CHW does offer Psychiatric medication services for both adults and children. Many served individuals get psychiatric care as their only service, while others get it as a part of service delivery inclusive of therapy, case management, and skills training. Psychiatric service is a high demand service both locally and nationally and for many conditions such as depression and anxiety requests for medications should initially be discussed with Primary Care Providers (PCPs). Generally we ask for PCPs to make referrals for psychiatric medications only after 2 or 3 unsuccessful medication trials. For more complicated conditions we will see individuals without these PCP trials.
CHW does have a set of guidelines for individuals that are getting psychiatric medication management. These include bring in all of their medicines for each visit, completing needed laboratory tests, ongoing screening for drug, alcohol or other substances, prescribing only for mental and behavioral health conditions, communicating routinely with other involved health providers, and following best practice models. CHW also has a specific practice model around the prescribing of Benzodiazepines as well as limitations around stimulant prescriptions when individuals are not engaged in a work or school pursuit.