On August 16 Ohio Academy of Family Physicians’ Executive Vice President Ann Spicer and Lobbyist David Paragas, JD, represented the Academy at an interested parties meeting on Senate Bill (SB) 300, a bill to allow psychologists to prescribe mental health medications. The OAFP joined the Ohio State Medical Association and the Ohio Psychiatric Physicians Association in presenting opposition. The interested parties meeting was hosted by bill sponsor Senator Bill Seitz (R-Cincinnati, OH).
Points made during the meeting included:
- The training required of psychologists under this proposal in no way provides an adequate substitute for the extensive training required of licensed family physicians, psychiatrists, and other physicians.
- Substantial medical training is a prerequisite to prescribing brain medications which do not just work on the brain, but interact with the whole human physical structure.
- Psychologists are social scientists. Their training occurs largely outside a medical context.
- Psychotropic medications are powerful and dangerous. Medications used to treat mental illnesses are potent, powerful modifiers of brain chemistry. They affect other organ systems and interact with other medications.
- Psychologists have a unique and important role in the health care team. Psychologists do not have the same knowledge, training experience, and skills as those who have completed medical school and a residency training program. To safely prescribe psychotropic medications, extensive education of the physiology of the entire body is necessary and is something that psychologists don’t have.
Please use the American Academy of Family Physicians’ SpeakOut system to express your opposition to SB 300. It’s easy and quick way to express your concern.