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Overview: After rigorous training prepares them to meet the highest practice standards, prescribing psychologists, like all other healthcare providers, are committed to providing the most effective treatment for their patients.

Emerging empirical research has clearly demonstrated that prescribing psychologists provide safe and effective treatment for their patients.

• The first psychologists to prescribe were military psychologists in 1992.. In 2002 and in 2004, civilian psychologists earned prescriptive authority in the states of New Mexico and Louisiana. Since then, psychologists have been prescribing in the United States Public Health Service, Indian reservations under the aegis of the Indian Health Service (IHS), in the United States Coast Guard, and, most recently, in the United States territory of Guam. The results have been unequivocally successful:

- After writing hundreds of thousands of prescriptions over a period of 20 years, not one complaint has been made against a prescribing psychologist

- over a period of 20 years, not one malpractice suit has been filed against a prescribing psychologist

- A 2010 (or 2011?) survey of family physicians who refer patients to prescribing psychologists in the Army Medical Command’s Western Region found that overwhelming majorities believe that prescribing psychologists not only prescribe “safely,” but that prescribing psychologists have “improved” patient care

- Dr. Robert Sherrill, Chair of the New Mexico Psychology Licensing Board, has stated that from the time that New Mexico prescribing psychologists first wrote prescriptions in 2004, no complaints alleging patient harm by prescribing psychologists have ever been filed with the State Board and no allegations of improper or inappropriate prescribing have ever been filed with the New Mexico State Board of Pharmacy.

- The Chief Executive officer of the Insurance Trust of the American Psychological Association (APAIT) has reported that there have never been any complaints filed with APAIT against prescribing psychologists.

• In a 2008 empirical review of the work of the prescribing psychologist, it was noted that prescribing psychologists are careful diagnosticians, taking comprehensive histories as they formulate diagnostic impressions, treatment plans, and referral recommendations.

• Patient Richard Magee sings high praise of the integrative care that he received in New Mexico from prescribing psychologist Dr. Elaine LeVine:

- “I was referred to you for psychotherapy right after my family’s horrific tragedy. … Not only have you been extremely careful in prescribing medicines, always making sure that I understand what they do and what kinds of sideoeffects they may have, you have masterfully coupled this with the kind of listening and analysis no one I know who only sees a psychiatrist receives.” – Magee in a letter to New Mexico officials

Prescribing psychologists will prescribe in collaboration with the other healthcare providers who are caring for their patients. Coordination of care is essential in the provision of excellent and effective treatment.

Illinois prescribing psychologists are ready to tackle the state’s mental health care crisis to make the RxP Difference. Prescribing psychologists around the nation have a proven track record of care, meeting the highest levels ofsafety standards,patient satisfaction, and collegial commendation.

Therapy and medicine are effective.
For many conditions research shows that a coordinated combination of psychological treatment and medicine is the best way to achieve lasting improvement. Prescribing Psychologists provide such treatment.

Prescribing Psychologists are well trained.
Psychologists are the most highly trained mental health professionals. They average more than seven years of doctoral training in the assessment and treatment of emotional and behavioral disorders.

Prescribing Psychologists have completed an additional postdoctoral certification in clinical psychopharmacology. They are highly qualified to manage psychological and physical aspects of care.

We need and appreciate your help.
Legislators need to hear from you. We will help you contact your state senator and representative to convey your support for prescriptive authority for specially trained Prescribing Psychologists.

Prescription for progress
Prescribing Psychologists in Illinois would be able to prescribe mental health medication such as antidepressants and medicine for anxiety under the bill to be introduced in the next session of the Illinois legislature. They would be authorized to prescribe only mental health medication and not general medication such as antibiotics or cardiac medicines.

This progressive legislation will increase access to comprehensive and cost–effective mental health care, especially in the underserved rural and inner–city areas of Illinois. Want more information?

Want more information?
Call the Illinois Psychological Association at 312–372–7610 or read the other information in the Prescribing Psychologists section of the IPA website if you are interested in this proposed improvement for Illinois citizens.

More than 2,796,000 Illinois citizens are in need of mental health treatment that includes expert diagnosis, psychotherapy, and, perhaps, pharmacotherapy. There are too few psychiatrists to meet this need. Psychologists are already taking the additional training necessary to add medication assessment and management to the other effective treatments they provide. The fine record of prescribing psychologists in the military, in the states of New Mexico and Louisiana, on Indian reservations under the Indian Health Service, in the United States Public Health Service, and in the United States Coast Guard, demonstrates that this is a way to make additional services available to the people of Illinois.

• There are many citizens who need mental health services who do not receive them.

• 614,000 seriously mentally ill adults (18 years and older) in Illinois are in need of treatment.

• 1 in 10 Illinois children has a mental health problem (1,265,000) severe enough to cause impairment, but only 1 in 5 of those (253,070) receive treatment.

• 230,927 adolescents (age 13-17) show signs of depression severe enough that they are unable to participate in their normal activities for more than 2 weeks in a row.

• 306,000 older adult citizens of Illinois suffer from depression and 175,000 older adult citizens of Illinois suffer from an anxiety disorder.

• Suicide is 11th among the leading causes of death in Illinois. Suicide is the 6th most common cause of death in Illinois children ages 5-14 (13 deaths in 2002) and it is 3rd among the leading causes of death among Illinois’ young people ages 15-25.

• Suicide rates for rural areas are 5% higher than for urban areas.

• There are not enough psychiatrists.

• The federal government has determined what the citizens of Illinois already know: there are too few psychiatrists in Illinois. 74 counties (out of 102) have been listed as Mental Health Shortage Areas and 70 of these are rural counties.

• Illinois has only 1 psychiatrist or psychiatric resident, for every 1,553 citizens who are in immediate and ongoing need of mental health services, with the greatest shortage in those with subspecialty training in child and adolescent psychiatry. Illinois has only 1 child and adolescent psychiatrist for every 5,750 children who are in immediate need of mental health services.