She said I had to get my anxiety / depression sorted before getting a diagnosis for ADHD. (I’ve been in and out of therapy since 13, and tried various meds to no avail.) I was only in there for 10 minutes. Also, she said that I seemed to only want to study for the social recognition of a degree. What a joker.
Posted Date : 24/11/2020
Very approachable and easy to communicate with. Shows genuine concern yet doesnt seem judgemental or superior as some doctors seem
Posted Date : 05/08/2020
Worst experience ever. Ignored me in the waiting room for over half an hour, then suggested I come back another time. Called Police to schedule me as Delusional, because I told her I was being harassed by Police (which I was). Also found out she was fired from another practice, and came back to Brisbane Water as they obviously have lower standards
Posted Date : 06/06/2020
Was put on the wrong medication which my depression got worse. Wrong diagnosis.. complained how sunny it was in Australia and complained about having to pay %50 tax.
Posted Date : 23/05/2020
I had to change my medication and had a smooth transition with Dr Kalava. Very good psychiatrist and I have seen many. Very good psychiatrist. I needed to change medications and it was a smooth transition with Dr Kalava. I would recommend her.
Posted Date : 28/03/2019
Anonymous
Extremely rude to her staff, also very unprofessional.
Didn’t really seem interested in what I had to say.
Anonymous
Told her multiple times I want to attend groups when I leave hospital, when I left I rang and asked when I could start groups and they said she didn’t book me in so Made me pay to see her before I could do outpatient groups.
Also said she would only prescribe me a certain medication that I NEEDED if I stay with her and don’t change psychs.
Felt VERY used used taken advantage of she’s lucky I haven’t reported her which I should because im not the only patient who she has done this to.
Anonymous
Never sends scripts on time, cancels appointments without notice, acts like her patient being mentally ill is such an inconvenience to her, diagnosed my mental health condition and then had me jump through bureaucratic hoops she knew I wasn’t capable of (you know, because of the mental health condition she just diagnosed), never received a medicare rebate, spoken to like I was nothing, would send things to the wrong places (scripts, letters to GPs etc), never provided services I paid for and would claim that she was going to ‘use the extra money I paid to write my prescription’
Would not recommend her to anyone, but most of the staff are lovely, her waitlist is short, and her fees are pretty low compared to others in Brisbane.
I would spend at least an hour after every appointment crying my eyes out because of the way she treated me.
Anonymous
Immensely knowledgeable and thorough.
Looks can be deceiving, she looks like a student but this woman is on the ball
Anonymous
She took 6 months to prescribe lithium to my daughter who was very suicidal.She should have suggested lithium long ago as after lithium there was reduced intensity and frequency of suicidal ideas.
She could not diagnose akathesia from seroquel and said it’s cramps in legs from magnesium deficiency and advised us to take Mg tablets. My daughter will toss and turn in bed and i will massage her legs. She already was very sick.
Could not consider possibility of bipolar depression and kept changing antipsychotics every 6 weeks due to side effects instead of doing trouble shooting.
Have us lamictal , took 2 months to reach target dose of 100 mg and then after third month she asked if it’s helping and i told it doesn’t so she stopped it. She should have known it doesn’t work for bipolar depression and it’s for prevention and maintenance only.
Eventually gave us risperidone which we took for one and half years with no benefit and later found out that risperidone doesn’t help with bipolar depression.
She should have given us medications with good track record of treating bipolar depression.
Should have continued lamictal with lithium.
Took her two weeks to write referral for us to get ECT done.
Didn’t know who can do ECT under 18 years.
I had to google and find myself.
All these psychiatrists are very keen for private hospital admission for you even when they know you are too unwell to go to these facilities.
These facilities are for people who has mild to moderate mental health conditions not melancholic depression.
Nurses in these facilities always ignore if they see you crying and don’t even want to spend 2 minutes giving and counselling except for one nurse only. All they do is check you every one hour and duck in and go out within 5 seconds.
They see your face that you just were crying but don’t even ask.
They just push you to take shower when you have melancholic depression which is counterproductive as it feeds to guilt and worthlessness.
She tried TMS for melancholic depression instead of suggesting more useful ECT.
Hills clinic receptionist didn’t pass my written note message to her that i needed to ask something.
She told me to accept the really of my daughter being too unwell and gave me example of her reception staff whose son recently got bed bound due to MVA. I know life throws challenges to all of us but it’s not good comparison to give me comfort.
Atleast she knew my daughter is very unwell compared to blacktown hospital who said she has borderline personality and adjustment disorder with depressed mood.
It’s hard to get experienced psychiatrists as they don’t accept new patients.