Community Mental Health Service Psychologists

[DogMan9]

I have been under the care of CCT in my area since February. Diagnosis is a bit up in the air; previous (2003)  schizoaffective disorder might be replaced with OCD, ASD, trauma stuff. Or alongside the SZA

My team (Including prior to CCT) want me to see a psychologist. I have a jaded history with psychologists. I've seen 6 over 20 years, generally only 1 or 2 sessions with each

I have been assured that public psychologists are more equipped to deal with severe cases

I contacted my case manager yesterday. And after some voicemail ping pong, she is going to arrange a non committal meeting with a psychologist, to have a discussion

How have people's experiences of public psychologists been?

I did canvas some private practice clinics. Specialty OCD, trauma etc. Who said that I am outside their scope, based on my introduction. Price is not the issue, just finding someone relevant is

[romantic_thi3f]

Hi Dogman9,

Great question, and thank you for asking; although I'm going to be less than helpful 😊

There's no noticeable difference between public and private psychologists.  You can have brilliant and experienced ones in the public system, and brilliant and experienced ones in the private system.  

It's so hard because I can see you've found a couple that said you're out of their scope, but often in public systems, the scope is wider purely because clients need to be seen.

Best advice I have is to try and keep an open mind when you see your public one.  If you decide to go private, you could potentially search 'schizoeffective disorder' as less therapists name this on their profile.

Best of luck for the appointment,

rt

[Bob_22]

Hi DogMan9,

Great question! As romantic_thi3f mentioned it really is down to the individual psychologist. However, having worked in the youth mental health sector, I have worked alongside many public psychologists. The overwhelming majority of psychologists I have worked with have been great! You're right in that they are generally referred to more for acute cases but this doesn't have to do with the skills of the pyschologist but more so the nature of the mental health system (unfortunately booking in with private psychologists can take quite a long time). 

If I were referred to work with a public psychologist I wouldn't have any hesitation! 

Hope that helps,

Bob