Wednesday, January 09, 2013
The small laundry room in the basement has been locked for several days. One washer, one dryer. This is a big problem for me. I do one load per week on average. The alternatives are my small, old portable apt washer, which requires hand wringing clothes & hang dry, & doesn't rinse very well; or hauling a bag to a local laundromat & sitting around for 90 minutes. Or the expense of dropping the clothes off & having them done by the laundromat attendant.
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Yesterday I had an 8:30 a.m. appt with city housing auth, annual visit, no big deal. Don't like the early time - could mean 1/2 hour taxi wait on a bitterly cold morning, yesterday was o.k.. on both. At that time I'm usually the first client, so short wait. Yesterday the tenant interviewer was so slow. The others I get recognize how easy I am to do & just copy my various docs, have me sign a dozen forms, hand me the required lead paint brochure. Then she did something that's never happened before & gave me pause. She handed me two forms, one to be filled out by my psychiatrist & the other by my counselor at a private rehab agency. I have these two forms filled out annually for the private agency, for a special program that in turn qualifies me for housing assistance, if I meet the city also approves. The private agency handles the confidential medical information. The city then is concerned only with my identity, residence, income & expenses, which I provide with indisputably authentic hard copy documents. I noted this to the interviewer. I said if they need these other documents, the private agency has my permission to provide them as needed, & that I did not care for the idea of providing them directly. The interviewer dismissed this concern as no big deal, records are confidential, destroyed after a period of time, & the most disturbing revelation, that the city agency didn't even really need them; the private agency wanted them in the city files. But now I'm doing the job I thought the private agency was doing. In my mind, a line is being crossed here, & I don't like it.
My psychiatrist will fill out the form. Again. As he did only two months ago. He has to do it for me. But he is very discreet man. I can tell he doesn't particularly like it. Nor do I. He prefers releasing information to another psychiatrist or licensed therapist. I've been seeing him for years. Legally, ethically & by character he is completely trustworthy, as are all the staff I've known at the clinic.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
***
Yesterday I had an 8:30 a.m. appt with city housing auth, annual visit, no big deal. Don't like the early time - could mean 1/2 hour taxi wait on a bitterly cold morning, yesterday was o.k.. on both. At that time I'm usually the first client, so short wait. Yesterday the tenant interviewer was so slow. The others I get recognize how easy I am to do & just copy my various docs, have me sign a dozen forms, hand me the required lead paint brochure. Then she did something that's never happened before & gave me pause. She handed me two forms, one to be filled out by my psychiatrist & the other by my counselor at a private rehab agency. I have these two forms filled out annually for the private agency, for a special program that in turn qualifies me for housing assistance, if I meet the city also approves. The private agency handles the confidential medical information. The city then is concerned only with my identity, residence, income & expenses, which I provide with indisputably authentic hard copy documents. I noted this to the interviewer. I said if they need these other documents, the private agency has my permission to provide them as needed, & that I did not care for the idea of providing them directly. The interviewer dismissed this concern as no big deal, records are confidential, destroyed after a period of time, & the most disturbing revelation, that the city agency didn't even really need them; the private agency wanted them in the city files. But now I'm doing the job I thought the private agency was doing. In my mind, a line is being crossed here, & I don't like it.
My psychiatrist will fill out the form. Again. As he did only two months ago. He has to do it for me. But he is very discreet man. I can tell he doesn't particularly like it. Nor do I. He prefers releasing information to another psychiatrist or licensed therapist. I've been seeing him for years. Legally, ethically & by character he is completely trustworthy, as are all the staff I've known at the clinic.
