going to be a comfortable fit. (Oh- I should mention that the things I wanted to talk about- recoccurring PTSD issues after difficult child cut the money out of my pocket, feeling like a failure as a parent, being stressed out over losing my home and career. I wwasn't suicidal and told her I wasn't having any thoughts like that.) Honestly, she reminds me a lot of two different tdocs difficult child saw who spent several months each swearing to me that they could help difficult child/us with his issues only to end up telling me it was over their heads and they didn't know what else to do. Anyway, she gave me the number of the patient advocate and said I would need to talk to her if I wanted a different therapist.
Whatever. So I called the patient advocate who told me all the tdocs there are capable of handling PTSD and that therapist-1 would be able to handle any issue I needed to discuss but since I was having an issue about it, she would put in my file that I could see someone different. Fine. So I call to try to make an appointment with someone different and they won't let me- can't find anything in my file about this. So when I went to get my female exam, I told that dr all about this and she said that it was absurd- of course they have PTSD specialists there and no, all their LCSWs are NOT trained to be knowledgable in this area and clearly, I needed some help and should never have had to go thru this trying to get it. She took me over to a different Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) who was supposed to make me an appointment with a PTSD specialist. I'll call her Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW)-2.
Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW)-2 tried to listen and pat me on the head, figuratively. Then she looked on the computer at my file and said I was in there and listed as on the waiting list for a PTSD spec and she was going to put me on the waiting list for outpatient crisis stabilization so they could be working with me until the PTSD spec had an opening. She said I would have an appointment with crisis stabilization within one week. Great.
Ten days later, I got a VM from therapist-1 and what does she say? Crisis stabilization has no one available to meet with me- she can keep me on their waiting list or I can come back in and see her again- call and let her know if I want to make an appointment with her. I didn't, so I never called her back.
Another week goes by so then we were at last week- I called to verify I was on those two waiting lists. Nope- I'm not on either. I called women's clinic (where the dr was that had helped before). They gave me the number for women veterans' representative. She calls and tells me she'll look into it but will have to talk to therapist-1 first. I haven't heard back from her.
So tonight, I call their crisis line- saying that I'm not suicidal but I don't know how to get MH help there and asked specifically if the problem was that I didn't get PTSD from war-related events, wondering if that made me ineligible to see their PTSD spec. She said no. She told me to go to their ER, talk to the psychiatrist in ER and go inpatient for 2-3 days. She said it might be the only way they'll take me serious and get something done. Geez.... I told her I had two dogs and no, it isn't so easy finding temp care- it's easier to relinquish them altogether however, there would be no hope of me ever getting them back that way. She told me to tell the psychiatrist that, too.
Uhmmm.... this route kind of scares me. I would do it if I didn't think he'd necessarily lock me up right away but I don't even know if this is a strictly acute facility or not, for this kind of MH problem. The primary care doctors (regular mds) work as a patient's case manager there. I'm thinking I should make an appointment with her and see if she can get more done without going to such extreme. I can't think of any other way-
And there's another problem with going inpatient at that facility. This jurisdiction where I live quit using difficult child's old GAL. The jurisdiction where that facility is still uses her as a GAL and if I "lived" there, even temporarily, she would surely be assigned to difficult child's case because as soon as they pick up difficult child's file and realize that she's the only person in that jurisdiction familiar with him, they would want her on it.
Ok, I'll try the walk-in clinic again (not the ER) and make an appointment with my dr, too. Maybe between those two I can stop this merry go round.
I think that spec tdocs might be assigned to inpatient care frequently, but that doesn't mean that everyone who needs access to them needs to be inpatient. Yet I tend to think some tdocs who are still pretty green might assume that if they aren't equipped to deal with a problem, the person must need inpatient care. And I'm starting to think this might be why many of us parents have had such a hard time getting effective therapy for our difficult child's and spending months with some tdocs for nothing.
Whatever. So I called the patient advocate who told me all the tdocs there are capable of handling PTSD and that therapist-1 would be able to handle any issue I needed to discuss but since I was having an issue about it, she would put in my file that I could see someone different. Fine. So I call to try to make an appointment with someone different and they won't let me- can't find anything in my file about this. So when I went to get my female exam, I told that dr all about this and she said that it was absurd- of course they have PTSD specialists there and no, all their LCSWs are NOT trained to be knowledgable in this area and clearly, I needed some help and should never have had to go thru this trying to get it. She took me over to a different Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) who was supposed to make me an appointment with a PTSD specialist. I'll call her Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW)-2.
Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW)-2 tried to listen and pat me on the head, figuratively. Then she looked on the computer at my file and said I was in there and listed as on the waiting list for a PTSD spec and she was going to put me on the waiting list for outpatient crisis stabilization so they could be working with me until the PTSD spec had an opening. She said I would have an appointment with crisis stabilization within one week. Great.
Ten days later, I got a VM from therapist-1 and what does she say? Crisis stabilization has no one available to meet with me- she can keep me on their waiting list or I can come back in and see her again- call and let her know if I want to make an appointment with her. I didn't, so I never called her back.
Another week goes by so then we were at last week- I called to verify I was on those two waiting lists. Nope- I'm not on either. I called women's clinic (where the dr was that had helped before). They gave me the number for women veterans' representative. She calls and tells me she'll look into it but will have to talk to therapist-1 first. I haven't heard back from her.
So tonight, I call their crisis line- saying that I'm not suicidal but I don't know how to get MH help there and asked specifically if the problem was that I didn't get PTSD from war-related events, wondering if that made me ineligible to see their PTSD spec. She said no. She told me to go to their ER, talk to the psychiatrist in ER and go inpatient for 2-3 days. She said it might be the only way they'll take me serious and get something done. Geez.... I told her I had two dogs and no, it isn't so easy finding temp care- it's easier to relinquish them altogether however, there would be no hope of me ever getting them back that way. She told me to tell the psychiatrist that, too.
Uhmmm.... this route kind of scares me. I would do it if I didn't think he'd necessarily lock me up right away but I don't even know if this is a strictly acute facility or not, for this kind of MH problem. The primary care doctors (regular mds) work as a patient's case manager there. I'm thinking I should make an appointment with her and see if she can get more done without going to such extreme. I can't think of any other way-
And there's another problem with going inpatient at that facility. This jurisdiction where I live quit using difficult child's old GAL. The jurisdiction where that facility is still uses her as a GAL and if I "lived" there, even temporarily, she would surely be assigned to difficult child's case because as soon as they pick up difficult child's file and realize that she's the only person in that jurisdiction familiar with him, they would want her on it.
Ok, I'll try the walk-in clinic again (not the ER) and make an appointment with my dr, too. Maybe between those two I can stop this merry go round.
I think that spec tdocs might be assigned to inpatient care frequently, but that doesn't mean that everyone who needs access to them needs to be inpatient. Yet I tend to think some tdocs who are still pretty green might assume that if they aren't equipped to deal with a problem, the person must need inpatient care. And I'm starting to think this might be why many of us parents have had such a hard time getting effective therapy for our difficult child's and spending months with some tdocs for nothing.
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