Effective doctors

[daledude]

I live in Portland, Oregon area and am wondering if anyone else on this list has a recommendation for a doctor in this area? I am looking for any doctors that specialize in mood disorders or bipolar disorder. I feel like I need both a psycho pharmacologist and psychologist.

As an alternative, does anyone have a long distance (over the phone) relationship with a doctor? It occurs to me that if doctors were willing to do this, you could greatly enhance the possibility of finding a good doctor-patient relationship. Heck, in this day you could even fairly easily have a camera setup where the doc could see you while you talk.

I feel like I'm finally starting to accept the realities of this illness in regards to seeing the necessity of having a good team setup with doctors. I can see that this team is essential for me to do well, but I'm not having an easy time finding the help that I need. I'm currently working with a nurse practitioner that specializes in mental health, but feel that this situation is inadequate, plus I have no real counseling to help sort things out.

All the best.

[daledude]

Thanks monkeyc,

Like others on the list, I've enjoyed and appreciated a number of your postings, this one included! Sounds like good advice, and I'll give here what I found today, which is in alignment with your suggestion.

So, in case someone else in the future looks for help in the Portland area, in addition to monkeyc's info, here's what I found today:

The clinic that I visited couldn't really help me, however they told me that they referred their patients to an outfit called LifeWorks (http://www.lifeworksnw.org/), so I contacted them. Because of my particulars and area, they couldn't really help me either, but they gave me the number for Washington county Mental Health Crisis helpline: 503-291-9111 where I found a very caring person who was quite helpful.

She pointed me to three facilities: Iris Clinic in Hillsboro (503-352-7333), Samaritan Counseling Centers (http://www.sccpdx.org), and Wise Council & Comfort (http://www.portland-therapist.com). I don't have insurance, these facilities are particularly helpful for those of us who are uninsured.

[monkeyc]

Hmm the only thing I know about Portland Oregon is a song from Loretta Lynn's last album Van Lear Rose (though it is a great song)

The Department of Psychiatry at Oregon Health and Science University : http://www.ohsu.edu/psychiatry/

The Oregon Psychiatric Association : http://www.orpsych.org/

Psychiatric associations are a good place to start - they know who is around and who is taking patients and the good ones can warn you gently off bad docs - Uni's are also a good place as they tend to see lots of docs and be heavily involved in the local areas.

Always look for a state or local or national registration or professional membership body as a starting point is my experience.

The reason why you likely have trouble finding a rating site on doctors is based on regulation (some countries like mine ban doctors from advertising in any form other than a phone book add and a basic website) and litigation risk - no website wants to be sued when someone posts a bad report.

[bernie40]

Good luck!

[daledude]

Hi bulldozer,

Thanks for the reply. I've searched the Internet, including resource sites that are listed in books that I have. I'm pretty good at searching the Internet, but am amazed (and frustrated) that I haven't actually found a good site where you can search for doctors by area by specialty.

I have asked the doctors that I know and they aren't coming up with what I'm looking for.

This afternoon I'm heading for a clinic that I haven't yet visited, hopefully they'll have someone or know of other associated clinics that do...

Thanks again

[bernie40]

Hi daledude and welcome to the site.

I'm not able to answer your query directly as I do not live in your country but I wanted to bump your post back up to the top in the hope that someone will read it who can help you.

I take it you have already tried the usual avenues of directories etc or maybe asked your regular Dr if he knows of anyone?