I think they have pretty well hit the nail on the head with her diagnosis, with the exception of the issues being raised of whether or not she really has ADHD, or if it is the other issues, just coming out that way. My concern doesn't really lie within her diagnosis, it lies within the psychiatrist's priorities as far as treating them. But yes, to answer the question earlier, she is a Child psychiatric... and the new psychiatrist is an Adolescent psychiatric. I think this adjustment in itself will make a huge difference. Plus, the new psychiatrist is linked up with our difficult child's therapist's office, so she has already read over our daughter's information, and my questions and comments to the therapist. The reason she is waiting to see our daughter until April is because she is getting ready to leave the country on a three week vacation. But we have been on her waiting list since we got the approval from CPS in January to take her to a new psychiatrist. Her nurse finally called with an opening right after vacation, but she called me for a phone consultation the same day she pulled our difficult child from the list. She WANTED to know what I thought, and asked if I had been given sufficient information on all of our difficult child's diagnosis's, and whether there were any of them that I was concerned about, didn't think fit quite right, or if there were things I was noticing that weren't covered by any of them. We already sort of discussed a "plan" and she was actually interested in what I thought.
Unfortunately, busywend, you are correct, that most psychiatrist's handle this situation in the same way you have described, but I think that is SAD...
Any GOOD psychiatrist SHOULD WANT TO LISTEN to the information that you have, the concerns you have with where the child is currently at, and what your goals are for your child.
Which, is exactly what she WANTED from me. That is when I came right out with my concern that her current psychiatrist is more focused on her ADHD than the rest of it, which seems more important to me. She agreed with me that the current psychiatrist was wrong to ignore the raging to treat the ADHD.
In the experience that I have had with the current psychiatrist, she didn't care to hear us, she didn't care to hear our difficult child, she didn't care to hear our difficult child's caseworker at CPS, and she didn't even care to hear our difficult child's therapist. Our difficult child's therapist wrote several letters to current psychiatrist, PLEADING with her to re-evaluate our difficult child's medication, explaining also that she thought our difficult child was a bit depressed and suicidal, and that she felt that needed to be adressed. I took the letter with us to her last appointment, and the psychiatrist didn't even keep it!! She read it, handed it right back to me, and didn't even care to talk about it with us at all!!! It wasn't until after our difficult child decided to cut up her arm last weekend that her psychiatrist FINALLY agreed that maybe we should do SOMETHING. Only THEN she asked for a release of info so she could contact our difficult child's therapist. I was SOO ANGRY that it took something so serious and horrible to get her to listen to ANYONE.
For these reasons, I absolutely REFUSE to take her to a psychiatrist that DOESNT want to hear what we have to say and what we think. Maybe that makes me a bad person, or too picky, but in the future, I will INSIST that whoever she sees takes an interest in our opinion.
Again, don't get me wrong, because I do agree with what you are saying, and I find it UNFORTUNATE that most psychiatristS DO react this way, but shame on them for thinking that they automatically know a kid better than their own parents do just because they have experience with the list of acronyms they have added to a child's chart.
Again, I know this probably makes me sound bad and much too picky, but I don't think that there is a such thing as TOO picky when you are talking about a child's well-being. And I guarantee that if we were ALL that picky, these psychiatrist's would not be able to operate the way they do, thinking that the parents are the real problem. The only reason they get away with it, is because we tolerate it.
