What can psychiatric clinicians do to keep their patients healthy in this coronavirus time?
Dr. Elspeth Cameron Ritchie
In the 3 days between starting this column and finishing it, the world has gone into a tailspin. Perhaps what I write is no longer relevant. But hopefully it is.
I have no right or wrong answers here but thoughts about factors to consider.
- On inpatient psychiatry wards, the emphasis is on communal living. On our ward, bedrooms and bathrooms are shared. Patients eat together. There are numerous group therapies.
- We have decided to restrict visitors out of the concern that one may infect a ward of patients and staff. We are hoping to do video visitation, but that may take a while to implement.
- An open question is how we are going to provide our involuntary patients with access to the public defense attorneys. Public defenders still have the ability to come onto the inpatient ward, but we will start screening them first.
Coronavirus on the inpatient unit: A new challenge for psychiatry
- In terms of sanitation, wall sanitizers are forbidden, since sanitizers may be drank or made into a firebomb. So we are incessantly wiping down the shared phones and game board pieces.
- Looking at the outpatient arena, we have moved our chairs around, so that there are 3 feet between chairs. We have opened up another waiting room to provide more distance.
- We are trying to decide whether to cancel groups. We did cancel our senior group, and I think I will cancel the rest of them shortly.
- We are seriously looking at telepsychiatry.
- Schools are closed. Many of my clinicians have young children, so they may be out. We are expecting many patients to cancel and will see how that plays out. Others of us have elderly parents. My mother’s assisted-living facility is on lockdown. So, having been locked out after a visit, she is with me tonight.
What psychiatrists can do to prepare for the coming pandemic
- Psychiatrists are expected to keep up their relative value unit count. Can they meet their targets? Probably not. Will it matter?
- And what about all our homeless patients, who cannot disinfect their tents or shelters?
- Conferences no longer seem so important. I am less worried about coverage for the American Psychiatric Association meeting, since the 2020 conference has been canceled.
On the rosy side, maybe this will be a wake-up call about climate change. So we live in interesting times.
Take care of your patients and each other.
Dr. Ritchie is chair of psychiatry at Medstar Washington Hospital Center and professor of psychiatry at Georgetown University, Washington. She has no disclosures.