Recommendations for Primary Care Provided by Psychiatrists

• Published in: Community mental health journal Vol. 52; no. 4; pp. 379 - 386
• Main Authors: Sowers, Wesley, Arbuckle, Melissa, Shoyinka, Sosunmolu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01-05-2016; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Access; Cardiovascular disease; Collaboration; Communication; Community and Environmental Psychology; Comorbidity; Health; Health care access; Health care delivery; Health disparities; Health promotion; Health services; Health Services Needs and Demand; Health services utilization; Health status; Humans; Integrated care; Integrated delivery systems; Life expectancy; Longevity; Management; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Mental disorders; Mental Disorders - complications; Mental Disorders - therapy; Mental health; Mental health care; Mental health services; Mortality; Original Paper; Patients; Physician's Role; Physician-Patient Relations; Population; Primary care; Primary Health Care - methods; Psychiatrists; Psychiatry; Psychiatry - methods; Service provision; New York; United States > US; Psychiatric training curricula; Integrated care; Primary care psychiatry; Health disparities
• ISSN: 0010-3853; 1573-2789
• DOI: 10.1007/s10597-015-9983-0

Recent studies have shown that people with severe mental illness have a dramatically lower life expectancy than the general population. Psychiatrists have not traditionally been very attentive to or involved with physical health issues and there has been growing emphasis on integrated care for physical and mental health and access to primary care for all members of the population. This paper examines the role of psychiatrists in the provision of primary care to the patients they treat. Some recommendations are offered for their involvement in the provision of primary care at three levels of complexity: Level 1—Universal Basic Psychiatric Primary Care; Level 2—Enhanced Psychiatric Primary Care; and Level 3—Fully Integrated Primary Care and Psychiatric Management. Some of the obstacles to the provision of primary care by psychiatrists are considered along with some suggestions for overcoming them.