Effort Seeks to Broaden Pill License ; Psychologists Would Receive Prescription-Writi

from Columbia Daily Tribune ..

By JANESE HEAVIN

Renee Stucky at Rusk Rehabilitation Center sees patients with chronic health issues and sometimes urgent mental health-care needs, but when they need prescription medication, she has to send them elsewhere.

As a psychologist, Stucky is not allowed to prescribe medication for mental disorders even if she knows a prescription would be just what the doctor would order.

"I have many tools to help them, but I can't prescribe medication," she said. "Sometimes medication is an important part of treatment."

Stucky is among a group asking Missouri lawmakers to pass a bill this year that would allow trained psychologists to prescribe medications for mental disorders. She joined a coalition of health- care professionals who gathered yesterday at the Capitol to promote that proposal.

Under existing law, a patient who sees a psychologist must also see a physician or psychiatrist to get a medication prescription.

The bill, expected to be filed today, would require psychologists to earn a post-doctoral master's degree in clinical psychopharmacology and to complete a year of physician-supervised clinical training before they would be allowed to prescribe medications.

A change in law would help respond to a growing number of mental health-care needs in a state where services aren't always available, said Tom Parquette, director of Missouri Families for Access to Comprehensive Treatment, the group pitching the plan. Needs are especially pressing in rural areas where there aren't any practicing psychiatrists, he said.

Donna McArthur said yesterday during a news conference that she has to travel from her home in Branson to a psychiatrist in Springfield to get prescribed medication for depression.

That is not only costly, McArthur said, but also frustrating because she does not know the prescribing physician as well as she knows her hometown psychologist, whom she sees regularly.

The problem isn't just in rural Missouri, though. Stucky said she thinks giving psychologists the opportunity to prescribe pills also could be one solution to Columbia's dwindling mental health services.

Medication won't offset the closure of a Boone Hospital Center mental health wing or the elimination of 14 beds at the Mid- Missouri Mental Health Center, she said, but it could give locals more immediate access to help.

While Columbia has "wonderful health-care providers," Stucky said, they're not always comfortable diagnosing and prescribing medication for mental health disorders. Meanwhile, she said, local psychiatrists are booked.

"I have patients waiting at least four weeks to get in," Stucky said. "If they're in crisis, I'm not exactly sure what to do."

Similar legislative proposals in the past have faced opposition from those who question whether psychologists have the appropriate level of training to prescribe medications and from psychiatric groups fearing competition.

Bill sponsor Sen. Jack Goodman, R-Mount Vernon, acknowledged opposition exists but said he's not interested in a "turf war."

Goodman said the bill is a response "to the outcry of requests for help I've heard from the 29th District and from other districts that lack psychiatric services."

Reach Janese Heavin at (573) 815-1705 or jheavin@columbiatribune.com.

Originally published by JANESE HEAVIN of the Tribune's staff.

(c) 2009 Columbia Daily Tribune. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.

A service of YellowBrix, Inc.