Therapy Bits

I saw Dr. Barry this morning. She gave me an update on our application to get therapy funding.

She had applied for 26 sessions, and she had said we were going to use them over 18 to 24 months.

With a view to ending therapy.

However, the ending part isn’t necessarily true, I mean I may still be in therapy in 2 years time, it is just to try to obtain more funding, we had to put a time limit on it.

Anyway, last week Dr. Barry met with the clinical director of the psychiatric hospital.

They discussed our case, and the clinical director said to go ahead and put in the application.

So that is what Dr. Barry did.

Unfortunately, on Monday the clinical director emailed Dr. Barry to say the application was bounced back to her.

And now, the HSE who is providing the funding, want to know two things.

First, they said 18 to 24 months was too long for an ending, But Dr. Barry said she can argue that point.

Then, they want Dr. Barry to go to the psychology department and ask them if there is any trauma therapy services available, and if there is, they want to transfer my care to the out patient psychology department.

But Dr. Barry said this wouldn’t be appropriate, as I’ve been seeing Eileen for 13 years, and I should finish out my trauma work with her.

I agree, and I am so glad Dr. Barry agrees with me.

She said she’ll do her best to make a case for me to get more funding, and I know she means it.

I am not holding out too much hope however.

So, if we don’t end up getting funding, I’ll continue to pay Eileen 40 euro per session, and I’ll continue to do zoom one week, face to face the next, and the week we do face to face, I’ll also pay a further 40 euro for a taxi to her office.

I am ok with this. If it means I can continue to see Eileen then I’ll do anything that is necessary.

There is no way I’d want to transfer to a new therapist.

So that is my update, Dr. Barry said in the HSE there has been a restructuring over the last 12 months, and all the pathways to funding and care are being changed. Apparently a new CEO took over and they’ve changed everything. It wasn’t easy to get funding to begin with, but now it is even harder.

I emailed Eileen to tell her, but Dr. Barry said she’d also email her, she apologised for not doing it sooner, but she said there is a staffing crisis in our mental health service, and so she’s up the walls and super busy.

She was in at 8 AM this morning, and usually she isn’t in until 9:30.

She already works so hard, actually she works harder than any doctor I know. She really cares about her patients, and she is very dedicated to her job.