Im thinking about seeing a social worker on top of my psychologist appointments. Maybe seeing the psychologist twice a month and the social worker twice a month, dividing the time.
I have seen a social worker in the past for therapy and she seemed to be more hands on and down to earth.
The only thing is when I got destabilized she kind of freaked out on me a bit. 
I have questions on social workers. What can they provide me besides therapy? I dont know, psychologists, at least this one seems untouchable - I need someone more accessible to me in case of a crisis.
The reason I dont want to completely split from my psychologist is that she knows my pdoc and works closely with her
Do you think it would be unrealistic to have both? Thanks to all
I don’t think that would be unrealistic at all. You want to have a much help a you can if you ever destabilize. If having both helps you feel better then have both. If you are able to have the pdoc, the psychologist and the social worker go for it.
A social worker can do also get you information on other services that you might not know about. When I was really bad off and was having a hard time leaving the house they helped with getting my meds and helping me keep on track with conquering the panic and they could tell my pdoc what was going on when I was really loosing my ability to communicate.
Mine got referred to me through my pdoc. I was nervous about letting a stranger into the house. But the doc assured me he had a lot of trust in the people he hooked me into so I was willing to give it a try.
Thanks J for your help. What I really want to do is see a new therapist, she is not the right fit for me, but I have fears that she would talk ■■■■ about me and lie to my pdoc about me. I mean they are not friends but have some mutual patients and my therapist Im seeing now calls my pdoc on a professional level at times. I guess its my paranoia.
Let me ask you J - Do you think a psychologist or social worker would be best for me as a whole.
I know it may not make a difference, but if you had to choose one, which would you go for?
To me it does not make a difference, but there are certain family members of mine that want me to go see a psychologist only - I guess its because I have a complex illness with lots of symptoms
I think help is help. I think you deserve to get as much help as you want. My son just started with PACT. He has a lot of people waiting to help him. His pdoc, a couple of nurses and social workers. The social workers, to my understanding, will help him with whatever it is that he wants help with. Going to school, learning job or interview skills, take him to group meetings, help him to get medications and even take him to see his pdoc. I think you can have all of them working for you.
I sort of think it depends on what is happening in your life.
For me and my head circus… When I was in that negative symptom wax build-up and just kept missing appointment after appointment and I wasn’t stable and I just really could NOT pull it together enough to go see my doc… the social worker really helped me a lot.
Everything from counseling to getting in touch with my doc and getting meds phoned in so my parents could pick them up. The social worker was also good at telling my parents what was working for me and what wasn’t. When the J preservation team was starting and I was having more episodes and needed more crisis management I really needed my social worker… It felt great having a pro on the phone who was more at the ready then my doc. But when my sis got older and I got better the social worker had less and less to do so he was needed elsewhere by people in worse shape then I was in.
The therapist I have and I like (not this last failed experiment) but my real one, I’ve had for years and years. She started off as a family counselor and I just really liked her so she stuck with me. When I was missing appointments with my doc, I was missing appointments with my therapist as well. Now that I’m going through a period of being more stable then I have ever been, I’m back to my therapist and still with my pdoc and that’s all.
If you have parents that your taking care of as well as taking of yourself, a social worker might help you with some ideas for making it easier for you to help with your Mom. I can only imagine how that stress might sneak up on you. You’re taking care of yourself AND helping with an elderly parent. That must be hard, and stress likes to be sneaky.
So the social worker might have an idea on how to help you keep the stress down while you take on the responsibility of someone else. If that makes any sense.
If your therapist isn’t a fit and you think she might get dramatic with your pdoc, I would say go to your doc and tell him very calmly… nothing against her, I just can’t seem to warm up to her or understand, it’s just not working for me… any other names in your referral book?
It varies what social workers can do. Some can take you shopping or out to eat, others can only do counseling.
I looked around at docs in my area - not many who accept my insurance and that I like. Maybe I can approach my current therapist and show up with a list of things I need to work on. Im going to try to make it work for now. If things go down hill, Ill switch. Its just so hard to find a good therapist these days
i see no reason why you can’t have both.