I was watching a movie last night (The Forgotten, so it wasn’t exactly based in realism) and the lead character was encouraged to call her psychiatrist both on his cell or on his home line, whenever she felt like talking with him.
I don’t have personal experience with therapy, but was wondering if this is common, or just a movie contrivence?
I imagine this may happen on occasion, but it would seem fraught with potential for major personal-life disruption for the caregiver.
I know one personally – She has two home phone numbers, one dedicated to the business. She can always listen for and answer both, but this gives the option to turn off one I guess.
Also her husband only answers one of them.
My psychotherapist (a psychiatrist) gave me his cell but I don’t know if it’s his own or one work provides. Previously, cells and home numbers have never been offered and I’ve never asked. This time it is mainly an aid in facilitating scheduling because we both have rough schedules.
During my troubled teens I think I had the number of one of my therapists, and I know that I had the number of two or three of the social workers with whom I regularly talked. As an adult I’ve had one psychiatrist and two psychologists, and none of those three offered me their home numbers, though I did sometimes interact with them via email . . . though these communications were usually about business stuff (e.g., “I need to reschedule” or something). Many of the mental health professionals I know give out emergency numbers, but as far as I know these were for their offices and not homes.
For private workers, a business line at home is not uncommon. But generally some kind of separation is considered desirable, even if its just so you can do different answering messages for each.
If it was a ‘personal’ phone, it would probably be considered potential cause for concern about boundary issues, particularly for someone working in an organisation.
Otara
My stepdad (therapist) gives out his cell, but not home.
It would be unlikely, for professional reasons. What if, for some reason, you couldn’t be reached and were in crisis? An answering service could talk to the person and provide immediate referral to a crisis center or another therapist on duty so the distressed person would get help ASAP, instead of just having the phone go to voice mail
She’s rather unconventional in some ways, so not surprisingly my doctor has given me all her numbers–work, home, and cell. I don’t know if she does this for everyone or just those who have to sign the “anti-suicide” contract. She knows she’s “on-call” just in case someone goes cuckoo for cocoa puffs, so I guess she figures it’s either wait for the answering service to call her up during an emergency or just cut out the middle man and let patients contact her directly. I have called her cell phone on more than a few occassions (especially when I was really sick). Most times she answers and is all ready to launch into “rescue” mode. But a couple of times her phone was not on and I would just send her an email, if I felt I needed her assistance that bad. She has emailed me more than I have emailed her, actually.
She’s also given me her home address, too. I’ve only gone there once, to drop off something on her porch as she requested I do. But her address is listed in the white pages for anyone to look up, so apparently she’s not real concerned.
I imagine she uses some discretion, though. She picks and chooses which patients she wants to work with, and I imagine that if she gets creepy, stalkerish vibes from someone during the initial sessions, she’d refer them to someone else.
I believe she’s also assertive enough to tell someone to stop calling her so much, if they were in fact doing so.
When I filled out the initial paperwork, I signed a paper saying that I would be charged some ungodly amount of money for each minute spent talking to my therapist outside of session. I have yet to get a bill. But again, I’m thinking this would deter someone from talking too much and that it would be left to the doctor’s discretion whether to charge them or not.
I know of one person who has made a couple or so suicide attempts who has a 24-hour number for the psychopharmacologist/psychiatrist, and who has used it on at least one occasion. This is a doctor-patient relationship that’s been ongoing for several years.