My son was receiving money from social security until the age of 19 because I was (am) disabled. After he stopped receiving the money he then qualified for our county's free mental health care. The psychiatrist who had been treating him for $85 cash per appointment then conveniently said when my son qualified for free care that he only would treat children and would no longer treat my son. So my son was then treated by a PA at the same organization. We didn't like the PA's personality and didn't think he did good assessments but he prescribed okay.

Then the PA left and we were transferred to a nurse practitioner who had done her masters degree training in diabetes. She is very knowledgeable about diabetes, mental health not so much. We have seen her for four separate appointments now and some of the stupid things she has said makes my jaw drop.

She is not knowledgeable about some of the meds she is prescribing and one drug (mirtazapine) she prescribed at a dose four times higher than what my own pdoc prescribed for me. My pdoc had explained to me long ago that the drug works better at low dose which is counterintuitive but that is what the studies confirm. I think a pdoc with 35 years experience is probably more knowledgable than a diabetes trained NP but the NP doesn't even like me being in the room with my son, let alone discuss the treatment plan.

And there are some other problems with the NP like she refuses to sign a form so that my son can get special accommodations to take the GED (he has written learning disability and ADHD and needs extended time on the test) but oh no, she says, I've never had to sign those before and I'm not starting now. I could go on about her but you get it, I think.

I have tried to get my own pdoc to treat my son but he is not currently accepting patients. It would be nice if he could because he treated my son for five years until the hospital restructured and my pdoc left to go to a VA center for a couple years.

So in May or June this year I found out where another pdoc that I know is practicing at a mental health center. The soonest they said that he could get an appt for my son was Jan 2012 but I agreed to do it because I am running out of options here. So several months ago when I talked to them they set up an intake appt in September (it was for yesterday). It was a four hour round trip but I was thinking a competent pdoc would make the long drives worth it.

When I got there the person who was to do the intake said that they recently had two pdocs retire and now it would be March 2012 until my son could be seen. She had my telephone number. I even called last week to confirm the appt. Why could she not have called me so I didn't drive four hours for that?!???? She didn't even do the intake so if we do go with that option it will be another four hour drive for what she should have done yesterday.

I'm mad.

I seem to be surrounded by idiots. The only competent pdocs aren't accepting patients. My son's NP currently has him taking one dose per day of Adderall regular release (not the extended release of which one dose would suffice). The regular release Adderall controls symptoms only for four hours. The prior PA had given him enough regular release Adderall for two to three doses per day. There is no way my son can work at a job or go to school if he only has meds that will treat four hours only.