“Doctor, I can’t wear a face mask, can you write me a medical excuse?” My first reaction was a resounding No. COVID-19 cases are surging in many parts of the country; we’ve only just emerged from our own deadly surge in Boston. …
Category: Psychiatry
A social worker’s sickest patient
Mary is a woman of sixty years. She is obese. Originally from rural Alabama, she told me her aunt and uncle raised her, and they were bootleggers, making their own liquor. By age fifteen, she was drinking this homemade hooch. She never told me how…
How to handle family and parenting stress as a physician [PODCAST]
“Being a parent in the middle of a pandemic is not easy. Sheltering in place with canceled daycare, school, and college, while also being a doctor or other healthcare worker, working in high-risk, high-intensity situations, presents many challeng…
Mental health care is the not so silent collateral damage of COVID-19
Our country, and the world, is beyond exhausted by COVID-19 and the utter chaos and destruction of lives it has caused. All people, including physicians, are being pushed beyond capacity. What do we mean, collateral damage? Originally related to war: t…
COVID-19 is the symptom. Chronic oppressive job conditions are the disease.
The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted the dysfunction of our health care systems, from dramatic racial disparities in mortality rates to the abuses of health care workers. As a health care staff working on inpatient floors during the pandemic, the medica…
COVID-19 is the symptom. Chronic oppressive job conditions are the disease.
The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted the dysfunction of our health care systems, from dramatic racial disparities in mortality rates to the abuses of health care workers. As a health care staff working on inpatient floors during the pandemic, the medica…
A psychiatrist explores the mental health of physicians [PODCAST]
“We know that the past two months haven’t been easy. We know about the sleepless nights, anger, tears, depression, and anxiety. We know all of this because we know what trauma does to a person, and you are in the middle of experiencing a repeated…
I stopped drinking and then there was a pandemic
I have been drinking since I was 13 years old. I honestly didn’t realize that I had a problem until the last couple of years. The problem wasn’t so much that I drank in excess, or got in trouble at work, with the law, or with my family. The problem was…
The current state and future of psychiatry [PODCAST]
What are the challenges facing psychiatry? How does psychiatry need to innovate the continue to thrive? What is the future of psychiatry What’s your #1 tip for those considering the profession? What advice can you give to primary care clinicians …
What happens when patient capacity and autonomy diverge?
“I can’t take this, doc. It’s gonna kill me. I can’t. I just can’t,” exclaims my patient with persistent refusal of his medication. My frustration is met with my patient care team’s hesitation to give him the m…
