Sarah A. Baird, PsyD

Jennifer Fletcher _{on Google}

Jan 4th, 2020

Our experience with Sarah Baird was very disappointing and painful.
She had explained that she would be able to submit documents in a timely manner in order for my daughter to get testing accommodations when taking the SAT and finals that would be occurring in her senior year. Sarah listed the goals of her assessment: to develop recommendations for interventions and compensatory strategies to improve my daughter's chances for personal and academic success.
The results of the report that we received were the first indication that there was a problem. It inaccurately state that my daughter drank 1-2 times per week and that she typically consumed 5-7 drinks per occassion. The information that my daughter provided was that she drank 1-2 times per month and the most that she had ever drank was 5 drinks. My daughter is a career dancer. In addition to dancing at school, she dances 3-4 hours per day after school and on Saturdays. During a performance the kids are dancing 7 days a week. The schedule of drinking that Sarah suggested was ludicrous and would be completely damaging when used at her high school or future colleges. She also stated that my daughter had been in relationships with females in the past. This also was false - though to be clear I would have no objection to that. Sarah stated in her report that my daughter had concerns about legal issues. This was based on a question asking if she had done some things that weren't exactly legal. My daughter responded "slightly true." I would guess that any teenager who had ever tried a beer would have to give this answer if they were being honest. Why would Sarah summarize in her report that my daughter is presenting concerns of legal issues? She also stated in her report that my daughter had long-standing , underlying thoughts of suicide in response to distress and feeling overwhelmed. In the questionnaire, that I am in possession of, when asked to respond to #286 I'm almost always a happy and positive person, my daugher responded "mostly true." and question # 300 I've thought about how others would react if I killed myself, my daughter responded "False, not at all true. #180 I have thought about suicide for a long time "False, not at all true." was answered. In fact, out of approximately 21 statements regarding suicide or suicidal thoughts, my daughter answered "False, Not at All True to 20 of them and "Mostly true" to 1 statement being "Things have never been so bad that I thought about suicide."
Sarah's conclusion was to diagnose my daughter with an Adjustment Disorder. She added this diagnosis to the Neurodevelopmental Disorder which made the entire $1000 testing that we had paid for useless because the second diagnosis was incriminating. Another school counselor told me not to give that report to her school as it would go on her permanent record. My daughter is a stable and happy child with a learning disorder.
We wasted time and money on this very important decision, putting my daughter in a very vulnerable and open position trusting that Sarah had her back. This was the worst thing that has happened to my child. Fortunately, she is a well adjusted girl and could see that the results of this examination were skewed. We could not imagine why Sarah would be so unkind.