Tips for Maximizing the Effectiveness of Your Psychiatry Appointments
The first step towards improving your emotional health is to make an appointment with a psychiatrist. To maximize the effectiveness of your psychiatry appointments, you must be willing to open up and work with your psychiatrist. Let’s take a look at the best tips to help you get the most out of your psychiatry appointments.
Find a Psychiatrist That Suits Your Needs
Before you ever make an appointment with a psychiatrist, you should do some research to ensure they will suit your needs. Look online and read some reviews about the psychiatrist. Once you have done this, Call the office and ask how sessions are typically handled, the office hours, after hours response times and any other questions you may have.
Be Prepared
When you arrive at your appointment, you will need to bring a list of all medications that you are currently taking, including any vitamins or supplements. Make a list that includes the name of the medicine, the dosage, the time of the day you take it, who prescribed it and any side effects of the medication. You may also want to include information on when you started taking the medication and any dosage adjustments that have been made. Finally, if you have taken any medications in the past and stopped them, write the name, dosage and the reason that you stopped taking the medication.
A List of Medical Providers
Make a list of all of the doctors that you are currently seeing. This list should include the doctor’s office name, doctor’s name (if different), address, telephone number and email address. This information can be invaluable to your psychiatrist.
Explain Why You Are There
One of the first things that your psychiatrist will ask is why are you there. Be prepared to explain your story in fifteen to twenty minutes. You will want to explain all of the symptoms you are experiencing, how they affect your day to day life and any changes that you or your family have noticed.
Goals
Take the time to decide on what your goals for treatment are and share those with your psychiatrist at your first visit. This information will help your psychiatrist develop a plan.
