[Blueberrybook]

OMG, the CPS psych place called wanting to schedule their 4 to 6 hour psych assessment. Only thing I could take was a Saturday Sept. 22 at 8 AM which my husband would have to drive me to.

BUT I called the caseworker and:

The caseworker said if I can get an appt. with a therapist, and she can call & confirm with the therapist that that appt. is set, she will close out the case. The therapy session does not have to be before Sept. 22, just scheduled before then. So, I am going to be working the phones like crazy tomorrow.

Why is it taking so long to find a therapist?!!

[RainyDay107]

[unaluna]

Thats goood news!

[Blueberrybook]

And a 4-6 hour assessment! Really?! By then, any sane person would be breaking down, like the way cops keep interrogating suspects for ages in the hopes that they will crack.

[tecomsin]

Once you have a therapy appointment booked everything will start to settled down.

[Wild Coyote]

I think you will find it easier on you than you are anticipating. Just take it a day at a time. An hour at a time?

Do you still have to do the assessment if you book the therapist before the 22nd?

If so, try to use the psych eval to the max. Maybe you and your current pdoc can benefit from the evaluation results in some way?


WC

[luvyrself]

Originally Posted by Blueberrybook

OMG, the CPS psych place called wanting to schedule their 4 to 6 hour psych assessment. Only thing I could take was a Saturday Sept. 22 at 8 AM which my husband would have to drive me to.

BUT I called the caseworker and:

The caseworker said if I can get an appt. with a therapist, and she can call & confirm with the therapist that that appt. is set, she will close out the case. The therapy session does not have to be before Sept. 22, just scheduled before then. So, I am going to be working the phones like crazy tomorrow.

Why is it taking so long to find a therapist?!!

—-would she accept an online therapist?
—-this is incredibly good news. The first appointment is often scheduled a ways off. Obviously you can be very convincing. Work those phones as you mentioned. Don’t wait for an ED therapist, you can change later, just go for it!!!!
I know you will come up w strategy, like finding someone in some obscure location who might have a short waiting list, or getting a friend to intercede on yr behalf w their t. I only have friends in Ft Worth or I would offer. Speak up you people close to Blueberrys town!

[Movingon69]

Yay! I have a mantra: How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. I know you have anxiety over the length of the evaluation. But try to focus on the things at hand like making the calls. I agree with Wild Cayote. It may not be as bad as you are expecting.

Keep us posted.

Perhaps you've already looked there, but I found my last four therapists through Psychology Today: Health, Help, Happiness + Find a Therapist. All, particularly three of them, are really good therapists.

[Blueberrybook]

I did call someone around 6 AM this morning figuring I'd get voicemail and leave a message. I unfortunately think I actually woke the therapist as she sounded tired but insisted she had been awake and needed coffee yet. I asked if she was taking new clients and she said yes & she will call back around 8 AM, so we'll see.

The therapist either has to take my insurance or have a low sliding scale pay because I cannot afford to pay full price for any therapist easily. But if she says no to that, I will work down the insurance line. I got her name from the insurance page, but I got a lot of names from there, and then I call and they are phasing out insurance or don't accept it at all. So soon, I guess.

Aetna claims on their provider website they update providers weekly. I am beginning to doubt that.

I have Aetna, and their provider pages aren't up-to-date. If you do need to look at other lists, the Psychology Today lists do allow people to limit searches by insurance provider. They also mention specializations and in some cases sliding scale info. I won't say their lists are totally up-to-date, but as I wrote, they've yielded more for me than my Aetna list. As you surely know, Aetna has various plans. I've found therapists on Psychology Today that accept my Aetna that weren't on the Aetna list yet.

[Blueberrybook]

Sorry to take so long updating. I don't know why, but I am very, very forgetful today. It's awful. I was working on scanning in documents to help with my case and kept losing stuff. I don't know what is going on there.

Anyway, the therapist I phoned earlier called back and can get me in this Friday. I am so disorganized, I can't even find my CPS caseworker's number, not even in my phone calls because things roll over to voicemail if I re-dial the recent past calls. But anyway, the case worker told me she would be in meetings or training or something most of today and to leave a voicemail. Hopefully, I left it with her as the voicemail just re-iterated the number dialed. I had a 2nd number on the page for the place doing the assessment and got the same thing. Anyway, hopefully one of these is my caserworker for CPS. H does have his card from the caseworker; I lost mine already. This is how I have been for quite a while with losing papers and such. The assessment place did have the caseworker's number, so if I did dial the wrong number, they will give me my caseworker's phone number again. Yes, I am literally that bad. I write down phone numbers and don't jot down names beside them, and then I have no idea who the number is for later. Otherwise, I will wait until H comes home from work today and write down the number from his card.

I think this therapist may have just set up shop, or maybe not as she only appeared on the Aetna search page yesterday. But if you search things different terms, like therapist, counselor, counseling, you get different results on the Aetna site. Anyway, the good news about her just appearing there is that she is super close to my house, pretty much behind my daughter's school playground, and it takes 5 minutes to drive my daughter to school.

Fingers crossed she will take me on. She said she likes to use CBT, which is good as apparently DBT (which I only learned of from this site) and CBT tend to be the therapies of choice in treating eating disorders. But I just mentioned bipolar & severe stress & panic disorder to her on the phone. And yes, she does take my insurance.

[luvyrself]

Originally Posted by Blueberrybook

Sorry to take so long updating. I don't know why, but I am very, very forgetful today. It's awful. I was working on scanning in documents to help with my case and kept losing stuff. I don't know what is going on there.

Anyway, the therapist I phoned earlier called back and can get me in this Friday. I am so disorganized, I can't even find my CPS caseworker's number, not even in my phone calls because things roll over to voicemail if I re-dial the recent past calls. But anyway, the case worker told me she would be in meetings or training or something most of today and to leave a voicemail. Hopefully, I left it with her as the voicemail just re-iterated the number dialed. I had a 2nd number on the page for the place doing the assessment and got the same thing. Anyway, hopefully one of these is my caserworker for CPS. H does have his card from the caseworker; I lost mine already. This is how I have been for quite a while with losing papers and such. The assessment place did have the caseworker's
number, so if I did dial the wrong number, they will give me my caseworker's phone number again. Yes, I am literally that bad. I write down phone numbers and don't jot down names beside them, and then I have no idea who the number is for later. Otherwise, I will wait until H comes home from work today and write down the number from his card.

I think this therapist may have just set up shop, or maybe not as she only appeared on the Aetna search page yesterday. But if you search things different
terms, like therapist, counselor, counseling, you get different results on the Aetna site. Anyway, the good news about her just appearing there is that she is super close to my house, pretty much behind my daughter's school playground, and it takes 5 minutes to drive my daughter to school.

Fingers crossed she will take me on. She said she likes to use CBT, which is good as apparently DBT (which I only learned of from this site) and CBT tend to be the therapies of choice in treating eating disorders. But I just mentioned
bipolar & severe stress & panic disorder to her on the phone. And yes, she does take my insurance.

—so happy for you! Biggest problem solved. Now slow down, take your daughter someplace, even for a walk after school and those numbers, cards will be much easier to find. Nobody ate them LOL. Onward and upward, definitely upward!

[Wild Coyote]

I hope this all works out well for you!


WC