March 5, 1999

As the social worker from the group (Richard Frierson, M.D., Geoff McKee Ph.D., Geoff McKee, Ph.D., Steve Shea, Ph.D., and Randi Pickens, M.S.W.) that presented "The Multiple Disciplinary Assessment of Malingering" at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law last October, I feel it is necessary to point out the omission of my name in your January 1 article, "Team Approach Found Useful for Evaluating Malingering." Since the names of all the other presenters were mentioned in the article, this omission appears to reflect an issue that prevents disciplines from working well together.

I was disappointed by the article regarding our interdisciplinary approach as well as my experience at AAPL's annual meeting. I did attend several useful presentations, but I found that while the participants were frequently friendly and easily engaged in conversation, on more than one occasion when I identified myself as a social worker, my conversational partner showed a sudden lack of interest. I certainly understand why some of these people would find an interdisciplinary approach difficult.

Randi Pickens, M.S.W, L.I.S.W., B.C.D.
Irmo, S.C.