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After some 38 years in
the private practice of psychiatry in Gainesville I closed my practice
effective June 30, 2010. All active patients were asked to choose someone
to follow them after my retirement and to sign a release for me to provide a
treatment summary to that person. If you failed to do so I can try to
locate your old record and create a summary but that will take time since I am
frequently away. I
also have spent the past 33 years working part-time as a psychiatrist in two
rural Florida community mental health centers and I continue to provide services to Apalachee
Center for Human Services patients in Taylor and Madison Counties. My
interest is whatever problem my patients are experiencing and trying to bring
them help in a hostile environment where the poor are not valued and medication
and counseling are absent. Too much of my time is spent trying to find some
means such as drug manufacturer patient assistance programs or the state
indigent drug program to bring the patients medication and some community
resource for counseling often without luck. To accomplish that I rise at 3:40AM
at least two to three days per week and drive 100 miles arriving at the clinics
around 5:45AM. I then sign off on charts, review progress notes, handle
correspondence, and look over charts for the 15-22 patients scheduled to see me
before the patients arrive at 8AM. For those who appear stable from looking at
the chart I pre-write prescriptions to permit me to spend my small amount of
time with the patient listening to their concerns rather than simply writing out
prescriptions in front of them and sending them on their way. This has been the
best way to provide personal care in a non-personal system in my experience.
Usually my work day ends about seven hours after I arrived when I begin my 100
mile and two hour drive back home.
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