[shannobananno]

For a home study, will the social worker contact your insurance company in order to find out all the doctors you have gone to see and then contact those physicians and get a complete copy of all of your records? Will they request a copy of all of my records (health and otherwise) from when I was in the military? Thanks!

[Lumpkin]

The homestudy person told us that they'd just require a note from the doctor saying that we were healthy enough to parent without complications. I'm not sure that we'd even need a physical or anything if the doctor knew us well enough to just write the note.

[blessedbybug]

We had to have a physical and the doctor made notes and reference to anything he saw, to our medical history and was asked whether or not he felt we were healthy enough to parentor if any medical conditions would affect our ability to parent.

[shannobananno]

I ask because once I went to see this psychologist because I was having a hard time firguring out what I wanted to do with my career. After talking with me for one hour, she diagnosed me with like six different mental illnesses that I don't have. I'm sure this is standard practice with her. I know for a fact that most of these illnesses can not be diagnosed without extensive testing. Anyway, I saw her once or twice after that--she told me I need to become a foster parent and quit my job (I was single at the time). This is not something I would recommend to someone with as many mental illnesses as myself:-) Anyway, I wouldn't want anyone getting ahold of her notes. I don't see what the problem would be with failing to mention it.

[tweetybirdus]

how long ago was it? I think you should be honest about it to your homestudy social worker because if you don't say anything and they find out, they'll think, well, what else is she hiding? It shouldn't keep you from adopting.

[shannobananno]

But how on earth would they find out? I have a top secret security clearance and, believe me, not I or any others I used to work with (who also have clearances) was honest about everything.

[Gwen72]

We both had to have a physical that was signed by our Doc. It was a one page form that asked height, weight , blood pressure and stated we had no communicable diseases or disabilities that would make it impossible to parent a child. Even though we are both in the medical field and could have any of our friends who are docs sign the form, the SW never called or verified the info anyway. I am also a birthmom who gave up my son while in high school. I am now 30ish with one degree and working on a second degree. I'm a paramedic in the largest, busiest 911 service in our state for many years. Our SW did make me go to a therapist to prove I was "stable and ready to be a parent" because of my experiences 16 years ago.

[Lumpkin]

I believe in being honest, even if it ends up biting you in the butt. However, they won't find out. I've heard of others who went to one of those doctors offices in the mall that accept walk-ins to get their medical paperwork done (presumably to avoid their normal doctor exposing several potential issues!)

[devildogwife]

Originally Posted by tweetybirdus

how long ago was it? I think you should be honest about it to your homestudy social worker because if you don't say anything and they find out, they'll think, well, what else is she hiding? It shouldn't keep you from adopting.

I agree with being honest too. With our homestudy, there were things that I wasn't thrilled to share about, but still did.

[shannobananno]

You all are right. I will, begrudigingly, disclose this information.

[tweetybirdus]

There were tons of things that I really didn't want to go into while doing our homestudy but I did because it was the right thing to do. It gave the SW the whole picture about us. The SW we had was so understanding about everything.

Even if these diagnoses were incorrect, the best thing is to discuss it with the SW. And I'm happy that you have chosen to do so.