Kaiser Anxiety Groups
Parent Q&A
Parent Reviews
Parents, please Sign in to post a review on this page.Kaiser has great support groups. My daughter recently started in a middle school age group there that meets once a week, and parents meet separately as a group at the same time with a therapist.
I have a 9 year old with anxiety and some other conditions (not OCD but not out of the ballpark), and we are also a Kaiser family who has done the anxiety group. My suggestion is to hang onto the therapist at Kaiser that you like (assuming your daughter also likes him/her). Accommodate that schedule. Not because it's cheaper but because the benefits of a therapeutic relationship accrue after some trust is built between the child, the parents, and the therapist. If the therapist you have isn't an OCD expert, they should be consulting with other Kaiser professionals who are to supplement their knowledge and best serve your daughter.
I also can share that my 9 year old's anxiety has been helped by Prozac. It is not a great feeling to put your small child "on drugs" but when it helps them sleep and handle daily life so much better, I don't regret it.
Overall, it's not a coordinated approach, and very difficult to 1) locate and 2) get access to the services you need for your child. I wish I had some concrete advice for you, but after 2 years with my now 8 yo on the mental health side (with anxiety), I don't really. You need to get a mental health "captain" assigned to your child, which will probably be a MSW. Pick your facility (go with Oakland unless a compelling reason to pick Richmond or San Leandro, Oakland has the most staff and resources [which isn't saying much]). You will likely be funnelled to a group, which I felt was very much a mixed bag for anxiety, since my son DEFINITELY picked up on some of the other kids' anxiety triggers. The different facilities don't talk to each other, and Oakland staff don't know what is offered at Richmond (for example). Your son's medical doctors also aren't automatically able to see his mental health records, so much for coordinated care and the whole person.
You may also decide to go out of pocket for a private therapist. Only you know if that's a reasonable financial choice for you, but our copay for each group was $50, and private providers can start around $100.
I think it's very specific to your child's form of anxiety, the provider running the group, and the mix of other teens (which in our experience when my kid did the children's anxiety group at KP Richmond was not curated). I was very unhappy with what I saw of the provider running the group (for kids, they have parents come in the last 10 minutes, probably not the case for teens), who was an MD/psychiatrist, and I felt like the other kids' anxieties were manifesting more severely than my child's - which obviously I felt like was severe enough to sign them up for the group. So I was concerned about transference. But, this is all maybe not relevant for a teen, perhaps depending on if they are 13 or 18. It's really worth a discussion with your teen to gauge how much they want to do it, as opposed to making a decision for a child; and I would also involve their individual therapist in the discussion.
Just FYI, in the past I was unable to get regular individual counseling at Kaiser, but recently I was. I think they were sued, or maybe because the clinicians went or strike, or I don’t know, but I jumped through all their hoops and I got 12 weeks of individual zoom counseling with an option to extend (by jumping through more hoops). Not enough, I know, but it was helpful for me. They farmed me out to a CBT community program. So if you are interested in individual counseling, it may be worth it to try again.
I don’t have experience with the teen group - but I was part of a KP adult anxiety group that ended up being a lot more helpful than I anticipated. A lot probably depends on the facilitator and the the other group members. But I enjoyed my facilitators and found it really helpful to hear from other people who were having issues similar to mine. I even made a few friends and we supported each other outside of group. Also, If your teen starts the group and doesn’t like it after a sessions or two, they could always quit.