Wise Prescribing: A Balanced Approach to Psych Medications

At the beginning of my career, I worked at a large healthcare system, primarily in the outpatient behavioral health department with occasional weekend shifts on the inpatient psychiatric unit and at times doing psychiatric consults in the medical hospital. In the hiring process, I was assured I would be welcome and even celebrated for bringing a holistic approach to the department, integrating medicine, psychotherapy, mindfulness, and lifestyle counseling to facilitate patients’ healing. However, it quickly became clear to me on the job that I was hired and expected to simply prescribe medications (and avoid making waves). Administrators and therapists alike literally referred to me as “a prescriber,” a term I had honestly never heard of prior to being pigeonholed by it.

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