klmno
Active Member
I had an appointment with a therapist this morning. I was told it would be an intake appointment to get me into a VA therapist and get the referral into the VA work program and it would be a 1 hour appointment. When the first 2 questions were where was I born and tell her about my early childhood, it was obvious this was a real evaluation and I know that my hx is too full of issues to be able to get thru it in 1 hour. So I started blurting out the important stuff as quickly as possible. This lady is another who can't keep any of it straight. difficult child and I must just have more complicated lives than most because every therapist I've seen (whether for him or me) since he's been born has not been able to keep details about our hx straight.
Examples this morning: I told her my bro went to live with grandparents. One minute later she says "so you lived with your grandparents". I was telling her about my bro trying to get difficult child condoms when he was 12yo and home on the ankle bracelet. She says "Oh my, your son is home on an ankle bracelet right now".
It's not that they get confused that bothers me so much. It''s that if they can't keep this straight and this is what they go by to come up with a diagnosis and treatment plan and which therapist to send you to for that treatment plan, how much faith can I possibly have in their conclusions and therefore, their recommendations? If they can't pay attention to the details, do I trust them to diagnosis me?
She said we didn't get finished so I have to go back in 3 1/2 weeks for her to finish. Of course by then she will have completely forgotten about me and anything I said and only have her notes to go by- and I don't have much confidence in them being correct. I've brought concerns up like this to the last two evaluators who evaluation'd difficult child and they both said they would let me look the evaluation over to correct things like hx prior to finalizing the report and giving it to anyone. But neither of them did. They gave me my copy at the same time other people got it and it was final and I had to send a letter outlining things and I feel sure the letter with corrections never gets read, if seen at all.
So what should I do? The only thing I can think of is to tell her when I go back that since I threw so much out so fast, I am concerned that she might not have been able to write things down accurately that fast. Is that polite enough? Suggestions?
She also seems to have a blind faith in the juvenile court system and that worries me a little about whether or not she'll think I'm just being paranoid but maybe not- I'll just have to wait and see on that one. People don't like to believe that courts people will tell their mental health evaluators (in detention) what to write in an evaluation and the evaluator will actually do it instead of coming up with their own prof opinion and writing that.
Examples this morning: I told her my bro went to live with grandparents. One minute later she says "so you lived with your grandparents". I was telling her about my bro trying to get difficult child condoms when he was 12yo and home on the ankle bracelet. She says "Oh my, your son is home on an ankle bracelet right now".
It's not that they get confused that bothers me so much. It''s that if they can't keep this straight and this is what they go by to come up with a diagnosis and treatment plan and which therapist to send you to for that treatment plan, how much faith can I possibly have in their conclusions and therefore, their recommendations? If they can't pay attention to the details, do I trust them to diagnosis me?
She said we didn't get finished so I have to go back in 3 1/2 weeks for her to finish. Of course by then she will have completely forgotten about me and anything I said and only have her notes to go by- and I don't have much confidence in them being correct. I've brought concerns up like this to the last two evaluators who evaluation'd difficult child and they both said they would let me look the evaluation over to correct things like hx prior to finalizing the report and giving it to anyone. But neither of them did. They gave me my copy at the same time other people got it and it was final and I had to send a letter outlining things and I feel sure the letter with corrections never gets read, if seen at all.
So what should I do? The only thing I can think of is to tell her when I go back that since I threw so much out so fast, I am concerned that she might not have been able to write things down accurately that fast. Is that polite enough? Suggestions?
She also seems to have a blind faith in the juvenile court system and that worries me a little about whether or not she'll think I'm just being paranoid but maybe not- I'll just have to wait and see on that one. People don't like to believe that courts people will tell their mental health evaluators (in detention) what to write in an evaluation and the evaluator will actually do it instead of coming up with their own prof opinion and writing that.