Therapist makes us late

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Forum -> Relationships -> Manners & Etiquette

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amother

Wed, Jun 01 2011, 1:01 pm

Ds goes to school from 12-2 every day. Before that, he has 3 therapy sessions. One therapist is scheduled to come at 10. She always comes between 9:50 and 10:05. The therapist who is supposed to come at 11 always comes between 10:55 and 11:10. The problem is the therapist who is supposed to come at 9:30. She comes between 11 and 11:30 and has to wait for the previous therapist to finish so she could start. I call her every day at 10:45 to remind her that ds has to be in school at 12 and she says she'll make him her next stop. I specifically asked her yesterday what time she's scheduled to see ds and she said 9:30 so she knows she's supposed to be seeing him then. At 11:45, I always remind her that ds needs to eat lunch before going to school and she says she'll do one more thing and then she's finished. At five to 12, I bring in ds's shoes and socks and ask him what she wants for lunch. Once again, she has to do one more thing. Eventually, I have ds in the stroller by the door and she starts writing her session note. I tell her we have to leave, but obviously I can't leave until she does, so I stand by the door and wait. What's the best way to deal with this situation without being rude? I'm tempted to turn off the ac and remind her to close the door when she leaves, but there has to be a bettter way to deal with this.

MaBelleVie

Wed, Jun 01 2011, 1:10 pm

Honestly, she is being a quite rude and unprofessional. If she is supposed to come at 9:30, why is she coming after 11? I would say, "our schedule is very tight now, and we really can't fit in another therapy session after his 11:00 slot. If you won't be able to come at 9:30, please let me know and we'll have to make other arrangements." If she shows up late anyway, I would say, "sorry, but as I mentioned, we can't do therapy at this time." And don't let her start. If she can't get it together, it's time to look for a new therapist.

amother

Wed, Jun 01 2011, 1:15 pm

MaBelleVie wrote:

Honestly, she is being a quite rude and unprofessional. If she is supposed to come at 9:30, why is she coming after 11?

She blames it on the traffic, lack of parking, and having to wait for her dh since they share a car and drive to work together. The thing is that ds really likes her so I wouldn't want to change therapists now. She doesn't seem to be able to control how late she is. I don't think she wears a watch and she isn't aware of the time.

suzyq

Wed, Jun 01 2011, 1:17 pm

Could you switch her time to an afternoon slot?

MaBelleVie

Wed, Jun 01 2011, 1:18 pm

amother wrote:

MaBelleVie wrote:

Honestly, she is being a quite rude and unprofessional. If she is supposed to come at 9:30, why is she coming after 11?

Time management is very important for a therapist. You're really nice for putting up with it til now Tongue Out

Is there any way she can come a different day? So even if the scheduled time is 9:30 and she shows up at 11, at least she can start treating him immediately, and not have to wait for the previous therapist to finish.

amother

Wed, Jun 01 2011, 1:24 pm

Switch, find someone else, it's your right. If she has a problem with time management then she will have to learn the hard way.

amother

Wed, Jun 01 2011, 3:23 pm

op here. Ds goes to school and gets all his therapies every day. Switching to the afternoon means having her come after ds is already in bed since most of the kids she sees are in a different neighborhood and she's not going back and forth in the middle of the day. We're not switching therapists either since ds likes her and might not tolerate a new therapist. He just started school last week so it wasn't an issue until now, but she was working with him for almost a year. I'm thinking about just walking out on her so that ds won't miss the first 15 minutes of school every day.

Mama Bear

Wed, Jun 01 2011, 4:10 pm

she'll just have to cut down her session by 5 minutes.
I dont understand; my son also gets therapy at home and has to go out for therapy. all the therapists know clearly that at 1:50 pm I have to be out the door, so they have to leave no matter what. put your foot down!

amother

Wed, Jun 01 2011, 5:05 pm

Is this a private therapist, or is she from an agency or organization? If the latter, call her boss.

amother

Thu, Jun 02 2011, 7:40 am

amother wrote:

Is this a private therapist, or is she from an agency or organization? If the latter, call her boss.

She's from an agency. I prefer not to bother my service coordinator about this as she hasn't been to helpful in the past. If my sc would call to find out how its going with the school, I would tell her, but I don't want to play phone tag and she rarely answers her phone.

amother

Thu, Jun 02 2011, 7:49 am

This sounds like a very frustrating situation and very unprofessional on her part. Maybe you can ask her to write the note in her car so that you don't have to wait that extra time for her to leave...

amother

Thu, Jun 02 2011, 10:21 am

Op here. I just called her to see what time she's coming today and she said that she just parked so it looks like we'll be on time today. Maybe it just takes time for her to get used to working around a schedule.

amother

Thu, Jun 02 2011, 10:27 am

Or maybe she is on imamother and saw this thread! LOL

What worked for me is scheduling the therapy on different days. If you have therapy everyday though that wouldn't work. I wasn't 100% sure from your post.

amother

Thu, Jun 02 2011, 11:09 am

Op again. She said she felt bad yesterday when I said that ds won't have time for a real lunch, just some dry cereal in the stroller. I guess she understood that it was her fault ds couldn't eat like a mench.

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