After explaining their assessment, your psychiatrist will make recommendations on a treatment plan they think will be safe and effective. This plan may include psychotherapy, medications, lifestyle changes, or referrals to other types of specialists to collaborate on your care moving forward. There is no set plan that is effective for most people. Rather, each plan should take into account all the information collected thus far.
But the conversation shouldn't stop there.
For any treatment plan to work, the patient must understand what the plan is and be willing to move forward with it. Otherwise, the plan is nothing more than a well-intended paragraph in the physician's notes. A patient's first treatment plan always begins with a process called "informed consent". Your psychiatrist will start by talking through each element of the treatment plan, along with its pros and cons. A patient should be given an opportunity to ask questions about each element of the plan, and if there are concerns, the patient and their psychiatrist can explore whether there are any viable alternatives. For example, a psychiatrist may start by recommending a medication that is a great fit for a patient's diagnosis and needs to be taken twice a day. If the patient provides feedback that they always forget to take medications at bedtime, together they could explore what medications can be taken once a day in the morning and still be helpful and safe. The most important part of building your first treatment plan is to remember that no treatment plan is set in stone. Your first treatment plan is a place to start. Your psychiatrist will want to see you regularly to make sure things are going well, and to help make adjustments as they are needed.
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