Slowness with Kaiser to get a diagnosis? *gif use warning*

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I'm curious if anyone has problem who has Kaiser or goes through Kaiser to get services/ help. A little background on myself, I am a 24 year old female who has always had issues with social cues, friendships, being touched by people I am not okay with/ being touched without prompting the contact [yet ironically, I crave touch/ the feeling of being held nearly 99% of the time, especially when I'm anxious or having issues during my day, but I do not know how to ask for it/ my family normally remarks I want something when I try to be affectionate], issues with organizing my time/ time management along with prioritizing tasks [especially when stressed, I tend to retreat into watching Netflix, roleplaying on tumblr, video games, reading, crochet, something other than what needs to be done], along with having issues getting started on projects/ things that are important until the last minute [like credentialing program paper work or school work as I am studying to be a teacher]. I also, while recognizing something is a joke/ realizing the point of something, I have a compulsion/ inability to not state the obvious.

For the longest time, my family only thought I had dyslexia and disgrapha, which caused issues with phonetics/ sounding out words, spelling, and placement of numbers/switching numbers around in math. However, despite going through NILD and having an IEP and accommodations, it was clear to my mother that I had more issues, particularly with expressing my emotions [verbally, typing/ writing is another matter] along with organizational issues and remembering routines, such as putting my dishes in the dishwasher, putting shoes away, etc. Both she and my father suggested that when I was 22, it would be a good idea to finally go to Kaiser and get diagnosed for ADD/ADHD (as I will read social situations wrong and blurt out things/ seem easily distracted and hyper focus on subjects [which off the top of my head, examples I can think of is: comic books, horses, tattoos, dogs, cats, and video games/internet] and ignore others). My parents also mentioned before I went for the ADD/ADHD testing, they suspected autism.

Long story short, I was diagnosed as ADD , combined presentation, along with Major Depression Disorder/anxiety issues and was told by the RN that diagnosed me, you do not seem autistic as you are highly empathetic, able to read a conversation, etc. Flash forward to two years later, I'm working as an IA with autistic children in a school district that under-supports it's SpEd staff, and a female friend of mine is diagnosed as an Aspie/HFA despite like myself, having been previously diagnosed as ADD and GAD. (Also please do not be offended by the terms I use, it's just a part of my daily life in education/ growing up with a Special Education teacher and being a SpEd kid myself).

This launched me into how HFA/ Aspergers presents in women and questioned my mom and dad on why they thought I was autistic in the first place. They presented all the information I've listed about myself above this paragraph. Armed with the information I found online about how HFA/Aspergers presents in women (often in the ways I've described above), I headed to Kaiser, got a meeting with a psychologist and asked for an evaluation to figure out what I have/is wrong with my brain (after explaining why I wanted it) . His reply to me was " I don't like to give people like you labels, as people tend to cling to them and be inflexible to change." He also gave me a packet on cogitative therapy/on how to begin self- identifying why I am feeling a certain way/ have a certain thought [example: I think, I feel like a sack of flaming dog %^$. Why do I feel this way? I feel this way because I stepped in a bag of flaming dog %^#& which caused me to be late to an interview]. The psychologist made no attempt to make a follow up appointment nor did he say that he would put in a request for an evaluation.

As such, I emailed the original RN who diagnosed me / still saw me for my ADD / depression and anxiety meds about getting an evaluation. She said she'd look into it and low and behold, the psychologist emailed me back with a particularly frosty email, stating that he put in for the evaluation and that I needed to be patient as it would take time. I've emailed him back to ask for an ETA on that evaluation but yet to hear back. My question is has anyone else had issues like this with Kaiser? I'm just basically sitting here like,
and .

I'm also debating emailing him again as I've yet to hear from him for over a week now but am fearful due to the idea of them holding up the process to spite me. So...thoughts, ideas, or am I over reacting?

Unfortunately, your experience is not unusual at all.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-k ... story.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sal-rosse ... 36082.html
http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2 ... alifornia/
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/k ... id=4580712
http://www.eastbaytimes.com/opinion/ci_ ... tal-health
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/42578 ... artslide=0
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/csp/mediap ... 55&fid=181
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/csp/mediap ... 55&fid=181

Well crap... I'm now wondering if it would just be better for me to find an outsider provider and get an evaluation that way, despite the cost.

I am so sorry - the psych you saw treated you horribly in my opinion. But I can't say I'm surprised. My last Kaiser clinical psychologist flat out told me that the things that I'd finally identified that brought me there to find out how to deal with simple "didn't seem real" to him because I seemed like I "don't need to be bothered by things like that". He also mis-gendered my (trans) daughter repeatedly. The next time he showed up 30 min late & then convinced me to go up to the office to "reschedule" despite me saying I didn't want to. While rescheduling (which I cancelled as soon as I got home) he asked how I was and he blathered on with his advice for five minutes. Then, right when the session would have ended anyway he quickly wrapped up and sent me out. I later learned that was so that the session technically happened & there was no record of him missing most of it.

So, yeah. I'm not too impressed with Kaiser psych.

Insofar as autism goes, none of their psychs - including a team that evaluated my daughter over a half day - ever caught that we were on the spectrum. It turned out that at least a few years back they only diagnosed LFA & almost always only boys. Rarely girls or medium / higher functioning adults. Word gets around. They actually said our daughter talked too fluently & with such complexity that she clearly wasn't autistic. Not once did we hear terms like "spectrum" or "Asperger" (this was before the DSM-5). We finally ended up going outside Kaiser.

Two things to keep in mind with Kaiser:
1. You never have to stay with a health care provider you don't like. That includes psychs. However, they are apparently supposed to do two sessions semi-quickly before a referral.
2. You might be able to get around that by changing to a different person & right off the bat tell them what has happened and what you have identified yourself and that you would like a referral ASAP - but you will need reasons for it to be expedited.

I would agree with the fact that he was a horrible doctor. I came home and told my parents (still living at home as I've had issues figuring out my major/ life path and that I need three jobs to live on my own in NorCal -.-) My experiences with Kaiser pysch have taught me that if you can shove a pill at it, than that is what they will do, even if you tell them that you've had terrible side effects on that pill already. I had that lovely experience with the RN.

As for the appointment itself, the psych became immediately dismissive the moment I brought Asperger's / High Functioning Autism, despite me stating that I wanted the evaluation to figure out exactly what was wrong, be it anxiety, depression, Autism, etc. He also dismissed the fact I listed some classic signs of autism that I experience on a daily basis, such as sensitivity to sound ( it's lovely to be able to hear the AC motor even though it's outside), issues with light touching/ being held, extremely focused interests (such as my near encyclopedia like knowledge on Marvel superheroes as an example), issues with anxiety, and executive function. I also told him that I had been diagnosed as a child with dyslexia and dysgraphia, along with ADD late in life. To me, it seemed logical/ his duty to at least be a little less condescending over this.

I would agree on not being impressed with their department.

I would say I'm shocked that they didn't notice that you and your daughter were on the spectrum, but given how autism is still viewed for an extremely male perspective/that it's overwhelming a male issue, that doesn't surprise me. ( I work in SpEd and many of my coworkers, who are teachers with more than 10 years of experience, were shocked to learn I was crocheting a few fidgets for a female friend of mine in Quebec, who was diagnosed as HFA/ Aspie [which I'm not understanding why the two were lumped together], unable to believe that a woman could be diagnosed later in life).

The complicated thing about staying or not staying with Kaiser is it's a matter of money/ coverage. I only make about 1200 after taxes and between school and paying for essentials, I do not have much money left. My family does not have much money either as my mother is a teacher and my father is disabled. I think I will be trying to find someone else in the area that I can afford/ will be sympathetic. However, I know it's a struggle to find someone who is willingly to even take adults to start the process. I really wish we had a better mental health program in the USA

As for sticking it out with Kaiser... I just checked my calendar and it's been over 15 days since I've heard from the doctor. I will also try to find a different person to explain my dilemma but as it's Kaiser Pysch... I'm of the belief they'll more than likely have me try and talk to the original pysch. If that's the case, I'll more than likely be fleeing from Kaiser as quick as I can.

This will more than likely be my dash from the building if that happens.

That is exactly how most push to open doors feel to me!

I'm so sorry Kaiser isn't being helpful. You might also try contacting your regular primary care physician to see if they will give a referral directly to the SF evaluation center (or San Jose, or Roseville/Rancho Cordova). It might help to request an appointment with your doctor (ie like a next-day appt) and then go in and explain the trouble you've been having and why you would like the referral.

I think I might end up going to my primary because in reading California law... Kaiser is in firm violation of it with their refusal to tell me when the appointment is or even contacting me on. Everything else about Kaiser..I've been surprisingly happy with, just not their mental health services.