Benefits and Drawbacks Regarding Prescription Privileges for Psychologists - Essay Example

Benefits and Drawbacks Regarding Prescription Privileges for Psychologists Psychiatrists enjoy the right to prescribe medications given the fact that they have medical degrees but psychologists do not fully enjoy this privilege throughout the country. Psychologists only enjoy limited privilege in prescribing and a few activists in the psychology profession have for long time struggled to expand prescription privileges for psychologists. However, most of the other persons in the profession are contented with the status quo. The demand of the activists have bore positive fruits given that some states such Florida and Georgia allow the psychologists the right to prescribe medication and have even set up prescription training programs to equip the psychologists with these skills. Persons with privileges in prescription of drugs are defined by various Acts and licensing authorities and these groups were small compared to what they are today. Psychologists did not have practicing licenses but this has changed greatly following their licensing in some states. The debate on whether psychologists should be given privileges to prescribe has been met with mixed reactions with some opposing it while others welcome such a move. This paper will evaluate the benefits and the drawbacks of prescription privileges by psychologists. Prescription Privileges for Psychologists Overview The initial bill that sought to give psychologists privileges to prescribe psychiatric medication was first introduced back in 1985 in Hawaii. The bill aimed at giving psychologists within the state a right to prescribe medication to treat nervous, brain disorders and mental problems. However, for a psychologist to enjoy the privilege, one must have a doctorate and go through a certification and training program. Such bills have been introduced in various other jurisdictions throughout the country (American Psychological Association 838). In 1988, US Department of Defense initiated a program to train psychologists on drug dispensing. In 2002, the governor of New Mexico; Gary Johnson signed an Act that granted licensed psychologists having a doctorate a privilege to prescribe psychiatric drugs upon completion of a certification and training program. This was the first law of this kind in the country. Other states have similar bills under discussion and various national associations such as the American Psychological Association and Association of State and Psychology Board has supported granting of prescription privileges to the psychologists and has strongly opposed the regulation of the field of psychology by other professions (American Psychological Association 838). The America Psychological Association (APA) developed guidelines in 2011 which apply to prescription privileges and these guidelines touch on education, assessment, intervention and consultation. The general guidelines encourage psychologists to act within the limits of their profession as regards to prescribing medication such as by seeking consultation before they recommend some medications. Moreover, the guideline requires that a psychologist must evaluate the situation before prescribing drugs based on the own opinion and on the clients gender, health status, age and cultural factors (American Psychological Association 839). APA guidelines recommend that a psychologist must attain a certain level of education particularly in pharmacology before they can gain the privilege to prescribe. The guidelines recommend that psychologists prescribing drugs must be wary of the side effects of the psychiatric medications and should utilize the technological resources available for guidance. APA guidelines also recommended that psychologists must acquit themselves with the procedures available for monitoring the psychological and physiological impacts of such medications and must consider other health conditions which could affect the effectiveness of such medication. As regards intervention, the guidelines require that psychologist use bio-psychological approaches in prescribing drugs and must obtain an informed consent from the client. The psychologist must always act in the interest of the client and must be alive to the current research into the area. Finally, the guidelines require psychologists to maintain cordial relationship with other professionals offering medication prescription (American Psychological Association 839). Benefits of prescription privileges for psychologists One benefit of prescription privileges for psychologists is that it would enhance access to medication to the patients as opposed to times that clients have to wait to meet with a psychiatrist. The early an intervention is given to a patient the better and this improves the chances of their efficacy. However, given that there are only a few psychiatrists compared to psychologists; patients having psychological disorders would have to wait for long periods before accessing this services and their health condition may only be aggravating with time. However, with psychologists having prescription privileges, patients would have reduced waiting time (The Michigan Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology 24). There are few qualified psychiatrists to serve a growing population requiring their services and therefore some patients especially those in rural areas may not be able to access their services. However, psychologists are higher in number and by granting them the authority to prescribe drugs would increase the number of patient accessing these critical services (Lipton and Sibyl 114). Granting the psychologists the privilege to prescribe will enhance provision of psychiatric mediations based on the psychological behavioral model rather than on medical disease model. This is because psychological disorders are more pronounced in the behavior of a patient. Therefore by monitoring these behaviors, psychologists will enhance the success of the intervention and increase the chances for positive results (Lipton and Sibyl 114). Another benefit that is seen to come with granting psychologists prescribing privileges is that this with help to improve the continuity in provision of health care. Psychologists can provide, integrate and mange psychopharmacological and psychological interventions. Psychologists take time in diagnosing and treating their patients as their try to get to the root cause of the problem. Consequently, by giving them prescribing privileges, they are more poised to give an accurate assessment and appropriate prescriptions which they would combine with psychotherapy to enhance their success. This will deal with the fragmentation in social care where a psychologist identifies the problem a patient is going through and then sends them to other health professional. Health professionals are usually too busy and engaged to commune with each other and therefore the patient with then receive fragmented care. The psychologists would get control of the whole process of treatment and this can avoid complications in the collaborations between different professional and save patients high expenses (The Michigan Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology 23). Before gaining prescription privileges, one must have doctoral level of education and this means that patients would receive these services from highly skilled professionals. Moreover, the psychologists having going through certification and training on prescribing medication would be multi-skilled enhancing their competence. Their competence is even higher compared to the skills possessed by nurses and average physicians who prescribe drugs. In addition, given the availability of technological resources, psychologists can enhance their services by utilizing these services (Lipton and Sibyl 114). Granting of psychologists with the privilege to prescribe is supported with previous evidence and therefore such efforts would not be based on trial and error. Some psychologists have been giving psychotherapy to their clients legally with high effectiveness and therefore there is no good reason why their colleagues should not be enjoined to provide better services to their clients. Moreover, training on drug prescription is not very difficult and can be offered within small time frame and the financial costs are relatively low. This would increase the number of professionals practicing in the health sector and guarantee better services to the population (The Michigan Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology 23). Most people in the country that do not get access to psychiatrists seek for the less trained general practitioners for their psychological medications. This is dangerous as it may lead to misdiagnosis exposing the patient to other complications. However, giving privileges to prescribe to psychologists goes far in filling the gap. Furthermore, psychologist’s have a wide range of treatment options from a single practitioner thereby cutting on costs. The currently health sector is experiencing high competition and psychologists cannot survive in the overpopulated managed-care on the mental health. Therefore, granting them prescribing authority will enhance their economic survival. Drawbacks to Prescription Privileges for Psychologists Despite its numerous benefits, prescription privileges do not come with several drawbacks which are pointed out by the opponents of such a move. One drawback is that the prescription does not fulfill the needs for services as has been argued by the proponents. This is because the underserved population requiring psychiatric is not large as argued and is even smaller than what is thought to be. Moreover, geographical circulation of psychologists is similar to that of psychiatrists and therefore there would little net gain if any. Moreover, organizations such as consumers of psychologists’ services such as NAMI have not endorsed prescription privileges. The other drawback is that there lacks a satisfactory precedent in designing training programs and to evaluate their performance. High training is relative and there were only ten graduates from the Department of Defense program and the program was twice intensive compared to what is recommended by the APA model. Most training programs do not even meet APA standards which recommend three levels but most of them omit the first level of offering biological skills, chemistry and algebra while others conduct their training via distance learning (The Michigan Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology 23). Only a few psychologists have an ability of completing the required training program which entail 350 class and lab hours. Moreover, one would be required to go through a year of supervised practicum and service to 100 patients. Moreover, students would require high investment and sacrificed income and this makes it a less attractive option for the psychologists (The Michigan Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology 23). To implement such a program effectively would require most curriculums for psychologists to do away with their traditional programs and instead focus on prescription focused treatment. Moreover, psychologists would be exposed to high pressures from the patients who demand pills to deal with their health conditions as it currently happens to physicians and pharmaceutical professionals. In case the bow to such pressure, they can expose a high population of the negative impacts of reliance on drugs. Furthermore, by reducing the specialization of psychologists from psychotherapy would be eroding the benefits that this plays in the society. There is need to have relevant education on biomedical treatment before one gets authority to prescribe which is lacking among psychologists. Giving the psychologists the privilege to prescribe has been opposed by others in the same profession and lack of a common voice in advocating for their welfare may limit their success. Conclusion Privilege to prescribe for psychologists has been faced by mixed reactions with both sides providing varied reasons that must be given adequate consideration. Privilege to prescribe seeks to give psychologists authority to prescribe medication to their patients as it is the case with psychiatrists. The benefits of such an initiative are as numerous are its drawbacks. One of the reasons fronted for the move is that it will enhance the number patients especially among the underserved rural population to access mental health medication from psychologists given that psychiatrists are limited in number. Moreover, the proponents point out that such a move would allow patients to access wide range health care services from a single health professional thereby enhancing the intervention. Furthermore, prescribing privileges for psychologists would mean that patients are able to save on cost and reduce waiting time before accessing medication and that such a move is important for the economic survival of psychologists. On the other hand, this has been met with opposition with most people arguing that one requires biomedical knowledge to prescribe drugs. Moreover, consumer groups and some psychologists are still opposed to such a move thereby reducing the force. In addition, there lacks adequate precedent to guide the trainings and those offering the trainings do not comply with defined standards. Work Cited American Psychological Association. ‘‘Practice guidelines regarding psychologists’ involvement in pharmacological issues’’. American psychologist, 66(9), (2011): 838-839. Web. 9th, 2012 Lipton, Ken, and Sibyl Shalo. "Clinical Psychologists: The Next Hot Market?" Pharmaceutical Executive 20.10 (2000): 114-6. ABI/INFORM Complete. Web. 9 June 2012. The Michigan Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology. ‘‘On prescription privileges for psychologists’’ Society for Science of Clinical Psychology Journal volume 13 (3): 20-24 (October, 2003). Web. 9th, 2012 Read More