The federal 988 hotline represents a promising new approach to alleviating the nation’s growing mental health crisis, but several key challenges loom that could derail this well-intentioned initiative. One significant information technology chall…
Category: Psychiatry
Protect the rights of licensed health care workers to take buprenorphine
Early in my addiction medicine fellowship, I met a patient for the second time while shadowing another physician in their practice. The patient was a former nurse with opioid use disorder on maintenance therapy with buprenorphine (commonly called Subox…
When is enough … “enough” in your career?
We spend so much of our lives chasing a sense of doing “enough” and being “enough.” Though I anticipate it’s been years in the making, I feel like I woke up one day and just had enough. This time, it wasn’t in a hope…
Allow yourself a moment to focus on yourself, not the next patient [PODCAST]
Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. “Allow yourself a moment to focus on yourself, not the next patient. Take a drink of cold water, go to the bathroom, and maybe take a lap around the room. Physically relax those tensed muscles. This will allow…
Regulate your nervous system to improve your physical and emotional well-being [PODCAST]
Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. “It makes sense that the body’s reaction to the onslaught of perceived threats would have a detrimental effect on physical and mental well-being. Perceived threats trigger the exact same physiological response…
What doctors need to know about physician health programs [PODCAST]
Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. “Change is overdue. Physicians who need help for mental health issues or substance use disorders need to get it in a manner that is free of financial and other conflicts of interest. They need to be able to go to ac…
New legislation addresses health care professionals’ mental health needs [PODCAST]
“For many health care professionals, the stresses of their roles routinely take a heavy toll on their mental and physical well-being. It did for me. The pandemic and the unprecedented loss of life were more overwhelming than any of us could have imagin…
How to fix the psychiatrist shortage in the U.S.
Mental health disorders are by far the largest cause of disability in the world. More money is spent on mental health than either diabetes or cardiovascular disease. About 45 million people in the U.S. have a mental illness. Almost every American will,…
Boards should protect the public, not destroy doctors
Every primary care doctor knows what we are up against. The obstacles are many: payers, licensing boards, MOC, CME requirements, coding for billing, access issues, and the changing clinical field. Sometimes these cause real harm. Fifty miles north of w…
Why is there a shortage of mental health professionals?
There are many topics on which I cannot claim to be an expert. I cannot solve the issue of gun violence, I don’t know what will “fix” the current societal crises, and I have no idea what will happen in the future regarding climate cha…
