Travis County MHMR - a little heavy on the MR?

So, in the inane spirit of this week, I had an experience with Travis County Mental Health and Mental Retardation that caused me (yet again) to question the logic of government thinking. MHMR has a division called PES - Psychiatric Emergency Services. Note that the "E" stands for emergency. This will become important later. Here's a tidbit from their website about what they do:

"Our Psychiatric Emergency Services serve residents of Travis County who are experiencing psychiatric crisis. PES is designed as a free-standing walk-in psychiatric emergency service open 24 hours per day, 365 days per year. PES provides psychiatric assessment, crisis intervention services, linkage with resources and physician services to children/youth and adults experiencing psychiatric distress."

In other words, when you are totally losing it and having a meltdown, they provide emergency services to help get you stabilized. They even have a nifty hotline: 24/7 Crisis Hotline: 512-472-HELP (4357).

Earlier this week I had occassion to call this hotline to get help for a client for whom I was really concerned. I dial the EMERGENCY HOTLINE and no joke . . . get a phone tree.

"For English, press 1."
"If this is a psychiatric emergency, press 1"
"To schedule an MHMR appointment, press 2"
A ring . . . and a transfer to some bad hold music, which if I wasn't having a psychiatric episode when I called, I would be after about a minute of that music.

As I was not the one having a mental meltdown, I could appreciate the humor in this. But had I been, let's say, having a psychiatric emergency, perhaps I would not have been able to navigate the phone tree with such deft skill and disarming charm. Or wait on hold until I could talk to a human.

A phone tree on an emergency hotline. Really? No offense, but maybe the MR division is doing a little too much of the thinking at MHMR.

Life's Ups and Downs

After a short (ok, well 4 month) break, I had a day sufficiently weird enough to warrant a blog post. Here's what happened in the last twelve hours:

- Good: I got up early and left gifts for Administrative Professionals Day in the chairs of our office staff. I am particularly proud of remembering this holiday because I rarely remember any holiday. (Ok, ok, the signs in the card section at Walgreens gave me a little extra reminder).

- Not so good: Business day starts with a good dose of humiliation. Walked into a full courtroom with skirt riding up in the back. Despite having passed 10 people in the courthouse who could have said something, it took a nice lady in the front row of the courtroom to say something to me (after I have walked through the full gallery). My thanks to her and I hope she wins her case against the evil, heartless, soulless entity of CitiBank.

- Not so good: My brilliant career almost ended in a random and senseless automobile accident on Hwy 71 because some idiot pulled out directly in front of me. Came to a screeching halt to avoid slamming into the side of their car (thanks sis for hounding me to get that brake job in February), only to watch them blithely continue driving. Considered, then discarded, the idea of homicide.

- Hmmm: A mom duck followed by a bunch of baby ducks waddled through our parking lot. There is no water near our office. They are either Town Lake rebels or lost.

- Good: I won a drawing at my apartment complex and get to knock $150 off next month's rent. I NEVER win anything, so this rocks. Despite almost being killed in a car accident, I suddenly consider myself an extremely lucky person.

- Good: My sister gives me this piece of excellent advice for dealing with a particular difficult person, "Ok, well next time they call, transfer it to the hand and they can talk to that." I am currently eagerly awaiting the chance to use this on someone.

Ah, the life of a young associate. Now that I read it, it doesn't sound all that dramatic. Guess you had to be there. Or be me.