Child psychiatrist shortage puts kids at risk

Have you had trouble taking your child to a psychiatrist? Not trouble getting insurance to pay for it, or getting your child to go along with it, or dealing with yet another professional with an opinion -- but actually finding a child psychiatrist to go to? According to a report from the National Conference of State Legislatures, child psychiatrists are in short supply, and the supply's getting shorter. At a time when more and more children are being put on psychiatric medications, there are fewer and fewer doctors with the training to properly monitor them; the task is instead falling to pediatricians, family practitioners and psychologists, who may not have all the knowledge necessary to recognize problems and make adjustments. Why such a shortage of psychiatric professionals prepared to work with children? Child psychiatrists are required to have two additional years of training over and above that required for psychiatrists working with adults, but insurance companies don't pay extra for that higher level of expertise. Nor do they allow for the additional time child psychiatrists spend dealing with both their patients and their patients' families. As a result, child psychiatry has become an unappealing specialty for new doctors. Proposals for changing this include shortening the required training period, allowing students to see patients during the training period, and forgiving student loans for those going into child psychiatry. In the meantime, parents are left with the prospect of long commutes to doctors' offices, long waiting lists to get an appointment, and long delays in treatment that put kids at risk of suicide and violence. ... More on mental health