SILENCED
Posts: 32
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« Reply #60 on: March 06, 2010, 10:14:10 pm » |
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Thought I would share a recent attempt to once again speak up to the Board about the harm that was done by their LACK of handling my complaint professionally:
On February 25, 2010, I sent the following e-mail to the Board of Registration for Social Workers in MA:
Subject: Request to meet with Board
I am writing to request an opportunity to meet with the Board at an upcoming meeting. My hope is to speak to the Board about the impact of my own complaint process in the past, involving licensee (I put name here) (which resulted in no action). I would like to speak of the long-term effects of being harmed, lied about, betrayed by a mental health professional. I would like the opportunity to speak my truth, as a healing gesture for me.
I feel my experience with the Board left me feeling re-victimized (first by the professional, then by the Board). I think it would perhaps be like a victim impact statement for me, and an opportunity to find closure and put it behind me. Also, I hope it might educate the Board on what consumers who file complaints are seeking/need from them and how they can potentially be further harmed. It comes up time and time again for me because I have not healed from my experience. I have struggled with two subsequent therapists since it deeply affected my trust of the mental health profession. I think what really needs to change is the system/process of handling complaints.
Please let me know if this can be arranged. Thank you.
Respectfully,
(My name)
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THEIR RESPONSE TO ME on February 26th:
Dear (My Name),
Thank you for your email to the Board.
I can assure you that the Social Work Board takes its duty to protect the public's health, safety and welfare very seriously and applied those fundamental principals when they investigated, reviewed, and ultimately decided to dismiss your complaint in 2007. The Board is aware that complainants often disagree with the Board's decisions to dismiss cases where the complainants believe that they were "harmed." However, where the evidence fails to substantiate the allegations in complaints, the Board has no legal basis to prosecute the licensees.
Also, pursuant to well established case law, complainants are not entitled to an appeal of the Board's decisions. As a result, the Board does not allow complainants to appear before the Board to provide "victim impact statements" after the complaints have been dismissed. Nevertheless, the Board is very sympathetic to your feelings of being "re-victimized" and hopes that you will one day find the closure that you are seeking. We are very sorry, but do not believe, given the Board's role, than we can be of further assistance to you, at this time.
For the Board,
(Person Responding's Name)
Division of Professional Licensure, Combo Boards Unit
Board of Registration of Social Workers &
Board of Registration of Allied Mental Health and Human Service Professionals
239 Causeway Street, 5th floor
Boston, MA 02114
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MY RESPONSE TO THEM ON FEBRUARY 27th:
Dear Ms. (her name):
I do not agree that the process of my complaint being heard was fair. First of all, the then Vice Chair of the Board (her name) worked directly with my ex-husband. This was a major conflict of interest and she should have excused herself (my then teenage daughter told me that this Vice Chair asked my ex if I was related to him!). So, professionalism did not occur.
I also believe strongly that (name of licensee I filed my complaint against) knew my ex-husband's ex-wife. I asked her this during the course of my therapy with her, but she denied it (however, her body language was cause for alarm, but I ingored these "red flags" as I wanted to trust her). When she responded to my Board complaint, she did so with the most painful character assassinations of me (which were completely untrue!), which ironically were the projected (and untrue) lies of my ex's ex (concerning my relationship with him). You might note all these players are your board licensees! (Name of my ex's ex) is my ex's ex, another PhD in Social Work. My ex, (his name), is a licensee of your's also. (Therapist I filed complaint against's name) response to the Board made me realize my doubts were true. In fact, I would wonder if she didn't have (name of my ex's ex) craft it for her! You could never understand my shock and pain at hearing (name of my ex's ex) false accusations about me reflected in (licensee against whom complaint was filed) response to the Board! (Was this the same woman I had once trusted so much and felt so understood by? No.)
While I was seeing (their licensee), many statements occured that I ignored, thinking it was my lack of trust. I have had flashbacks about them. A most notable one was her statement that one day when she was retired and if she had enough energy, she intended to write a book about what it was like "on the other side".... It would not surprise me even if (their licensee) was a client of (my ex's ex), who counseled professionals who were lesbians.
There is nothing about this process that was fair for me. It did leave me revictimized and struggling with betrayal and how to trust anyone, particularly who is a member of the mental health profession. Ms. (licensee) behavior was particuarly unprofessional as I had a prior instance of unprofessionalism by a mental health professional as a young student in college, where the intern ended up lying clothed on his office floor. moaning and writhing. I addressed that with (licensee) and she actually spoke with him, as I myself confronted him. In her response to the Board, she suddenly uses him as an ally, and attacks me, dismissing this earlier instance of lack of professionalism from a mental health professional (a PhD intern). Again, this hurt because I thought she had undergone this process of confrontation WITH ME, but now she uses it against me. Since the time of my complaint, I had further misfortune when I contacted the university service that was seeing my daughter when she was seemingly suicidal. They did nothing with the information, yet assurred me they could handle it. Three weeks later she made a suicide attempt and they will not answer the question of why they took no action, didn't inform me of other more professional services on campus or why they just sent me a confidentiality policy, when in fact they did tell me they were seeing her and confidentiality was not the issue I was addressing (I was looking for policies they had in place, which apparently they had none). I won't get into that here. My point is simply that it is another betrayal for me by the mental health profession (that fortunately did not, but could have, cost my daughter her life), and underneath my feelings about that are my own pains of betrayal in a process that was not, in my experience, fair for the reasons I have stated above.
It is clear to me that the Board takes a strong policy of standing by their own, which leaves a consumer of mental health services, like myself, basically unprotected from such a mental health professional, or unprofessional, as the case may be. I know what the truth is here, and I will never be convinced that the process was fair for the above reasons. It was not.
Sincerely,
(My name)
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THEIR RESPONS TO ME: NONE
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