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So Who Do We Talk To?  by Ellen Warren

PHYSICIAN

This requires post- graduate training at an accredited school of medicine usually connected with either an accredited university or a teaching medical center. After four years the individual receives a Doctor of Medicine Degree in the healing arts. They either spend one or two years in an internship program or enter into a residency program studying a medical specialty and learning how to practice their medical skills within a highly structured and controlled and disciplined environment. Throughout their medical training and most likely their pre-med education they receive little to no education in the behavioral sciences. The treat sick patients and try to make them well with medicines and procedures. Their training teaches them a rigid protocol: Listen and observe, diagnose, and prescribe a course of treatment. They are listening and looking for signs of illness or injury. They know the solution. They can legally dispense prescription drugs. They are licensed by their State Government. They usually are members of national, state, and local medical associations. They are regulated by federal and state laws and regulations. Many are Board Certified according to their specialty.

PSYCHIATRIST

The person has received a medical degree, has completed a highly structured residency in a branch of medicine that deals with severe mental, emotional or behavioral disorders. These disorders sometimes require hospitalizations, prescription medications. They can request and can receive court orders to control and treat the patient without their or their family’s agreement. They can appear as experts in a commitment process. They can dispense prescriptions which can be mind and brain altering and other forms of psychiatric treatments. As trained physicians as described before, they are treating sick individuals including criminals where medical protocols dictate. There is little time for counseling for relationship building. They are busy treating their patients on a one-on-one basis trying to get change and wellness within the patient.

They are licensed by the State, are Board Certified and belong to professional associations. And, no they can’t read your mind.

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Updated: 05/08/04