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Safe Rx Prescribing

Safe Prescribing

Different clinicians play different, important roles in a patient’s care. It is essential to patient safety that a medically trained clinician, like a psychiatrist, prescribes and manages mental health medications. 

Solutions

Patients need solutions that:

  • Encourage mental health professionals to work in communities that don’t have enough clinicians. 
  • Fund outreach programs that increase awareness of available mental health services.
  • Encourage clinicians to work together.

Access to Care

People may struggle to get the mental health care they need, whether it’s therapy, medications, or other treatments and services. This is especially true for people in rural areas or with restrictive health plans.

Ask the Experts

State legislators and policy makers should work with psychiatrists, psychologists, and other mental health experts to create solutions that increase access. The use of team-based models of care that serve large patient populations and the ability for patients to receive telehealth at home are proven way for patients to receive mental health care in primary care settings and timely access to needed medications.

Safe Rx

Powerful psychiatric drugs affect not only the mind but can also affect a person’s heart, liver, and other organs. Only medically trained clinicians, such as psychiatrists, have the training and expertise to prescribe these medications safely.