Programs
Psychiatry and medication management.
Evaluation, prescribing, and ongoing medication management by licensed prescribers, integrated with the rest of your care rather than run as a separate errand.
Who psychiatry here is for.
Psychiatric care can be difficult to access in Hawaiʻi, particularly outside major population centers. This part of the program is designed to make that care easier to reach.
- You want a medication question answered by someone who reads your whole chart
- You are on a medication that is not working and nobody has revisited it
- You need prescribing that coordinates with the person doing your therapy
- You have been told to find your own psychiatrist and have run out of numbers to call
What it involves
How prescribing works here.
Evaluation early, not eventually
Program clients get an initial psychiatric evaluation within the first two weeks. It is a full history, not a fifteen-minute refill visit, and it produces a plan you understand.
One case conference, both clinicians
Your prescriber and your therapist discuss your care in the same conference. Medication changes get made with knowledge of what happened in group on Tuesday.
Ongoing management at the right cadence
Follow-up visits are scheduled to what your care actually requires — closer together while something is being adjusted, further apart when things are steady. We coordinate with your primary care physician on request.
What we will and will not tell you about medication.
We will tell you what a medication is for, what it tends to do in the first weeks versus the first months, what it is likely to cost under your plan, and what stopping it involves — because that last one gets left out constantly and it matters. Whether medication belongs in your care is a decision you make with a prescriber who has the full picture, not a decision the program makes for you.
One area deserves a straight answer rather than a confident one: prescribing controlled medications by telehealth is governed by federal rules that have changed repeatedly in recent years and may change again. Rather than publish a rule that could be out of date by the time you read it, your prescriber will tell you exactly what applies to your situation at the time of your visit.
Questions
Straight answers.
Are you accepting new patients?
Yes — and we know that question is the entire phone call for most people in Hawaii. Reach out and you will get an answer about availability from a person, not a voicemail that never returns.
Can I get medication management without doing therapy here?
Psychiatry works best inside a treatment plan, and for program clients it is part of one. If you are asking about prescribing alone, say so at intake and we will tell you honestly whether we can serve you well or whether you need something we are not.
Can you prescribe controlled substances by video?
That depends on federal telehealth rules that have shifted repeatedly, and on the specific medication and your clinical situation. Your prescriber will tell you what applies at the time of your visit rather than promise something in advance.
Will you work with my primary care doctor?
On request, yes. Many medications are managed jointly with primary care, and in a state where a good PCP relationship can take years to build, we would rather coordinate with yours than replace it.
Ask the availability question.
You will talk to a person who can tell you what is actually open, instead of adding your name to a list you never hear about again.