Today, I and one of my staff who is a parent advocate had a call with a young psychiatrist. She was likely 38 years of age. I am old so that is young.
My staff and I had spent a month working within this family system which consisted of 3 generations.
Mother, son, grandmother and grandfather.
We had completed a deep dive and developed a fairly complete inventory of issues and concerns.
We briefed the psychiatrist. Our intent was to invite her to engage as part of an integrated care team. She declared that she felt ambushed. Engaging with a care team seemed uncomfortable and foreign to her. Not of these details were relevant to her and her treatment of the patient.
She had spent 8 months with her patient, the son. In the discussions, her only concern was whether the medications that she had prescribed were appropriate.
The myriad of details relating to how this patient related within a family system were not of concern. She found it interesting but not relevant to her discipline.
There is something wrong here. It seems as if psychiatry is tone deaf and has dismissed the potential outcome of treatment consisting of working the details in a structured psycho-therapeutic approach.
Raymond Rupert patient advocate and healthcare consultant.