At my old address I saw the pdoc once in about 4 years. I was under a nurse practitioner who I saw every 6 months. I’ve been here nearly 10 months and not seen a pdoc. I think the woman who usually does my depot is my care coordinator. Her name is printed on my care plan.
I think if you are a chronic/long term patient and stable on medication ( though not necessarily cured) this is often par for the course. You have ongoing difficulties(my problem with ADLs and poor social functioning) but are not acutely ill warranting regular check ins with a pdoc.
There is a temptation when stable on meds you have to fight against. That of “If I am stable do I really need the meds ?” Yet it could/might be said that without the depot would I be stable. One difficulty is remembering after a while just how you were off meds , or not taking them consistently as was the case with me. It is so easy to see everything in terms of the here and now.
I have been discharged from mental health services. They told me to get my script from the GPs and see a psychiatrist in the community every six months. They also think I should get a blood test every six months.
Remembering how you were off meds can be difficult. I think I can remember fairly well. However, for people with sz, their memory of how they were off medication is never going to be 100% accurate. It’s just impossible to remember what things were like totally. You usually don’t end up on an antipsychotic unless there are serious problems.
I see my pdoc every three months for 25 minute appointments. She doesn’t participate in any health insurance programs but i pay her out of pocket and she is totally worth the investment. I can’t imagine not seeing a pdoc. How do you cope?
I have not seen a psychiatrist in years. I see a nurse practitioner and wouldn’t want it any other way. She’s great. She has such a wonderful bed side manner and listens better than any psychiatrist I’ve ever seen. Recently I needed to see her emergently and I got in right away, I mean within an hour. Talk about great service.
Since visiting my normal doctor to admit I was unwell I’ve had 3 lengthy calls and 4 hours worth of appoinments with MHS in the last fortnight or so and more to come. I suppose that comes with early treatment
Back to seeing mine every six months with med top-ups from the family doc since the suicidal urges have gone and I’m relatively stable (despite recent monster stress). The study I was in is over so that bunch is gone as well.
my last appointment was May 1st i think, next is September so 5 months or so, i really want to see him though bc i was re-diagnosed and he hasnt explained it to me idk whats going on but trying not to think about it to much i’m not going to let this bring me down
idk whats going on but trying not to think about it to much 
i’m not going to let this bring me down