Thank you all for your ideas and stories. I have one recent story to tell. I am having a hospital investigated for bogus pych treatment. In the process of filling out the form I am finding out how hard it is to get the information. I am being told that it is up to my pysch doctor as to whether or not I can get the records. I am not with that doctor anymore and I resent him having the say as to whether or not I can get my hospital records.

barbara

dismissing other ailments in presence of mental sx
 

like others, i have had bad treatment outside of mental health care, by practitioners who couldn't get past even very simple mental health/state and investigate other problems. i have to wonder to what degree, even within a mental health setting, patients' other troubles might still be underestimated, or interpreted as "emotionally based" or psychosomatic.

i was dismissed from a neuro exam for migraines. i came in having an anxiety attack - fairly mild but i was visibly nervous when i entered (shaking, talking jerkily). i also had a migraine going on, due to which i was feeling very jarred/disoriented by the type of lights and bleepy noises and general ruccus in the center. this was a follow up exam - i had had an MRI which i was to bring. she looked me upside down, said what's wrong with YOU? and no sooner the words anxiety attack left my lips she was no longer listening to me tell her i also had a migraine ongoing, with all the doozy effects from light/sound, no, she was yelling at me that i "belonged" in pdoc's office not hers and that my migraines were all emotionally-based. thank goodness the ativan took effect at some point i was able to stand up to her somewhat but still, she

- would not look at the MRI,
- did not want to hear about the types of symptoms i have
- did not narrow down the TYPE of migraines i have (with some kinds you can't take certain meds, so it is important to know! :mad:)
- did not discuss treatment options with me
- finally shipped me off with a med suggestion (not script!) in a NOTE to my PDOC.

pdoc read it and said what she suggested was used specifically for PSYCHOSOMATIC PAIN.

i had migraines BEFORE i ever had any mood episode, and their course did not vary with my moods or within episodes. :( and my mom, who doesn't have any mood disturbances, also had migraines. it's genetic. :mad:

~ waves ~

i am aware
 

that in the US doctors are reticent about giving psych patients their records and it is not standard practice to release them. however,

1. they WILL release them to another doc (so for instance, you could request them sent to your current pdoc and that should NOT present any problem).

2. i am not sure if there is any legal difference with psych records specifically. If not, you have a right to those records. you might want to call some place like NAMI and find that out.

I had wondered also about releasing them to another doctor.

Not sure why exactly they wont release them to you the patient.
But in some cases I personally can understand this.

Donna

Hipaa
 

HI,
Those lazy jerks are supposed to give you your records -- with some exceptions:


http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs8b-MedFAQ.htm#2
also:


http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs8b-MedFAQ.htm#2

Contact the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights. They have a procedure:
http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/


M.

Mental Health problems
 

I have Bipolar I (rapid cycling), OCD, and have attempted suicide twice in the last year in a half. I still do not have an actual doctor. I have a nurse pract and a therapist. The therapist is wonderful and I see him for an hr every week. My practicing glorified nurse I only see about once a month when she needs to write my klonopin script and all of the others. She does not seem to care to listen to any of my problems so I do not tell her any. She is unapproachable and cold. She intimidates me! All she is concerned about is getting through all of my prescriptions and getting me out of her office in the 15 minutes that the front desk has set aside for my appt. I feel that my problems warrant an actual doc and one that will listen.

collinsc

That is unusual for a nurse practioner to be this cold...
usually they are more wholistic in approach.
I do know that it is the "pdoc's job to get the meds right and the tdocs job to do the counseling...so that is really normal.
My pdoc has counseled me and has a great memory...she has taken time to understand my circumstances. I can email her when ever I need to...her staff usually gets back to me by the end of the day if I have a concern.
I have seen her for 7 years.....am afraid of her though.
Don't tell her when I am manic, afraid she will commit me.
bizi

Thank you for the information. I was told by someone else to get my family doctor to get my psych records for me. I will look into it more when I've had more sleep and my neck and shoulder don't hurt so bad. Today I mailed the forms to have the mental hospital investigated for bogus hospitalization. I am anxious to see the results of that investigation.

barbara

Need Support and Ideas
 

I got a copy of the report of the shrink's notes from my bougus psych hospitaliziation last year. I've copied and pasted this so as to keep typing it over and over. It seems like my shrink really believed I was pychotic by the report so to me it's the hospital's fault then for admitting me on less.
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I don't know whether or not you remember about all the trouble I had in the old neighborhood last year that I moved from just this past January. Well, my ex-next door neighbor made my life hell harrassing me and then my landlord seemed to join in because I had taken him to court for flea infestation. I was admitted to a pysch hospital within a regular hospital for bogus treatment instead of being treated for high blood pressure like I had gone there for. The shrink did not believe me when I told him about my old neighbors and the landlord harrassing me. The shrink thought I was delusional according to his notes. I had made the joke, well, just put me in Tuckers, the psych unit. So next thing I knew I was being asked questions by an intake nurse like if I was suicidal or had thoughts of hurting anyone. I told her no and then she asked me if I have ever had any fleeting thoughts in the past of hurting myself and I said, "well, I suppose I have." Next thing I know I was in the psych ward. Since then I have been billed $1,100 for an over night stay. Now I am fighting back and have an organization that may investigate it. I also am still busy collecting evidence in my favor like a police record of the old neighborhood, court record of me taking my landlord to court and such which resulted in harrassment by the landlord. In the shrinks nortes he talks about how I told him I was being harrassed by my landlord because I complained about fleas the previous summer. I also told him how my apartment was almost broken into and such which it was. This is whe the police record will prove I was telling the truth. The shrink stated in his notes that what I was saying I kept insisting it was the truth like he didn't believe me.
------------------
Since typing that I have received by email a police report of 911 calls to my old neighborhood in the past year. In just one year there were around 176 calls made to 911 from the small apartment complex where I lived. Ten of those calls were made for breaking and entering. I had told the shrink that my apartment was almost broken into and he didn't believe me. My shrink made me out to be paranoid and delusional in what I told him when in reality it was all true. I will be picking up the police report of the time my old apartment was almost broken into.

I know this is long but the thing I want to bring out in the open is how when someone is labled with a mental illness that they are not taken seriously. And in most cases that is usually all the time. Because my shrink had taps on my disagnosis he jumped to conclusions that what I was telling him were nothing but delusional thinking. It resulted in a $1,100 bill to me that I don't believe i should have to pay when they didn't act in my opinion with a real reason to admit me. And from some of the responses in this post I can see that not being taken seriously is not a problem only I have experienced. What in the world can we do to stop this kind of injustice?

barbara

Barb
I don't know if there is anything you can do to stop them from not
taking you seriously. I have found that its not just the mentally
ill that the doctor's are not taking serious.

I'm sorry to say.

Donna