Transcript
The first session with a psychiatrist or a
medication prescriber, because nurse practitioners
can also do it, is usually an initial evaluation,
typically about an hour in length, to get a general
sense as to how you're doing, and to get a diagnostic
picture, and then also background information,
such as prior psychiatric problems, substance use,
medical problems, family psychiatric history,
those sorts of things, to get a broad-based picture
and understanding of what's happening
with the patient who's in front of you.
Then, usually a treatment plan will be created
at the first meeting, and hopefully,
it's a bio-psycho-social treatment plan,
so that any biological problems are being taken care of.
And by that, we're talking medical problems such as
sleep disorders, cardiac problems, that sort of thing,
as well as, what can we do with medications?
But then we're also thinking in terms of
psychological problems, and that's where we
start to branch into psychotherapy, and then also
any social issues that are going on, such as homelessness,
economic problems, those sorts of things.
So, we're trying to get a very broad-based understanding
of what the patient is going through at the first visit.
Then, once that treatment plan is in place,
usually the patient will follow up with
their prescriber, maybe, usually once every month
to every three months, depending on how the person
is doing, whether there are being medications
that are being adjusted, those sorts of things.
And usually a follow-up visit is somewhere
between 15 minutes and 30 minutes.