Rocky Mountain Neuropsychology

H H _{on Google}

Mar 1st, 2020

We are very disappointed in the experience we had.    Our 13 year old daughter suffers from debilitating social anxiety which has most recently resulted in depression, isolation and many missed days of school.  Talk therapy has proven to be ineffective with doctors and counselors as our daughter becomes completely non verbal due to her anxiety.  At the recommendation from her APRN from the psychiatry practice we go to,  we were hopeful that this evaluation would provide us with helpful answers and or helpful tools/ recommendations for a therapeutic treatment plan.
Our initial appointment was very disheartening. We had no idea what to expect, we were never told what our daughter would be doing during her 'full day neuropsych evaluation,' nor were we given any insight into why this process may be beneficial for her.
What we WERE told twice, in the 30 minute interaction we had with the Dr., answering questions and giving a synopsis of family medical history, was that "she didn't know what we wanted to do because she isn't a psychic and this wasn't going to work if our daughter wasn't going to talk." I was devastated.  On two occasions,  I attempted to explain our desperation in the attempt to get our precious,  deserving daughter...... HELP....but I was interrupted and cut off both times I attempted to discuss.
I asked if we could at least try to proceed, as we were so concerned and desperate for help.  After much encouragement from her father and I, our daughter mustered up enough courage to go into a room alone,  with a different lady,  who we were not introduced to.  About an hour later, while we were sitting in the waiting room,  the Dr. appeared and gave us a thumbs up.   2 hours later,  we were excused for lunch and told to come back in an hour as they expected another couple of hours of testing.  The day ended with us leaving, feeling astonished with what had just taken place,  but still grasping to hope that "the testing"  answers would help us.
Today her father and I met with the Dr.  to go over results.  At the beginning,  we were told that we would be going over results and were told to ask questions at any time.    We were told statistical results , for example,  she reads at an 11th grade level and ranks at a 7th grade level for math.  There was then awkward silence.... I asked 'what the test results were indicating as far as a diagnoses' but was again,  interrupted and was told 'that's what we've been going over.'   At one point,  I started tearing up when discussing our daughter's lack of close friends at school.... I was made to feel like i was being ridiculous and was told 'to basically get it together.'  We were told that we 'had a lot on our plate' and her recommendation was to seek CBT (cognitive behaviour therapy) and it would be a life time process.  When asked about ADHD, the Dr. said 'nah, I wouldn't worry about that.'  I asked about autism as this had been discussed at the psychiatrists office and with the school counselors as a strong suspicion.   The Dr. seemed offended that I even brought this up and stated 'that wasn't even mentioned in her referral.'  At this point, I chose to remain silent, as I had never been treated with so much disrespect and made to feel like I was an idiot.
We sat again in awkward silence until the Dr. started talking about how she couldn't wait to leave for Arizona Thursday as she just couldn't handle this weather we've been having any longer.
We left the office.... again.... completely astonished,  confused and angry!  We felt like we had completely wasted our time,  and put our daughter through unnecessary additional stress!  We left,  knowing nothing more then we had known coming through the doors.