I told a ChristianaCare psychologist about a serious concern on June 18, 2018. I said I was having increased suicidal ideations (SI) since the prior visit. I told Alan L. Schwartz, Psy.D., about my father and difficulties with Father’s Day, that I had been triggered by the disturbing movie trailers, and that I had cut myself again. I indicated that I had thoughts about being better off dead or hurting myself every day. I told him I felt like I was one emotional straw away from overload, and that I had asked my financial advisor how my IRA savings would be distributed to my heirs if I died. His response was to ask, “Isn’t that a normal question?” (Yes, except when someone says they are having suicidal ideations, you putz!)
That was the second time Dr. Schwartz did not seem concerned about this patient’s report of suicidal ideations. This, even though he recorded my “Detailed Depression Screen Score” as 20, “critical.” His nonplussed response to my telling him about the SI discouraged me from seeking help or even talking further about it.
This was my 4th random weekly 30-minute visit with him, and he still did not refer me to a qualified therapist. His BHC Note includes, “Her responses to the PHQ-9 and GAD-7 show a jump back to her baseline levels.” But he neglected to mention the SI and “one straw away from overload.” Dr. Schwartz went away the following week without referring me to the level of care I needed, without a contact person to call while he was away, and without a safety plan.
Dr. Schwartz could have asked me about the SI, talked to Dr. Kucuk about the Rx, made the referrals he promised, helped me build a safety plan, or given me the number for a hotline to call in an emergency. But instead, he blew me off. Again.
Schwartz’s neglect moved me significantly closer to the psychiatric hospitalization that would start a cascade of negative events, causing even more harm.
But the hospital refused to allow me to say what I needed to say to him. It shielded him and threw two physicians under the bus. That meeting took me 18 months of steady pressure on the hospital’s Patient and Family Relations department. Those doctors looked at my document outlining the problems, apologized, and admitted, “We found some holes that need to be filled.” Holes in patient safety protocols.
Schwartz “serves as the Behavioral Health Faculty for Christiana Care’s Family Medicine and Family/Emergency Medicine Residency Program,” which tells me the program is a disaster. Anyone with such a minuscule understanding of human behavior should not be allowed to teach.
According to ChristianaCare’s website, Schwartz “works as part of the multidisciplinary treatment team providing behavioral health consultation, assessments,” and he “provides assessments, brief interventions and short-term psychotherapy as well as assisting the team in connecting patients who require higher levels of care or more ongoing, regular psychotherapy.” But he did none of that for me, even though he said he would.
In my opinion, if the hospital gave a s**t about distressed people, it would have cut Schwartz loose when his lack of professionalism was so clearly exposed. But as I found to be its habit, ChristianaCare protected itself and its bad practitioner, offering no resolution. Since it and the licensing board refuse to hold abusive and neglectful practitioners accountable, expressing the truth of my lived experience is the only justice I have known. So, I will, as the great Maya Angelou advised us, “Keep talking it. Never stop talking it.” I’ll do this until enough people hear.
