How To Find The Best Psychiatrist In New York City For You
Finding the best psychiatrist to help manage your medications in New York can be challenging. You may need a psychiatrist to manage an existing diagnosis, like ADHD or generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Or perhaps you’re seeking a board-certified psychiatrist to assess your mental health and determine how starting medications could benefit your health. Wherever you are in the medication management process, you may have hit the biggest roadblock—finding the best psychiatrist for your specific needs. Your insurance company may offer a long list of potential providers, but how do you know if they are any good? Location and availability aren’t always the ideal determining factors for who will be the best doctor for you.
To cut down the time you spend searching for a psychiatrist, Healthy Minds NYC is here to help. Below, we’ve outlined some of the reasons it’s hard to find a good psychiatrist in NYC, and we’ve provided a few unexpected considerations to help guide your search for the best New York City psychiatrist. Learn why we recommend the following steps to get care:
Choose the right type of practice.
Select a psychiatrist who offers medication management and psychotherapy.
Assess your doctor’s training and ongoing professional advancement.
Prioritize flexibility.
THE CHALLENGE - FIND THE BEST PSYCHIATRIST IN NYC
Before diving into the strategies to find a psychiatrist, let's talk about what makes finding a mental health care provider challenging. Have you experienced any of the following hurdles in your search?
1. There are a lot of mental health care providers in the city.
The city is saturated with mental health care providers with all types of training. After all, psychology has a rich history in New York, particularly in the area of psychoanalysis. While this is a major benefit to living in New York, it can also make the search exhausting. Trying to understand the difference between a therapist and a psychiatrist can get confusing.
2. Many prominent psychiatrists use outdated methods and lack diversity of clients and approaches.
One of the reasons our director started Healthy Minds NYC was out of his passion for providing contemporary psychiatric care to a diverse group of New York professionals. In his training here in New York City, he found that some psychiatrists can be very rigid in their treatment style, leaving clients feeling unknown, unsupported, and funneled through a process. Healthy Minds NYC values a modernized and tailored approach that honors individual client needs best.
3. Psychiatrists in Manhattan who don’t work with insurance can be expensive.
The cost of care can be the greatest barrier to finding a good psychiatrist in the city. Psychiatrists in-network on insurance panels are often full or have poor availability. Doctors who do not work with insurance often charge high rates. One pro tip is finding an out-of-network psychiatric practice that still works with your insurance benefits. For example, Healthy Minds NYC is not in-network with any insurance panels. However, we regularly work with our client’s out-of-network insurance benefits and functionally operate like your in-network provider. We can file reimbursement claims on your behalf and charge you a co-insurance rate that considers what your insurance company will contribute to your care. Learn more about our insurance policies here online or contact our care coordinator to determine your specific care rate.
4. Psychiatrists in private practice can be hard to reach.
Consider a typical visit to your primary care physician’s office. Most likely, you are greeted by a reception team and initially screened in an exam room by a nurse, physician’s assistant, and potentially a nurse practitioner. Your actual PCP may spend only five to ten minutes with you out of an hour-long visit. Meeting with a psychiatrist is different. In private practice, your psychiatrist will manage most of your care, spending around thirty minutes with you without interruption. (Note: this is also why the per-hour cost of seeing a psychiatrist may be more than you’re used to paying other physicians out of pocket because the most senior care provider is supporting you for a longer period of time.) That kind of attention means psychiatrists aren’t always readily available to respond to your clinical, billing, or administrative needs outside designated session times. Finding a therapy practice like Healthy Minds NYC with dedicated administrative support to field calls and inquiries while your doctor is in session can improve your quality of care.
So, given the constraints outlined above, how can you find a reputable psychiatrist who is a good fit for your particular needs? We have found that you can best navigate finding a psychiatrist in New York by trying some of the following methods.
HOW TO FIND THE BEST PSYCHIATRIST IN NEW YORK CITY FOR YOU
If you’ve been struggling to find a great psychiatrist for an evaluation or ongoing medication management, we recommend you take the following steps to refine your search:
1. Choose an office where it is easy to contact the doctor.
Medication management frequently takes the form of monthly visits to your psychiatrist. Be sure you can easily communicate with your doctor outside of sessions if you need a medication change or a refill of your prescriptions. For example, Healthy Minds NYC offers texting with your provider and a responsive care coordinator who can respond to messages when your doctor is in session with another patient.
2. Select a psychiatrist who provides medication management and psychotherapy.
Even if you’re only seeking medication management at this time, find a psychiatrist who is willing and able to provide psychotherapy. Research shows the best treatment for most disorders combines addressing the biological components of your condition and the psychosocial factors that influence your health. You need a psychiatrist who is comfortable hearing not only how your prescription regimen is impacting your physical body but also how the other aspects of your life may be impacting your condition.
3. Choose a doctor with a connection to a teaching hospital.
Prescription drug coverage and options change every day. It’s important that the doctor caring for you knows the latest drugs available for you on the market and the latest research on how these drugs may impact you. Physicians in private practice who stay connected to teaching hospitals are more likely to be current on the latest treatment techniques and medications. For example, here at Healthy Minds NYC, our director, Dr. Lanre Dokun, was a Faculty Advisor for Mount Sinai Hospital, helping guide the training for younger doctors. Our other psychiatrists have worked in consult liaison positions that provided exposure to patients managing mental health issues alongside other medical conditions. These types of connections to the larger medical field help our practice stay in the know on many of the offerings of a top hospital like Mount Sinai.
4. Find out if video sessions are available.
Your schedule is likely quite busy if you’re a professional in New York City. Having the flexibility to fit in short medication management sessions around other critical meetings and appointments is important. Make sure you’re working with a psychiatrist who can leverage modern technology by offering remote video sessions you can take from the comfort of your home or office. Just ensure the technology they are using is HIPAA compliant to protect your privacy. At Healthy Minds NYC, we use video conferencing that meets the latest standards in patient confidentiality.
START MEDICATION MANAGEMENT TODAY
We would love to help connect you to a great psychiatrist here in the city. Contact our office today or book a free consultation to see how our care coordinator can help you find a trustworthy doctor that meets your needs.
