Psychiatrist

[BlastedPimples]

Can anyone advise me about the role of a psychiatrist, please?

I know psychiatrist- patient relationships are confidential etc but should a psychiatrist seek to get a broader picture of his patient by talking to relatives etc? Especially if he knows that patient has been dishonest to him in the past about his behaviours?

I'm just wondering what the point of treatment is if the patient isn't telling the truth.

A psychiatrist would need the patient’s permission to talk to relatives. They might sometimes suggest it. But at the end of the day treatment is for their patient’s benefit and if they aren’t able to be honest, their treatment won’t be as effective or useful, just like any other condition.

if you’re worried about a relative’s safety you can contact their doctor. They can listen but not disclose anything about the patient. And can’t tell the patient that you contacted them. But if it’s not a safety issue and more of a ‘do you actually know how terribly they behave?’ I imagine they’d take a dim view.

A psychiatrist is a doctor. Like any other medical doctor. Not a counsellor, therapist or psychologist.

www.rethink.org/advice-and-information/carers-hub/confidentiality-and-information-sharing-for-carers-friends-and-family/

OP, is the situation here that you are seeing a psychiatrist (or other mental health professional) and someone close to you has said "I will tell your psychiatrist what you're REALLY like"?

So psychiatrist can prescribe medication. Psychologist cannot. Only with your permission. And it’s highly unusual. When my DH was seeing one I was invited to join one of their meetings. But really it was to check I wasn’t controlling DH.
When my son saw a psychiatrist I was allowed in - with my sons agreement. It was a session where we talked about how he was sleeping and gave some advice and tried to judge the level of his distress. So it’s possible. But face to face is probably better than on the phone. If on the phone how does the medical professional know who they are really talking too?

It's for stbxh.

I cannot let him near the dcs or me. We are anxious.

His behavior is verbally threatening and verbally sbusive.

He claims he's being transparent with psychiatrist but he's lied to him before.

So if the psychiatrist doesn't know about his weird personality changes and abusive behavlour there is no progress.

A psychiatrist would need the patient’s permission to talk to relatives.

Not strictly true. The duty of confidentiality is a one way street. I can't give a family member any information about the patient, but they can tell me anything they like.

It's always better to have the patients consent, and you'd need to justify not having this if you don't, but in some cases if there's higher levels of risk, you can talk to family without it

So if the psychiatrist doesn't know about his weird personality changes and abusive behavlour there is no progress.

So ring/write to the psychiatrist and tell him.

It's called a Collateral History and is very useful to us!

I'm not looking for an exchange of information. Just to make sure the psychiatrist has a fuller picture.

I will email him then.

Write an anonymous letter for the attention of the psychiatrist. Other than that, there's nothing you can do. Their relationship is between the two of them. Is there a mental health team involved, might be worth taking to them.

I'm not looking to interfere in their relationship. I'm not asking for any private information.

That sounds like a plan. Just be informative - one way info.. It could make the sessions much more successful for your whole family and especially for your husband.

I know.

They would need consent to talk to a relative, not to listen to what the relative says. I think I said that in my post.

In order to justify breaking confidentiality you would surely have to be satisfied that there was serious and immediate risk of harm? And that wouldn’t involve speaking to a patient’s family other than in very exceptional circumstances. Even patients under Section have a right to confidentiality.

? I'm not looking to break confidentiality. I think you've misunderstood my post.

Anyway, I emailed the psychiatrist with my coerced and descriptions of our family experience.

He replied with a thank you and said the information was very useful.

Thanks for all your help.

If the patient later requests a copy of their notes, would a relative's letter/email be automatically redacted from the version of their notes released to them? I ask because I have copies of my psych notes going back to my teens, and there's a few things in there that my mum or dad have told staff members which I'm not convinced my parents would have wanted me to know, or things I don't think they would have wanted me to know they'd talked to staff about.

Because of that, I'd be wary about what info I sent to psychiatry about someone, if I thought it could backfire on me if they found out.