Psychiatry update

I was on an adoptive parent panel today at a conference, called a Psychiatry Update for Primary Care.  Akila's Psychiatrist, Dr. Elizabeth Reeve was on the planning committee and one of the main presenters; she invited me to be on the panel.

The other two parents and I followed Anne Gearity who is an expert in adoption and attachment, she gave a great presentation.  She has a training manual which is called "Developmental Repair: An Intensive Treatment Model for Working with  Young Children Who Have Experienced Complex Trauma and Present with Aggressive and Disruptive Symptoms".  It is available here free for families and professionals.

The panel went really well, and as I was reading the audience, it seemed like they were very attentive.  They are all doctors, nurse practitioners or medical students.  Several came up afterwards to talk, ask questions, thank us.  Dr. Reeve came up, and she was wiping away tears and she said she wasn't the only one crying.  After lunch, she came up to me and said that as I was talking, it struck her that the meds she prescribed had not helped.  It was not for lack of trying, we tried a zillion different ones and she was always open to changing.  What I told her, is that they all worked- FOR TWO WEEKS.

I talked several times of the importance of diagnosis.  It was nice to be able to share with an important group. Crossing my fingers that people heard what we were saying!