Oh my!! Where do I begin? Managerial staff are not clinicians. I had a student with anorexia nervosa, active bulumia, a history of 2 suicide attempts, going through a highly stressful life where she's working 2 jobs in addition to classwork and practice. Her scholarship was cut, and she's very angry about her current circumstances. Given her history of 2 suicide attempts and current passive death wish, I dug a little further on her current mood state than she was likely expecting. She had been on Prozac, but wasn't taking it for financial reasons, and I pressed her on seeing a psychiatrist to see if a medication was warranted and explained that many drug companies have patient assistance programs.
She filed a complaint against me with the counseling center at her university. Someone in their provider engagement dept called me. I can tell you very clearly that the gentleman had no clinical experience. He contacted the university to discuss the student's complaint without having read my documentation.
They don't have your back, that's for sure. I've had many patients from this particular university without issues. As far as I know, the counseling center is unaware of this student's significant mental health history.
No-shows are frequent, and they only give you 30 bucks when someone doesn't cancel within 24 hours.
Phone sessions are always an option for the students. I found myself several times having an audio-only session with patients who were recently discharged from a psychiatric hospitalization. Those are challenging sessions even when you can see the person.
From what I've been told by students is that there are TimelyCare posters everywhere around the schools, and there's a QR code on the poster that takes you to where you can make an appointment. Some students make these appointments impulsively, sometimes without any real reason.
Students, depending on where they go to school, get up to 12 sessions/year, and most wisely use the sessions prn, rather than establishing good rapport and a working relationship and focusing on their main issues on a weekly basis.
Their internet platform can be counted on to complicate communication. For phone sessions especially, the system kicks you out regularly. It can happen 4-6 times in a single session. For video sessions the video is pretty good, but there are often audio problems. My bluetooth headphones are next to my computer, b/c sometimes they work better than the computer alone.
Management staff expect providers to be timid. They have no tolerance for hearing how what they've done falls short on what should've been done.
