Why do we need 3 meetings for intake? Boo has been in their system since she was 5 years old. she has had psychiatric services when her psychiatrist was driving down here to provide services for our area. She has had counselling services through the school for at least 2 years in a group therapy session. sadly it was cancelled . The therapist who offered the class moved on it was not offered again. The sad state of many services in rural areas She has seen a counselor there before as well. though we stopped seeing her because she refused to recommend any services or consider referring her to a clinic to evaluate for medication. We spent many a session discussing if any one hurt Boo and did any one touch her where she didn't like. While its good to ask and be aware and I in no way am saying that health care officials should not ask be aware or advocate and be proactive ; I do not think it requires 8 sessions of a child telling her no in private and with me present and telling her she cant stand the anger any more to think hmmmmm maybe anger is a problem , Perhaps this child is having problems controlling and dealing with her emotions.But no apparently not.
We were able to find outside counselling and eventually were refereed to our present psychiatrist and both are amazing people who have helped greatly . Both are located two hours from us. Sadly the counselor was not able to cure boos problems in the time allotted by medicaid . We decided that fighting with them and losing wasn't worth the effort.We did give it a valiant effort and a hell of a battle though before we finally lost .. Its not ethical to make up reasons and even though its ridiculous to assign a number of visits required to cure a mental health issue , trauma or any other problem you have to deal with , Medicaid does.
We had started with our case worker to see if Boo could see the counselor who provides services to the consumers at our local day program . Also to see what kind of services are provided. the initial call went in 3 months ago. I have called to follow up several times and each time Its on the agenda for the next meeting and is being worked on . I guess if it ever gets figured out some will call. Silly me I thought when faced with a wall simply go around it walk in another direction.
Boo has been in the mental health system in our town system through the years numerous times.we completed the required three appointments for intake. filled out the ten pounds of paper work and the numerous questionnaires about everything under the sun except how many times a day she pees! we made the appointment and it was last week. Boo came home not feeling well. she was sick for about 3 days . I really think it was the stress of graduation looming near. She { as with many special needs kids} doesn't do well with stress of change. I called to cancel the appointment and reschedule. I was sent to the voice mail of the counselor . I have to talk to her to cancel. I got her voice mail and left a message. cancelling the appointment and explaining that boo was sick. I left a number and my name . she didn't call back. she handles all her own scheduling.
The next week was graduation week , million memories and several other things for baby sis and graduation practice . Not to mention all that I had on the agenda for cake cookies party ect ect . So I didn't hear from the counselor and I didn't call. It would have been extremely stressful and counter productive for boo that week anyway . I called earlier this week and of coarse I cant make an appointment so back to voice mail . Having heard nothing back yet again and I admit being a little irked and frustrated that today on boo's 3 month appointment I hadn't been able to get her into a counselor yet , three months ! Good thing shes not suicidal isn't it ? So i called again today and told the person on the phone that it would be pointless to send me to voicemail yet again and she patiently explained that i needed to talk to the Councillor and she would see if she was available.
The receptionist asked another receptionist and checked with some one else when finally after telling her it has done no good to leave voice mails. she carefully explained to me again that I needed to talk to her voice mail and she would call me back , I am not proud but I admit i was very sarcastic and when i said i would just love to leave another pointless voicemail. I also explained again, that i was trying to make boo another appointment and yes I did say again, I am having a hard time having faith that a councilor who seem to find time to call me back , cant allow a receptionist to make or cancel appointments can actually manage to help boo,I am definitely lacking faith here.I have no idea if I can request she see some one else or not but if this continues I may look into it .
Its so very frustrating. It does no good to get upset. It changes nothing. No one really cares. that is how things work around here . people in the community agree and sympathetic that its not right it sucks and its best to go out of town and see some one. We are trying to get boo a therapist who can help her deal with her emotions and the stress of changes in her life. Some one locally so she can ride the community bus. We don't have public transit and she cant drive. Its too far to drive her scooter and she wants to be independent. Another trip out of time not only takes a lot of time and money but also just drains her. Its so hard on her to have to make out of town trips and I don't think its unreasonable to want services for my daughter .But so many times people in the heath care community of rural towns are not top notch professionals. That isn't to say that we don't some great professionals in our community , but think about this ?
Your young and fresh out of school , there is a huge amount of competition for positions at top notch hospitals and businesses and you are continually denied for positions because you have no experience . so you hit the internet and low and behold some little rural place in podunk is not only hiring but is also offering you a great bonus to sign with them . So you come do your time get your experience and move on to a better career some where you can shop at stores that don't start with WAL. Or lets say your career isn't going well . or you've made mistakes , your not the brightest and certainly weren't in the top 50 of your class but you have a degree and you need a job some where . well low and behold welcome to podunk where you can practice and pretty well be assured of job security . Its hard to get people with degrees to want to come to podunk. Podunk is a poverty stricken community and the local clinic is the only place in town that takes medicaid so walla guaranteed clients !
And this is the struggle in rural america. You have few choices and only basic healthcare. A few specialists come through but the wait times can be long . And that is just for your everyday podunkers. Special needs podunkers get even longer waits and it can be hard at times to even get some one to recognize the problem.
for example when my son was a baby he would stop breathing at night in his sleep . I was a new mom but I knew something was wrong . I made an appointment with our old rural country doctor who said lay him down . So i laid him on the table and he breathed fine. I was told I was worrying for nothing and he was fine . I didn't feel right about this and the problem persisted along with multiple ear infections . we got a new doc in town and older man he flat out told me I was a paranoid parent and was imagining things , ear infections continued constantly . new doc in town I took my son in he prescribed dimetap . ear infections , dimetap , my allergies dimetap . told me i was imagining things the boy is fine .when my son was about 3 and entered in preschool due to screening and discovering his speech skills were non existent. we got a pediatrician, I took in my son cringed and told him the whole story and i swore i want making it up , He told me this is a serious condition called sleep apnea it can be fatal. He said I wasn't imagining things and He needed to see a specialist right away .I asked why the other doctors didn't know about this and he said , the problem with old country doctors is that they live in rural areas where it is hard for them to keep up with the latest medical research so some times they are years behind on medical advances.
Health care in Podunk has improved over the years but we still have things like this happen. Clinic doctor thinks child is fine and parents are paranoid , parents take child to dr in another town and a lot of times the er doc will admit the child to the hospital , and many many more tales such issues.
so the moral of the story? Podunk sucks ! lol just kidding Podunk does suck but Mom's if you know some thing is wrong with your child I don't care how many Docs tell you your paranoid or an over protective parent. We moms know our children the best and if you know in your heart some thing is wrong , keep fighting. Get a second opinion , or a third . Get tests and see a specialist.I cant tell you how many moms I have met whose original doc told them there was nothing wrong with their child. A mother knows when some thing isn't right! You keep fighting for your children until you get the help they need. Trust your maternal instincts
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