Anonymous wrote:Skip the NPs they don’t note their experience because it’s little to none. I’m a nurse who does not use NPs for the care of my children or myself.

You're right. If they withhold that information, that pretty much answers my question.

It's just that when I find a group and a NP that works for us and our kid other ways (not easy feat), I start having wishful thinking that they have at least 4-5 years of psych experience, out of 20 years they tend to list that includes being RN, Family NP etc. I do first look for MDs, but there are less of them.

Very late today, I found a psych NP in Arlington with 7 years experience and booked an appointment. I will however cancel that, if I hear back from some MDs I contacted today that are closer home, have more experience, and focus exclusively on children/adolescents.

I have nothing against using NPs per se, ones with good experience and reputation. They tend to me more attentive. My wife has had competent NP providers for ob-gyn.

I am realizing I am spending way more time defending and explaining myself than with anything productive to help my kid. I humbly ask - if you have anything useful to tell me, please do. If you just want to pass judgment, doubt me (for what really?), or call me names...well I can't stop you, but I will stop reacting.

Anonymous wrote:Do you want in person visits or telehealth?

In person. Kid just doesn't do well with telehealth. She has tried. Even in person, she struggles to fully open up, a significant factor for slow or little progress. In telehealth, she just shuts down.

Anonymous wrote:I think you'll have to bite the bullet and go with who's available instead of trying to find someone who meets all of your criteria.

Sure. If your kid hasn't suffered a lot for years and hasn't been through many providers. And has not attempted suicide recently. Just grab a random provider and hope for the best.

I and my wife are grasping at straws just to make sure we can maximize chances of our kid surviving, until she turns a corner. Trying new providers because she didn't click with existing ones with no progress in more than a year, only to have her try to kill herself.

Nobody in this world is going to take days off looking for right help for her, other than me and my spouse. We don't have the luxury of rolling the dice trying a random available provider.

If you have been fortunate not to have a kid suffering mental illness, I am glad for you and that's just awesome. But please don't post dismissive comments on this topic (not so much you, talking about other posters). I hope you have heard of kids suffering from severe mental health issues in general, and lack of quality providers especially since covid.

If you have faced such issues, and have tons of money to get any top and reputed providers for your kid without worrying about cost from your pocket, yes, please have some empathy, give me some benefit of doubt and don't post dismissive comments.

If you have a child with significant mental health issues, fear losing your kid, and have to rely on insurance, I am all ears.

Anonymous wrote:You sound super difficult to me. I think you should show this thread to your therapist. There's a lot for her to work with here.

Thanks for the help. I would guess you haven't had to navigate your child's psychiatric providers. Especially since covid.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think she is justifiably just frustrated. Those practices sound sneaky and evasive. I don't think everyone is like that so I think OP is right to avoid them.

I've read posts like OP's before. They ask questions of providers then get fixated when they don't get a satisfactory answer, and start insisting, getting angry and then post on DCUM about their ordeal.

When the right procedure is to take the hint when the practice is being evasive, decide whether or not it's worth paying for a first session, and move on to someone else... and in the process, understand that there is a whole world of practitioners who are not NPs. Why limit the search, when the search is not going well?

As a long-time reader of DCUM, I just recognize the kooks and trolls, let's just say.

Two things. You think I was frustrated with one provider and jumped on the Net to vent. Not true
You think I have a lot of choices of providers. Not true.

If you spend as much time as I have looking for providers (that take my insurance, have decent experience, cover my kid's issues, are taking new patients, are less than one hour away), you would be frustrated.

I am not limited to NPs, I will take MDs. But MDs are not the one hiding their experience, so I didn't focus on them in this post.

Anonymous wrote:Why are you looking for NPs?

People use psychiatrists (MD) for medication management, psychologists (PhD) for evaluations/diagnoses and occasionally therapy, and licensed social workers or similar for therapy.

The way you post makes you sound very antagonistic towards the medical and therapeutic establishment, and I'm not sure anything you write is credible.

What is not credible? That I called a lot of providers and they would not tell me their NP's experience? I can't make you believe me, but I am fine with it. I am not trying to prove anything to anybody. I am frustrated and that I am sure comes across in the post. I am partly venting, partly looking for tips.

Why NPs? Why not? I prefer a MD, but I will take an experienced psychiatric NP for medication management. My kid has seen both kinds. I do realize that in asking for recommendations, I inadvertently left out MDs. Corrected.

I specifically mention NPs, because I haven't had problem finding out about MD's experience. What I have witnessed is peculiar to psych NPs who have had long medical experience and newly became psych NPs.

I have been dealing with child and adolescent psych providers for 4 years, unfortunately. I get the medication and therapy part. Again too familiar. With all sorts of therapies.

Today I took a day off to call around for medication management. Therapists is another day. My kid needs both.

Anonymous wrote:Are you looking for medication management or therapy? Because if the latter I would chose a psychologist, social worker, or clinical mental health counselor over an NP.

Either way that’s weird that they won’t say.

Looking for both. Today I was looking for medication management, but I will take any therapist recommendations. Ty!

Looking for a psychiatric provider for my kid, I have had it with professionals (mainly NPs) who started out in non-psych fields, not wanting to tell me about length of their psych experience. Have you seen this?

It's not one provider or group, it's every single group/office I have talked to and I have talked to a lot.

They either don't have Psychology Today profile, or their PT profile and profile on their group's web site very carefully omits this piece of info.

Ask them? I have. Never gotten a good response. Just today, front office staff said what I can find publicly is all there is. This NP has a lot of non-psych experience listed. Manager kept repeating total length of experience. She IM'ed the provider asking for psych experience. Same response from the provider, total 20 years. Manager explained how great the provider she is. Ultimately said to choose another provider, if I was not comfortable. When asked can I know about their experience, said I should come in for the first visit and ask!! A quick consult to gauge fitness, ask questions she said is not something they do at all. I have heard this before.

I can't even find a way to verify and find the date of PMHNP license. Anybody knows? For RNs it is easier.

I am glad of vast inflow of providers (latest I heard is physician's assistants), but it's unethical and unprofessional, if not illegal, to go to this length to hide lack of experience.

A final plug - if you know of a psychiatric MD or NP for adolescents with at least 5 years of experience who is taking patients, in North DC, Montgomery County MD, Columbia, or aroud McLean, Reston, Vienna, Arlington, please please DM me. Taking insurance would be nice, but if not fine, as I have become a total beggar not a chooser in this process.

Tired of my neurologist and psychiatrist who just prescribe meds. Any recommendation on a holistic practitioner (psychiatrist, licensed professional counselor, anybody)? Who can speak beyond meds and is interested in looking at roots of the issues to guide me towards may be CBT, lifestyle changes and on.

There are tons of practitioners out there and that's precisely the problem. On line ratings are unreliable. Please reply if you or someone close to you have personal experience with somebody worth spending time and money on.
-47yo dad of two