The Role of Psychiatry in Advocating for Diverse Patient Populations in Primary Care Teams

Psychiatric Times April 8, 2024
Kelsey Wong, DO, Kenneth Fung, MD, Roberto Lewis-Fernández, MD, Francis Lu, MD

How can consulting psychiatrists help the team provide culturally appropriate care for diverse patient populations?

CASE VIGNETTE

“Brandon” is a 42-year-old divorced African American man with acquired hearing loss who has become unemployed recently due to layoffs during the COVID-19 pandemic. He has been admitted to the hospital for sepsis, and psychiatry has been consulted for agitation. Although it is in the early stages of the pandemic with a high rate of mortality, he has been asking members of the emergency medicine team to remove their face masks while caring for him.

The primary team is concerned that he is delusional because this seems unreasonable during a global pandemic. They place a behavioral flag on his medical record to notify...

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