6 month wait | ADHD Information

Our family got a referral from our pediatrician, and we drive about 80 miles to see our pediatric psych. Fortunately, we only make the trek every 4- 6 weeks.

We, too, had to wait for our inital appt., but the wait was about 4 weeks. That was a very long wait for us. So, I can imagine how frustrating it is for you to have to wait 6 months.

Good luck with your search. Also, ask to be put on their cancellation list. There is absolutely NO way that they will not have a cancellation in the mean time.

"Our children are precious in His sight"

 

I must have been lucky then....... our ped.  office called the psychiatrist ( a group of 3 ) and

  and set up the appointment for medication. I didn't know they didn't do the

 medication at the time at ped. office.....  All I had to do was provide

insurance information.....it only took 2 weeks....which I thought was long...

Now we only go every 2 months to make sure  meds. in check....

God I relate - took me 4 years to find the current psychiatrist and it took me forever to find the other ones that were bad.

It took me forever to get him set up for an evaluation, which I ended up cancelling because we felt he didn't need it now that he has a psychiatrist.

I would keep the 6 month apt. no matter - at least you know you have that, and try to widen the search.  If you find someone good, it's worth it.

I remember making countless calls to Drs. that weren't taking new patients and had waiting list.  I remember crying in my doctor's apt. asking for a rec. for a child psychologist.  Would you believe my pediatrician only had a list of social workers?

I finally got a list of names from the school psychologist.  Unfortunately, the Dr. I used from that list didn't work out for us.

One tip - I think you can get apts. easier if you are recommended by another professional.

I live in an area of the country known for it's outstanding medicine and the area of child psychology/psychiatry is limited. It's tragic - does this mean there is a glut of needy children or just not enough professionals in the field

Yikes!

I called every Child Psychiatrist in the area uhh.. that is a whoppin' 6 people for a major metropolitian area - most weren't taking new patients.

The one that is taking new patients.... has their first appointment 6 months from now!

 

What the heck!?!??!

 

I'm not sure if I should cry or run around screaming and ranting.

How the heck am I supposed to get help for my child??

We're definately finding that the help for ADHD kids or other mental disorders are far & few between.  As if dealing with the day to day struggles aren't tough enough, add the long wait and it becomes almost unbearable.  We had to wait a little over a month for our first Psychologist appt & then another 3 wks for Psychiatrist appt and that was tough enough!  6 mos would be unimaginable! 

I've also read on this site to see a neuropsychologist--I don't think we even have one in our area!  Our options seem very limited.  It's sad.

yes, I tried looking for one of those - non-existant

We had to wait 3 months to get in with a neuropsych- thankfully our ped is able to handle meds for us.  However, I called around for a psychiatrist for myself at one point and couldn't find any that were accepting new patients unless they were in crisis. I was really annoyed though because I called down the list from my insurance and 80% of the psychs listed worked at an inpatient hospital in the area.  It would have been nice if they'd noted that certain doc only see patients who are hospitalized. 

I'm also in city so I can undertand the frustration- you would think that in such a populated area there would be more.  How far can you widen your search? You may be able to find more if you were willing to drive a ways.  I know, for myself, I live 2 miles outside the city so a search with a 10 mile radius gets me most of the docs in the city, but if I widen it to 20 miles I get the docs in the more affluent communities in the next county. 

it's worth widening your search, you wont be seeing them every week or anything like with a therapist. Some do every three months, some every 6 for med checks.

we got lucky, at the time we needed one there was a psychopharmocologist who had just opened his practice, my problem is he does not take insurance and we have to pay him out of pocket.

uhh, my search was for a 45minute drive circum.

:(

I can relate also.  A year ago when we were looking for psychiatrist for my son the wait was 6 months also.  We found someone with a hospital that only took cash so we got in sooner.  However, we didn't really care for him.  We decided to stop meds after they seemed to make my son worse and waited it out.  He was doing better, but now we are in crisis and need to see someone ASAP.  Of course that isn't possible.  We have an appt. in April with a psychiatrist that we got by patient referral.  We had to go ahead and make an appt. in a couple of weeks with the previous psych. because we are desperate.  I would rather have some help now and wait for who we really want to see later.

We live in a very large town and I called the psych. on his ins. plan and I found the same problems.  Either they only worked in clinics who were not accepting patients or he had to be HIV/AIDS positive.  Then I found one who only worked with inpatient also. Uggh!!!!  I was so mad I wanted to cry.  If I want to pay cash, I have to wait six months.  Man it really makes me sad to know that there are that many kids with emotional/developmental problems.  I doubt many people even know this problem is this huge.  No one should have to go through what we have to while we wait to see a professional.