True North was established to increase access to quality, evidence-based psychiatric-mental health care and to make it more comfortable/convenient for people to receive psychiatric-mental health care. Telehealth services provided by True North help to reduce long wait times to access psychiatry, breaks through the stigma that surrounds mental health care, and eliminates the need to drive to a clinic. We look forward to hearing from you with any questions or to make an appointment.
Psychiatry Evaluation
Although a psychiatric evaluation may sound scary, it’s simply a way for a psychiatry provider to understand what you’re experiencing at the moment.
The evaluation involves multiple steps, which may include completing a questionnaire, filling out a symptom rating scale, and answering questions. The questions included in the questionnaire or asked during the visit can be personal, uncomfortable, or even boring, but they are essential in helping the psychiatry provider determine the exact nature and extent of a person’s mental illness.
Think of the psychiatric evaluation as a medical test. If you have physical symptoms, like a sore throat, a healthcare provider may order a throat culture to better understand the cause of the symptoms and in turn, help to create a treatment plan. The psychiatric evaluation serves the same purpose — it is a tool used to measure and observe your symptoms to diagnose and treat your specific issues.
Medication Management
Medication management is the process that psychiatry providers use to ensure that patients are receiving the greatest benefit and best possible outcomes from their medications.
A medication management visit consists of a couple of steps, which can include filling out a symptom rating scale and answering questions during a visit with the psychiatric provider. The symptom rating scale and questions asked during the visit can be personal, uncomfortable, or even boring, but they are essential in helping the psychiatry provider determine the efficacy of prescribed medications.
Think of the medication management visit as a medical test. If your throat culture came back positive for strep and your healthcare provider gave you an antibiotic, you may need to have a repeat throat culture to ensure the antibiotic cleared the infection. The medication management visit serves the same purpose — it is a tool used to reevaluate your symptoms to determine whether or not the diagnoses and treatments were effective.
Pharmacogenetics Testing
Pharmacogenetics is the study of how a person’s genes impact the body’s response to certain medications. Your genes are part of the DNA that is passed down from your mother and father. Unique traits, such as height, hair color, and eye color, are determined by information within your genes. Likewise, your genes can affect the safety and efficacy of a particular medication for you.
Pharmacogenetics testing looks at specific genes to determine what medications might be right for you, what dosages might be best, and even whether or not you might have serious side effects from a medication.
Pharmacogenetics testing is easy, painless, and done in the comfort of your own home! A kit is shipped to your door with instructions for completion and return shipping information. You will swab your cheeks, provide the required information, contact the return shipping service for pick up, and sit back and wait for your results.
When your results come back, you will have a visit with the psychiatry provider to review them and discuss what they mean for ongoing medication management. Your psychiatry provider will work with you to create a treatment plan using medications that are most likely to be effective and safe.
Healthcare Provider Consultation
Good working relationships with other healthcare providers are important in providing optimal patient care. There may be times when a health care provider encounters a situation or condition that is beyond his/her level of expertise or available resources. These situations and/or conditions create the need for a consultation.
A consultation is when one healthcare provider seeks assistance from another healthcare provider for diagnostic studies, therapeutic interventions, or other services that may provide benefit to a patient. Consultations can be a single visit, continuing collaborative care, and/or a transfer of primary clinical responsibility.
If you’re a healthcare provider who has run out of ideas for a patient with mental illness, I can help! Whether you’re just looking for a one-time visit with medication recommendations or someone to take over the care of the patient, I’m here for you.
Contact me so I can help you take control of your patient’s path and send them back in the direction of who they are at their deepest point, their True North.
Mental Health Education for Business
Although it might be the last place you expect to hear about it, the workplace is the perfect environment to discuss mental health and illness. Mental health conditions cost employers more than $100 billion and 217 million lost workdays each year. Investing in mental health care and education for employees can increase productivity and retention.
Often, employees are afraid to discuss mental health struggles with co-workers and bosses. They fear damage to relationships, job loss, or risk of future employers learning about their struggles and judging them. This stigma that surrounds mental illness keeps them silent.
Employers are in the perfect position to break the stigma that keeps so many people silent. Unfortunately, many employers do not take this step. This results in approximately 8o% of employee mental health conditions going undiagnosed or under-treated.
Imagine a woman who has depression. She goes to a workplace every day where mental illness is not discussed. It is ignored and treated as though it doesn’t exist.
On the rare occasion that she does hear someone talking about mental illness, the conversations are negative. Her co-workers are not sensitive due to a lack of knowledge about mental illness. They believe that people use mental illness as a way to be lazy or receive special treatment.
Now, let’s create the optimal scenario. Imagine a workplace where employers disclose their mental health struggles to employees and encourage others to do the same. A workplace where employers and employees are provided with mental health and illness education to recognize struggles and support each other. That workplace could be yours!
I can partner with any workplace to provide education that helps people take control of their path and sends them back in the direction of who they are at their deepest point, their True North.
Meet Jemma & Emmy Pet Therapy
Pet therapy uses trained animals to help people cope with, and recover from, some physical and mental health conditions. Although not called pet therapy until the 1960s, dogs have been used for patients with psychiatric disorders since the 1700s. Pet therapy has been shown to have many advantages.
- Increase energy levels
- Decrease depression
- Improve self-esteem and mood
- Reduces boredom
- Stimulates the release of endorphins (oxytocin) that have a calming effect on people
- Encourages Communication
- Increase socialization and sense of community
- Decrease Anxiety
- Creates motivation for faster recovery
Now, imagine you’re at a telehealth psychiatry appointment. You are feeling nervous about sharing the symptoms that are bothering you the most with a new face. Then, you notice a dog and/or a cat wander into the provider’s office. Who are those pets, you ask? Meet Emmy and Jemma!
After the visit, you realize you’re smiling! You feel a little less nervous and a bit more confident. In fact, you’re already looking forward to your next visit with Jemma, Emmy, and Kari!
Jemma
Jemma is a 4-year old German Shepard. She has the most awesome pointy ears and a soft, smooth coat. She is a talkative dog and is not afraid to voice her opinion about things. She loves chasing chipmunks, playing in her pool, and taking naps outside. She is obsessed with tennis balls and has been known to steal items from the garage and hoard them in her outdoor kennel.
Emmy
Emmy is a 12-year old Maine Coon cat. He has the most amazing green eyes and the fluffiest coat. He talks to people using trills, which are cooing, bird-like sounds. He loves eating, especially people’s food, and takes a lot of naps. He is obsessed with hair ties and is frequently caught lying in the middle of the kitchen table.
Now, imagine you’re at a telehealth psychiatry appointment. You are feeling nervous about sharing the symptoms that are bothering you the most with a new face. Then, you notice a dog and/or a cat wander into the provider’s office. Who are those pets, you ask? Meet Emmy and Jemma!
After the visit, you realize you’re smiling! You feel a little less nervous and a bit more confident. In fact, you’re already looking forward to your next visit with Jemma, Emmy, and Kari!
Mental Health Resources
National Institute of Mental Health
The lead federal agency for research on mental disorders.
Administration for Children and Families
Working to promote the economic & social well-being of children, families, and communities.
MentalHealth.gov
One-stop access to U.S. government mental health and mental health problems information.
American Psychological Association (APA)
The leading scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States.