11 yo daughter: anxiety? Seeking SF-based medical recommendation
Hi there,
My husband and I are looking for recommendations for an SF-based pediatric psychiatrist for our 11 year-old daughter. We've always thought she was predisposed to anxiety and lately it's become clear that she needs more help/support than we can give her, possibly in the form of medication. We are insured through Kaiser but I don't trust them with this matter (I am a patient of their psych department so I speak from experience). Can anyone please recommend someone in the SF area who might be available to help? The UCSF Child Psych (Langley Porter) facility looks promising but I'd like to approach them with a few names if possible. Also, if you have pointers about paying for this, since it would be out of our Kaiser network, I'm all ears. A single evalution is $651-$872 per 45-minute session and we just don't have that kind of money. Your advice is gratefully appreciated. Thank you.
Beside Myself with Worry
Parent Replies
Dr. Dongmei Yue
+1 (415) 600-0997
She's with CPMC. Excellent credentials.
Hi,
Although I don't have a recommendation, I do agree that Kaiser for therapy is not realistic due to the distance between sessions. However, you can still have appts for medication purposes and see someone cheap on the outside. What I am saying is that you don't need a MD on the outside because you will have that in Kaiser for meds. My daughter saw a therapist on the outside at about your daughter's age for anxiety and eventually - at start of HS - we went to sertraline. It was a huge success - so many problems resolved themselves and although she was a bit more uninhibited initially until we got the dose right, it has made a huge difference in success socially for her. I am glad you are considering meds because it might take both a load off of you and her.
We've faced similar challenges at that age, and found it was related to undiagnosed non-attentive ADHD. Cognitive behavioral therapy has been wonderfully helpful to our daughter. We see someone in Berkeley - Ilyana Romanovsky - who has been great, and don't have advice for SF, but I'd suggest looking for CBT if you can. It will get better. Good luck!