On 19 Sep 2013 17:04:24 GMT, "human-talking Rover" <HTR@Woof.com>
wrote:
>Woof! YNot ((4s00th (Psychiatrist)), here's some more psychiatrist response
>to you.
>**
Since footnotes seem to be so important to you lately:
I am not a psychiatrist -- I have never claimed to be one. I am not a
licensed psychologist -- again, I have never claimed to be. I've got a
BA in Psychology from the University of Virginia. In this state, that
is not sufficient to work in the psychiatric/psychological field
except in government agencies -- the government's way of getting
people that they don't have to pay as much, plus it also gives those
of us with lower-level degrees the chance to get some experience so
that we might seek more advanced degrees and meet the experience
requirements for licensure.
As such, I have worked in Social Services and Community Mental Health
programs, both local-government run agencies supervised by state
departments of Social Services and Community Services respectively.
Some of my time in Social Services involved Child Protective Services
including investigation of abuse allegations, emergency services to
children and long-term services for children. I also performed the
same jobs for adults -- such as investigating complaints of abuse of
the elderly. My job title at that time was "Social Worker, Generic."
In Community Services, I worked with adults who met the requirements
for long-term mentally disabled, assessing their psychiatric condition
and ability to function in the community and providing support to help
them remain in the least restrictive environment, which meant that I
got them in the hospital when they needed to be there and back in the
community when they were capable of being there. The psychiatrists and
other medical staff I worked with depended on me to prepare reports of
psychiatric evaluations and histories for other agencies such as
Social Security and to keep them updated on our mutual clients'
progress between appointments as well as to assist them with
appropriate treatment planning. I also coordinated with other agencies
to see that my clients were getting what assistance was available to
help them remain in the least restrictive environment. In this
capacity, my job title was "Community Support Services Case Manager."
At no time have I ever claimed to be anymore than I am. However, I
will freely admit that I was damn good at my job and that I felt a lot
more qualified than many of the licensed "professionals" who may have
had more education, but had never gotten their hands dirty by actually
going into a client's home and seeing how they lived. I feel that I
have every right to be proud of my work and the work that my team in
general did within the agency. Since my retirement, I have had the
opportunity to see that not all such agencies are as aggressive as we
were in providing services and working with clients.
And for the record, I retired due to physical disabilities related to
a rare autoimmune disorder (not rare enough!) and the effects of
long-term steroid use to try to control my illness and its related
syndromes such as several kinds of arthritis, skin disorders -- hell,
this particular disease can cause problems with pretty much any other
organ or system in the body (though generally people only get a few of
them)! In fact, I am still a decade short of "legal" retirement age.
And, for those of you who feel that the psychiatric field is more
harmful than helpful -- in some cases you are right. I can't deny the
fact that there are fully licensed quacks and idiots in my field. It's
an unfortunate hazard in a science that is still so very young. But
there are plenty of us out there doing a good job and actually help
people. The role of a counselor is help you figure out your options
and discuss what the most likely consequences of those options are,
not to tell you what to do. He or she should work to help you
understand what you are feeling in a non-judgmental setting with the
understanding that what you feel isn't wrong, but what you do may be.
He or she should be able to help you understand how you've built
patterns of behavior and how those patterns that may have once been
helpful to you are now hindering or even hurting you and how you can
learn to overcome those patterns -- but he cannot do it for you or
make any decisions for you. That's up to you, my friends.
Sincerely,
Steve
-- foremerly 4s00th@hushmail.com
Sorry my email is temporary down.
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