Review of Services from the Center for Individual and Family Services in Mansfield, Ohio

In 1994, I moved from Cincinnati to Mansfield, Ohio. I have been treated for major depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and a dissociative disorder for many years but my condition was stable at that time, with good therapy and medication. I needed to find a therapist, psychiatrist and case manager to continue providing mental health services. I knew someone that received services from the Center for Individual and Family Services and they offered all the services I had been receiving in Cincinnati, so I called them to schedule an appointment.

I first had to attend an intake appointment, which is typical of mental health agencies such as this. The intake was conducted by a social worker. I took some paperwork from my last therapist and psychiatrist with me to the appointment, which included my diagnoses and some other important information. However, the social worker refused to even look at the paperwork and also declined to make a copy to include in my chart. While I was there, she completed a treatment plan and listed different diagnoses than I'd been diagnosed with before. I did not agree with her diagnoses but she did not seem interested in my opinion. Later, I also learned that although I clearly told her during the intake interview that I'd been sexually abused as a child, she wrote down that I reported there was no history of abuse.

I asked to be assigned to a therapist with some experience with dissociative disorders, since I have been diagnosed with one. However, it turned out that the therapist I was assigned to knew nothing about dissociative disorders. In fact, when I begin describing my symptoms, he suggested perhaps I had a seizure disorder instead. When I later spoke with my case manager and then the agency's clients' rights advocate, I was informed that I could not request a particular therapist and that I had no say in what therapist I saw. I could see the one to whom I'd been assigned or see none.

Like the social worker that did my intake, the psychiatrist did not want to see my past medical records either. He also did not listen to what I told him I'd been diagnosed with in the past. He diagnosed something different, and not the same thing the intake social worker diagnosed. He refused to continue prescribing the medication I'd been taking, even though I'd been doing very well on it, and insisted on prescribing something else that had some potentially serious effects.

The case manager was useless. She rarely returned my phone calls and when I complained about that to the clients' rights advocate, I was told that case managers were not required to return calls in a timely manner. She said they return calls in the order of importance and if she did not think my call was important, it did not matter when or if she called me back.

Those are only a few of the problems I had during the two months or so that I received services there. Fortunately, there are alternatives for those living in Mansfield, Ohio, that need affordable mental health care. Third Street Family Health Services provides counseling on a sliding scale. You can also see a physician there, though not a psychiatrist. The physician may prescribe psychotropic medication, however. Those with insurance, including Medicare and Medicaid, can receive mental health services at Appleseed in nearby Ashland, though Richland Country residents are not eligible for a sliding scale there. I encourage anyone in Mansfield that needs mental health care to check out these and other alternatives and avoid seeking care at the Center for Individual and Family Services.