Question:
How long does it take for a Psychologist take to complete your evaluation?

A friend of mine is having her evaluation with the same Dr. I plan on having my evaluation with and she told me that she took 6 months to complete her evaluation.    — lweatherholtz (posted on February 9, 2004)

February 9, 2004
Wow, I must have been lucky. It took 3wks to get in to see the psychologist and he spent a whole 10-15 minutes with me and then sent me on my way with my clearance papers. Good luck!
   — Sandy M.

February 9, 2004
It only took my doctor 2 days to fax the evaluation to my surgeon,and he sent me the original hard copy the next day.
   — Diane G.

February 9, 2004
I would say you should look for another psychiatrist to do the evaluation. It should only take them a couple of weeks. They are taking a long time if it takes 30 days but 6 months is ridiculous. I would definately find someone else because it sounds like this one you picked doesn't like doing the paperwork for it. God Bless and good luck to you. Tina, Lap RNY 10/6/03. 275/205/155.
   — tntwildlife77

February 10, 2004
Everybody is different on psych evaluation. I met with my psych one time and than he wrote the letter confirming that I was mentally fit for the surgery. They just want to make sure that you are prepared for the changes and that you are doing it for the right reasons.
   — Kelly T.

February 10, 2004
I had 5 appointment,s 45 min each, one was for a 500 Q&A,s . The very frist time that he saw me he said to me was <<< you don,t need the surgery >>>>OH BOY !!! here we go!! I just asked him why he thought that and he said his other clients were much larger than I. I asked how much he thought that I weight. When I told him and showed him all my documented paperwork for 18 months of supervised by dieting and eight years of Weight Watchers and a continuous weight gain of over 20 years he couldn't believe that I weight that much.I was approved but it took him three weeks to process the papers.
   — charanewme

February 10, 2004
My psych eval took 1 appointment but 5 or 6 weeks to get the letter out, which was a long time. They told me upfront that they were busy & it would be 3 weeks. But 6 months?? NO WAY! Find someone else. There are a lot of them out there. Good Luck
   — squeejlueej

February 10, 2004
Honestly, it depends on the psychologist. I spent more time in the waiting room waiting for my appt then in the "evaluation". Mine only asked a few questions - whether I'd always had a weight problem, whether I had ever had drug or alcohol problems or been treated for depression. And I waited as his secretary typed up the approval letter and delivered it to my surgeon myself! I guess some psychologists are much more WLS friendly than others and don't believe in making people jump through hoops to prove their sanity!
   — sandsonik

February 10, 2004
Six months sounds ridiculous! My psych eval took one meeting (granted it was 3 hours long) and a couple of weeks to write the letter. I also had another psychologist tell me that it would take about 4 visits (1 month) and a couple of weeks to write the letter. Check with someone else. It may be that they are not that familiar with Gastric Bypass so they were not even sure what sort of time frame to quote you. The evaluation is only to see if you are sane enough to make a decision like this and if you are realistic about the outcome. Good Luck!
   — Tara J.