Question about Parent Report

SunnyNC

New Member
Hello all!

I was working on my "Parent Report" for my difficult child's upcoming appointments with the pediatric neurologist and pediatric psychologist. I have a few questions about it however and hope that someone can help. Thank you so much for any help!

How should the Report be presented? Outline form or paragraph form?

When should the Report be presented to the Dr? Before the appointment or during?

If the Report is presented at the time of the appointment, how is a doctor expected to read everything contained and do evaluation and interview of the parents/child? I am sure the same is with others, but I have quite a bit of information to add to this report.

If the Report is to be presented prior to the appointment, how much before?

Thank you so much for helping with my confusion!

Rachel
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
Im trying to remember exactly how I did it.

I know the report itself was in paragraph form. More like a story.

I presented it to all parties in advance I think. I know I would always give updated versions to people whenever I was dealing with an agency be it juvenile justice, mental health, etc.

My parent report went everywhere. I had copies for all the people involved in my sons life.
 

kris

New Member
<span style="color: #000099">follow the outline...even use the outline as headers...but the material itself should be presented in narative form. attach appropriate prior evaluations where appropriate or at the end & asteric them in the narative.

i would try & get it to the psychiatrist prior to the appointment. that way he/she will hopefully take the time to read it prior to the appointment. don't be too distressed if he/she doesn't, but feel free to reference it frequently when he's asking you questions lol. just gentle reminders that if he had read it he'd have the information.

make sure you save the document to disc so if your comuter crashes you don't have to recreate it. saving to disk also makes it easier to keep it updated.

kris </span>
 

LittleDudesMom

Well-Known Member
As Kris suggested, mine is in narrative form with headings (each heading has a seperate page - makes it longer, but easier to read).

I would get it to the docs office about a week before. It's no guarantee that it will be fully read, but hopefully doctor can at least "take a look" before the appointment. Once you are happy with it, run a few extra so you always have one handy.

And, thanks for your post, I need to make some revisions to difficult child's.

Sharon
 

SunnyNC

New Member
Thank you all for responding. I wanted to be certain I was doing this right. It seemed to get a bit long, and I was not sure if a Dr would read a "book" prior to an appointment with everything else they have to deal with on a daily basis. I will be sure to get this in the mail by Monday for our Thursday appointment...I know that does not provide for much time, but it is the best I can do at this point. I will also mail a copy out to the psychologist, who we have an appointment with Friday.

Thank you again..this I think is a great tool to have! I wish I had done this a Looooonngggg time ago!!

Rachel
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
Mine was about 15 pages by the time my son was grown...and that was without reports. I no longer have mine...I have lost my disk and the computer it was on is history. I started off telling about my son and his strengths and what he is like as a child. Then I went on to what my hopes and dreams for him. I went into his medical history from birth on.

It got rather long. About every month or so I added a comment as to how he was doing even if it was only that things were going well.
 

Suz

(the future) MRS. GERE
I'm working with doctors right now and will offer up a suggestion and that is to be as concise as possible. I hear constantly that docs do NOT have the time to read a lot of stuff because they are inundated with printed material. In that light I would be more apt to write the report in bullet form rather than narrative.

Another thing to think about is what happened to us. Our insurance changed so we had to find a new psychiatrist. It was the perfect opportunity to get a second opinion but I didn't think about that until later.

Basically, the new psychiatrist did do some testing but his opinions were already somewhat affected by what I had told him about Rob's history and prior diagnosis's so we didn't get an objective point of view from him. If you are only looking for continuation of medications and what you are doing now, it doesn't hurt to let them have your info ahead of time. If you are looking for a new round of testing and evaluations, I would consider waiting and present the Parent Report on the day of the new appointment as a vehicle to assist, rather than sway, the doctor to make his determinations.

Suz
 

totoro

Mom? What's a difficult child?
We just did our's in November-
I followed the one here online and tried to make it as to the point as possible, headings and bullets. At the very last page I listed all of difficult child's symptoms that were presenting and were of concern to us, just a straight up list, I think it was 53 total!!! We brought 2 copies of this, I always try to have an extra... I also brought a video as well as copies of our pediatrician reports and all other evaluations reports. If you do send it before time, make sure you bring a copy with you to the apt, sometimes these things dissappear... or the psychiatrist never recieved it!!!

Our psychiatrist and her resident said if every patient did it like this their job would be so much easier, they were blown away by how easy it made things.
In our video I put 3 examples of rages, difficult child attacking me, one of us having to restrain her, an edited version of what led up to it, her cycling into a full blown depression and wanting to die... things that really showed why we were seeking this help, I also showed some of her sensory issues and a quick shot of her doing some therapy at home.
The psychiatrist loved it...

husband and I argued over what to put in some of the report, I think he sometimes tries to leave somethings out, for somereason he thinks if you suggest it it will come true!!!
I say if it is a concern, if it is a part of their personality or you have tried it write it down... anything you can think of. put it all down and then delete the not so important stuff after rereading it...

I have to rewrite mine and add to it for our next apt... let us know how it goes.
Also I am sure all docs are different, what one loves another may detest... Our new psychiatrist may think we are loser's for put all of this effort into it!!! Oh well.
Good luck
 
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