Trigger Warning: Suicide Ideation.
I am a Family Medicine Physician that practices in a state that is pretty rigorous when it comes to asking about mental health conditions for licensing. If you reveal your disorder, they may dig deeper and request your records.
This is problematic, and I had a colleague that was suicidal recently but didn’t know where to turn because of this fear of being discovered if she went to get help. I referred her to a private practice psychiatrist that I was seeing for years myself. Everything is normal except we pay cash in order to avoid insurance and putting it on our records. The psychiatrist was extremely understanding of our situation, and I’m glad we have people like that who are able to help out. I’ve also heard of doctors who self-prescribe medications or have colleagues informally prescribe to similarly avoid detection.
Unfortunately, because of the system, many of us are engaging in questionable practices in order to protect ourselves and our livelihoods. But it’s not that we aren’t able to practice. We’re just human. We’re just trying to get treatment. This is a system that needs to change, so that doctors can avoid doing questionable things like this.
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Posted on September 27th, 2020. Follow us on Instagram at (@medical.minds.matter).
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