Hi,

Recently I had to write a complaint to Hewlitt-Packard about a printer I’d gotten from them that gave me all kinds of problems. I even had problems with their customer service, and I wanted them to know about that. Well, this is what I have learned over the years: You have to take really good notes with names, dates and times, and what happened in case you need to lodge a complaint about it later on. You use these notes to explain your situation or cause to other higher ups, whatever the problem. With bipolar disorder, many things come up where frankly you wind up dealing with organizations that are filled with dumb people. The dumb people mislead. They give you a hard time. They lie. They work against you. Sometimes you might even feel stigmatized. You then have to go to a supervisor, or that supervisor’s supervisor with all the facts that you have. Once the higher ups see that you have details on what has been done, they normally relent and get you what you need or do what you need.

This is especially important in relation to your loved one’s medical and mental health care. What if your doctor’s secretary was rude to you or your loved one, for example? Well, you would write down their name, the date, time, and exactly what happened. And you would do it right then, while it’s fresh in your mind. Don’t you think this is something your doctor would want to know?

After all, the receptionist is the first person representing your doctor to his/her patients. So then you would pass it on to the office manager, or the receptionist’s supervisor, whoever that is. Keeping a copy of this record, if you still don’t feel that you’ve gotten relief, you take it up to the next level. See how it goes?

What if you have a doctor, psychiatrist, or therapist and they aren’t the best? Or if you feel that your loved one isn’t getting the right treatment, or the best treatment that they should be getting?

What would you do? Well, you would start taking notes. And you would go through the same procedure as above. Only you might have to go all the way to the Medical Board. (and, of course, you may have to switch doctors).

Now, what if your loved one has to be hospitalized? What if you had to wait an unusually long time in the waiting room, while they were in crisis with a bipolar episode? This is where it is especially important to take down the person’s name (and other information, too) because your loved one probably shouldn’t be having to wait in an Emergency Room waiting room if they are in that kind of condition. They should at least be waiting in the back where they don’t have to be dealing with a lot of people. But you should find out the laws in your own state and the policies in that particular hospital to find out what you can do.

So, do you see how important record keeping can be? Now, I mentioned back in the beginning about feeling stigmatized. This is where record keeping can be important as well. If you feel as if you or your loved one were treated “less than” or any different than someone else just because you or they have bipolar disorder, the person who treated you that way should be reported to a higher up, so they don’t do it to the next person. As long as you have a name (and also get the name of their supervisor), date, phone number, details of what happened, and any other information you feel is important, you can do something about it. You don’t have to feel helpless.

Well, I have to go!

Your Friend,

Dave