McLaren Health Care
Outpatient Psychiatric Consulting

Psychiatric Consulting

McLaren's Psychiatric Consulting includes psychiatrists, medical social workers, and psychiatric nurse practitioners. A physician needs to write orders for a formal consultation and evaluation. Consult requests can be made by nursing staff, social workers, family members, or the patient.

A psychiatric consult might be ordered or requested to:

• Look at a patient's mental status and how it impacts the patient's other medical problems;
• Review medications and lab values for possible conflicts in the patient's ability to reason and participate in making health care decisions;
• Recommend behavioral changes to improve a patient's mental and physical health status;
• Testing to evaluate memory problems and decision-making abilities;
• Education about diagnosis and treatment options;
• Referrals for outpatient follow-up and community resources.