Posted by Racer on September 14, 2004, at 16:13:17
I contacted a local, non-profit, pro bono law firm which handles issues related to mental illness and mental health. The intake information was taken some weeks ago, and the associate assigned to my call took some preliminary information last week.
Today was a more in depth explanation of what had gone on. To prepare for it, I had printed out a lot of my old posts about the situation, my journal entries that related to it, a sort of timeline that I'd made as well as I could (since I can hardly remember much right now), and had done some research online. I had printed out the APA Ethics Code, and an explanation of the DBT model -- since that's the Therapist From The Black Lagoon's whole modality-of-the-month group -- as well as the names and license information on all the players.
So, today I told the associate about the things that I could clearly see violated the Ethics Code, such as lack of informed consent in the therapy situation, and some of the specific problems related to competency. (Like TFTBL treating a med reaction that had left me with no sleep for several days as a PSYCHOLOGICAL and BEHAVIORAL issue, rather than a physical or medical issue.) I also told her about the case manager with his "oh, physical reactions like you get when you think about your husband?" *That* one is so clearly actionable that it's hard to believe he would have said it if I hadn't already been a psychiatric patient -- and therefore unreliable as a witness -- you know?
The next step is that she will take all the information to the firm's review board, and if they decide it has merit, they will file the complaint. If they don't find that it's the sort of thing that they want to handle, or if they find that it's too vague, or too ambiguous, she'll be assigned to help me file the complaint myself. Either way, I win, since I get a merit review from a law firm that works to protect patients, this associate will help with the paperwork no matter who files the complaint, and a complaint is filed either way.
Someone asked me the other day what I was after by doing this. I guess in the Land of Litigation, that's a very valid question. My goal is that by the end of all this, I do not feel as if I've laid down in front of a steamroller and invited it to crush me. This isn't filing a lawsuit against the agency or the individuals. This is filing a complaint with the licensing boards, and with whatever county or state department funds the agency. The only thing I can receive at the end of the process is the feeling that I did something to protect myself.
It's pretty traumatic, by the way. Personally, I think I'm doing the right thing. Being me, though, I still have a lot of doubts about it. (How surprising, huh? After a year of being told that they were doing everything right and I was doing everything wrong -- ain't it peculiar that I believe it?) If anyone wants to comment, feel free.
If you're wondering what I'm doing to try to validate myself in this decision, I'm reminding myself of the process involved: if the law firm's review board doesn't find merit, it won't file the complaint. If I send off the complaint myself, the licensing board reviews it for merit, too, before beginning an investigation. In this state, at least, the patient never actually files a complaint against a professional: the licensing board files the actual complaint after investigating the allegations. If they were right and I was the problem all along, there are plenty of points along the way where the process will stop no matter what I do. Therefore, I can't be profoundly wrong in doing this. Either the complaint has merit, in which case it will protect others; or it doesn't have merit, in which case it won't harm anyone. If it isn't followed up, by the way, the notes still remain in the file, in case someone else comes along with a similar story to tell. In that case, it still protects others. So, I guess I'm only scared that something bad will happen to me because I'm doing this.
Anyway, since y'all have slogged through so much of all this with me, and held my hand so kindly, I thought I'd bring you up to date.
Thank you all. As Nikki said, y'all are so damned special to me!
poster:Racer
thread:390740
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/2000/20040626/msgs/390740.html