Whither Shall We Go
I've come to the conclusion our fair city is lacking in far more than mere public transportation. We also appear to be rather distant from the forefront of psychiatric research, particularly when it comes to children. Our much-lauded and widely known children's hospital's "behavior sciences" department only has three staff psychiatrists--and all three of them list their specialties as "ADHD and autism." Which is all well and good for the parents of kids with ADHD and/or autism, but I'm not one of them.
Which has led me to strongly consider a road trip.
Originally I considered St. Louis. Wash U's psych department, from what I can gather from their website, seems to have a pretty strong clinical reputation for early onset bipolar. And even if I called them, and they weren't able to help me, it seems they might be able to point me in the right direction. (A local advises me her pediatrician's office has a poster in the lobby listing symptoms of EOBP in kids--so apparently, people in this state do know it exists--just no one north of MU, I suppose.)
Then I started thinking about Omaha. Yes, that circus of liberal thought that is the largest (and only) city in Nebraska. It seems ludicrous that Omaha would be a better mental health resource than KC, doesn't it? Sort of. But when I lived there, I worked for the cancer center at Creighton's teaching hospital, and they were (at that time) one of the top of the list. So I'm thinking...major private university with very big medical program...research hospital...hmmm...
Not to mention Omaha is a 3-hour drive compared to St. Louis (4 hours).
I talked to someone at Creighton this afternoon, and he seemed to think at least one of the staff psychiatrists had clinical experience with EOBP, and that he would discuss it with her and get back to me.
"Are you looking for just an evaluation and then take the recommendations to someone more local, or were you actually wanting to establish treatment up here?"
Pal, if I have to make a 6-hour round trip every month to get my kid where he needs to be, then so be it. Because I'm sick of running into walls here in Cow Town.
And if I happen to go into labor while driving through the no-man's-lands of Iowa, well...I hear farm folk are real good at deliverin' things...
Which has led me to strongly consider a road trip.
Originally I considered St. Louis. Wash U's psych department, from what I can gather from their website, seems to have a pretty strong clinical reputation for early onset bipolar. And even if I called them, and they weren't able to help me, it seems they might be able to point me in the right direction. (A local advises me her pediatrician's office has a poster in the lobby listing symptoms of EOBP in kids--so apparently, people in this state do know it exists--just no one north of MU, I suppose.)
Then I started thinking about Omaha. Yes, that circus of liberal thought that is the largest (and only) city in Nebraska. It seems ludicrous that Omaha would be a better mental health resource than KC, doesn't it? Sort of. But when I lived there, I worked for the cancer center at Creighton's teaching hospital, and they were (at that time) one of the top of the list. So I'm thinking...major private university with very big medical program...research hospital...hmmm...
Not to mention Omaha is a 3-hour drive compared to St. Louis (4 hours).
I talked to someone at Creighton this afternoon, and he seemed to think at least one of the staff psychiatrists had clinical experience with EOBP, and that he would discuss it with her and get back to me.
"Are you looking for just an evaluation and then take the recommendations to someone more local, or were you actually wanting to establish treatment up here?"
Pal, if I have to make a 6-hour round trip every month to get my kid where he needs to be, then so be it. Because I'm sick of running into walls here in Cow Town.
And if I happen to go into labor while driving through the no-man's-lands of Iowa, well...I hear farm folk are real good at deliverin' things...
posted by Mitzi Green at 6:00 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home