Talk to my doctor!!
I've been seeing this kid who's clearly not interested in seeing me. I'd have discharged her off my caseload a long time ago if I'd had any choice in the matter, but she's pregnant and the unborn baby is on the Register.
I started seeing her with Aoife, this really lovely middle-aged rock chick who's a social worker and was my first ally on the job. She, in turn, had picked the kid up from Social Services. When Aoife left, the kid had run up such a record that no one wanted to touch her with a bargepole. Which left me with the baby, it's mother, and the bathwater. Not to mention a frazzled grandmother to be, who was clearly at her wit's end and not coping too well.
Anyway, the kid decided quite early on that she had no use for either me or Aoife. Which meant that whenever she wanted something (like a new flat), she'd call up 999 and say that she was feeling suicidal. LAS would go round and talk to her, she would neglect to mention our existence and off she'd go to hospital. It usually took about two days on some ward and a lot of phone calls before the ward doctors figured out what was going on. And then they'd promptly discharge her. Now we know why the NHS is going bust.
Once outside, she'd get back to form. Which was being as elusive as the Scarlet Pimpernel. She'd see the midwife, but not us. She'd see the health visitor, but not the GP. We'd land up at her mum's at nine o' clock in the morning and find she'd left 15 minutes ago. The mother often didn't have a clue where the young lady had spent the night and clearly, had reached a point where she couldn't care less.
Anyway, she called me yesterday, much to my astonishment.
The conversation went something like this-
NM: " Hi Jen, how're you doing?"
Jen: "Awrii...."
NM: "How's the baby doing?"
Jen: "Awrii...."
NM: " We're supposed to meet next week, aren't we?"
Jen: "Awri..."
She's not very friendly, as you may have noticed. But still, she called. So, I persevere, gamely.
NM: "So, how..."
At which point Jen decides she'd had enough of this pointless exchange, and says "Listen, there's this guy here that wants to talk to you."
Gruff voiced chap: "I'm Officer Roberts, of the .....Police. Are you the doctor in charge of the care of this individual, named Jennifer Frangou, Date of Birth....., aged ....years?"
NM: " Erm.., yes, I suppose I am, in a way. Why?"
OR: " The said individual has been arrested for assault and is at ..... Police Station. She has stated that she is unwell and is receiving care from yourself, Dr. Nevermindatall of ...... Road. Is that correct?"
Turns out she was at some bus station, where she managed to hook up with some guy who was waiting for a bus. They'd got really friendly, when the said individual's girlfriend arrived. Said individual's girlfriend and Jen had words, following which little Jenny bit a piece of said girlfriend's forearm off.
Charming.
I just love teenagers.
I started seeing her with Aoife, this really lovely middle-aged rock chick who's a social worker and was my first ally on the job. She, in turn, had picked the kid up from Social Services. When Aoife left, the kid had run up such a record that no one wanted to touch her with a bargepole. Which left me with the baby, it's mother, and the bathwater. Not to mention a frazzled grandmother to be, who was clearly at her wit's end and not coping too well.
Anyway, the kid decided quite early on that she had no use for either me or Aoife. Which meant that whenever she wanted something (like a new flat), she'd call up 999 and say that she was feeling suicidal. LAS would go round and talk to her, she would neglect to mention our existence and off she'd go to hospital. It usually took about two days on some ward and a lot of phone calls before the ward doctors figured out what was going on. And then they'd promptly discharge her. Now we know why the NHS is going bust.
Once outside, she'd get back to form. Which was being as elusive as the Scarlet Pimpernel. She'd see the midwife, but not us. She'd see the health visitor, but not the GP. We'd land up at her mum's at nine o' clock in the morning and find she'd left 15 minutes ago. The mother often didn't have a clue where the young lady had spent the night and clearly, had reached a point where she couldn't care less.
Anyway, she called me yesterday, much to my astonishment.
The conversation went something like this-
NM: " Hi Jen, how're you doing?"
Jen: "Awrii...."
NM: "How's the baby doing?"
Jen: "Awrii...."
NM: " We're supposed to meet next week, aren't we?"
Jen: "Awri..."
She's not very friendly, as you may have noticed. But still, she called. So, I persevere, gamely.
NM: "So, how..."
At which point Jen decides she'd had enough of this pointless exchange, and says "Listen, there's this guy here that wants to talk to you."
Gruff voiced chap: "I'm Officer Roberts, of the .....Police. Are you the doctor in charge of the care of this individual, named Jennifer Frangou, Date of Birth....., aged ....years?"
NM: " Erm.., yes, I suppose I am, in a way. Why?"
OR: " The said individual has been arrested for assault and is at ..... Police Station. She has stated that she is unwell and is receiving care from yourself, Dr. Nevermindatall of ...... Road. Is that correct?"
Turns out she was at some bus station, where she managed to hook up with some guy who was waiting for a bus. They'd got really friendly, when the said individual's girlfriend arrived. Said individual's girlfriend and Jen had words, following which little Jenny bit a piece of said girlfriend's forearm off.
Charming.
I just love teenagers.
posted by nevermind at 7:57 PM
14 Comments:
What does it take for a kid to get that messed up? I can't help feeling sorry for her..
Puberty PLUS crazy pregnancy hormones? That must be SOME ride!
Charming indeed. *gulp* To echo the raindrop, that must be some ride. *gulp again* And if you don't mind me asking, what exactly is your line of work?
Tough patient to have! But "Dr. Nevermindatall"? Well, apt for the situation at hand, methinks. :-)
~N.
RD, the answer is a pretty horrible childhood (technicolor horrible, not subtly horrible), bad genes, social deprivation etc. As for puberty, that too. I would suspect her whole life's been a bit of a ride.
WT, I am not too comfortable talking about my exact line of work, for several reasons. I'm sure you'll eventually figure out;-)
N, that was a bit of annoyed self-parody:-D, which you, of course cottoned on to. She's tough, but eminently manageable if the system works as it's supposed to. But it never does, does it?
british teenagers... :)
in some odd way, they fascinate me no end.
sac, think teenagers everywhere are pretty much the same. Not too many years ago, I was in a police station at 1 am making some urgent calls;-)
hey dont like lump all the dam teenagers intogether huh!? Just because someone has a shitty life it dont mean people need to be like "aww bless" and all that crap!
She makes choices same as well all do and some stuff that sounds bad people get used to its just normal. There are some doctors that are shitty too but some are ok.
the system sucks, beurocratic garbage and jobsworths all over the dam place and so some of the people who give a dam get frustratid and burned out.
If the system worked as it was supposed to, we would all be leading very different lives, and a lot of the people you need to meet wouldn't have reached where they did. If only the system did work as it was supposed to...
But, she seems to be in good hands, and at some level she seems to be realising that too.
[Not too many years ago, I was in a police station at 1 am making some urgent calls;-) ]
Hmm, coffee capers with lehnga-clad ladies and wee-hour calls from the domain of the khaki-clad guys? The list of eagerly-awaited posts is growing. ;-)
C'mon, get to 'em already!
~N.
Sigh! Horrible childhoods, messed up life, most probably leading up to messing up theit own kids' lives. Tough job for social workers!
Anon, Hi. Good to have you here.
1) I apologize if I've appeared to lump all teenagers into some exasperating, 'unmanageable' mass. That was not my intention. My intention was to let off steam. And I cannot do that if I am politically correct all the time. So I am not. And that’s just the way it is;
2) Jenny's had a bad time, which is why we've stuck with her for such a long time. But economics and finite resources means that we can stick with her only so long waiting for her to take some responsibility. Because every time she manipulates the system, every time she fails to turn up and meet people who are trying to help, there's another kid out there (who's genuinely suicidal) who's not getting seen. And that's a total piss off;
3) I know loads of remarkable teenagers who've pulled themselves out of some desperate holes, incl. one I've had the privilege of talking to on this blog.
4) As for some doctors being prats, if at least a fourth of ‘em weren’t, that’d be downright unnatural :-)
N, no posts for at least 10 days :-)
Anu, absolutely:-) Welcome back.
"At least" 10 days?!!! =:O
Just kidding. :-)
Hope its fun time/holidays which'll be keeping you away, and not work load.
~N.
kk, i get ya point guy. understand about the let of steam thing.
man! you have an interesting job!!!
apart from the medical stuff that you obviously do, i'm sure you do a fair amount of closet anthropology and socialogy as well. wow!
N, it wasn't much fun:-)
Anon, kk, hang around:-)
Nikita:-)
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