The struggle of mental health care. Last month I received this letter via certified mail from my psychiatrist’s office.
Back story: my 11/18 appointment was not “missed”. It was rescheduled multiple times because of conflicts with the doctor’s schedule.
When I called to make an appointment after receiving this letter, it took over 2 weeks to get someone on the phone to schedule it. This was after being transferred multiple times to random voicemails and not receiving call backs.
Guess what? That appointment was canceled two days before it was to occur because it got scheduled one day after the three week timeframe outlined in this letter 🤦🏽♀️
While speaking with someone in the office, I was told to get a referral again like I did before I quickly told her she might not want to tell psych patients that since my first referral was not through voluntary means. She apologized and took my info to have a supervisor call me back.
Since then I’ve called the office multiple times and have been waiting for that supervisor to call back. For 3 weeks.
I’m tired y’all. And struggling. It should not be this difficult to get help. And the medication my body needs to manage my day-to-day.
I don’t have answers for this one or a warm bubbly closing. I did reach out to the doctor I was seeing before this one in hopes that she can assist or escalate.
Some might say, just go get another referral. It’s not always that easy. I have to see my primary care physician (appointments are being scheduled 3-4 months out currently) to get the referral and then wait for another appointment with the Department of Psychiatry (another 2-3 months). That makes an entire year almost since my last visit. All when I had an appointment scheduled last month where I could’ve been seen.
I’m going to try to stay positive and appreciate all the prayers, positive thoughts and virtual hugs you’ve got.
4/12/2023 UPDATE: I heard back from my previous doctor. She did some research for me and ended up writing me a referral herself. I have an appointment in a few weeks with a new doctor that she highly recommends. There's a glimmer of hope.