This week really flew by. It's so nice to have a long weekend, but it makes for a pretty hectic short week! Some of my regular clients really can't go two weeks without being seen, so I had to schedule some of my Monday clients on Tuesday and Wednesday, in addition to seeing my regular Tuesday and Wednesday clients and groups on those days. I thought I was going to get my quarterly evaluation from my primary supervisor on Tuesday or Wednesday, but she wasn't finished with it yet. I hope that means that she is trying to find enough different positive adjectives to describe me, but I have to admit that it makes me a little nervous! I got asked by our training director to do kind of a political mission for our internship though, so I know at least he likes me.
On Thursday, I had to run the gauntlet for one of my Perinatal girls to get services. She needs to be on medications, and she needs to be in the DBH regular mental health system to continue services after she graduates from our program next week. Because she's pregnant, I will still be able to see her in the Perinatal program, but it will only be until her baby is born. So I've been frantically trying to get a safety net in place for her. Unfortunately, she took it upon herself to go into one of our regular clinics to get meds, and she ran into the wrong pit bull guarding the gate. Some people who are allegedly mental health professionals don't really understand our clients at all. As soon as he heard the words "substance addiction," he turned her away. I was livid. If there is any client who meets criteria for services, it is this girl. So I did something that I have never really done before - I totally pulled rank using my position. I didn't even know I had actual authority, but apparently I have more than I knew! I kind of went into mama tiger mode and put him a bit in his place and asserted her rights for her (sadly, she has no idea what her rights really are) and told him that if he was going to turn her away, I wanted a Notice of Action explaining that, despite her diagnosis from a staff psychologist that she had multiple qualifying mental illnesses and having Medi-Cal, he was denying services for her. It worked, and she is now on medication for the first time in her life. So at least the first step is done, and now I'm trying to get her into our Full Service Partnership program so that she'll have wraparound.
Rebecca has had a good week of the usual playtimes, nightly dance fests, and generally living the good life of a preschooler. We enjoyed one nice week of fall weather, had our first rainfall of the season, and then today, it was 99°F. Argh!
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