I’d love it if we could ask questions to someone who’s been treating people with schizophrenia for 20 or 30 years! What if each of us picked a name from a paper we’ve read, or some notable figure like E. Fuller Torrey and sent them an email to let them know the group exists and ask them if they may be willing to spend a few minutes a day sharing their expertise?
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YES, someone do this!
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Love this idea , where do we start ?
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Since a lot of doctors are doing telehealth, you’d think that you could Zoom with anyone, anywhere in the country. So if a psychiatrist wanted clients this board would be a place to market to.
However, I’m not sure that insurance would pay for seeing someone via Zoom outside of your geographical area. At least I’m not sure my son’s would, but I’d have to check.
@caregiver1, I really like your idea. My only negative to this would be that psychiatrists would likely be concerned with the lawsuits for malpractice that some could make a case for…it would be great to get some in the field to come join the forum—therapists, psychiatric nurses, social workers are at the top of my wish list. Of course I will help the cause, email me. 
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Good point. I’m sure they’d add a disclaimer to their posts, that it does not constitute medical advice and that people should see a healthcare professional for that. Maybe that would cover them legally.
I also like the idea of a psychiatric nurse participating.
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My gut is there’s likely some reason why psychiatrists and psychologists don’t participate here. I’ll ask my psychiatrist at my next appointment if there’s a reason. He knows of my participation on this forum. I suspect some may lurk, however.
As an alternative you may want to seek out psychiatrists and psychologists on social media or YouTube or professional websites. They may be more forthcoming in a situation that they can control.
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There is a website called healthcaremagic.com that offers online access to doctors and specialists from around the world. They do offer access to psychiatrists. It is a membership based organization, with a small monthly fee to access help. Specialists are included for a slightly higher fee. I paid $35 a month for awhile to get help with all sorts of health problems and to get second opinions. I spoke to a psychiatrist in India when my daughter first got ill through this service, as well as other types of doctors and specialists including homeopathic doctors. I was pleased and do recommend this service.
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There was at least one psychiatrist who lurked here and occasionally posted, years ago. I think that medical ethics rules would prevent a professional from being a member of a family/caregiver forum.
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This company did not get the best of reviews: https://www.mouthshut.com/websites/HealthcareMagic-com-reviews-925590834.
Not saying your experience wasn’t good, and the idea of having international doctors with a lower cost-of-living (able to charge less) answer your questions is a great idea.
They wanted a lot of personal information, including my cellphone to sign up.
It might take more time, but you can find out answers to your medical questions nowadays by searching the internet for original papers.
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Aside from a health professional’s concerns re liability I am not sure they would participate without financial compensation.
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I understand @caregiver1 . I am leery of online reviews in general, they can be faked. And I personally have found that almost every company I sign up with these days wants my cell phone number.
Although you distrust healthcaremagic.com because of the mouthshut.com review you posted above, you should know that mouthshut.com has its own bad reviews: Mouthshut.com - Mouthshut Fake Company - Pay for Review to its Reviewer | Glassdoor .
We have to form our own opinions. I used healthcaremagic very successfully. I trust my own great experience was not that unusual or that site would not still be in business charging so little for its services. Try it, you might like it! I wish you the best.
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I’ll say this also cuts both ways, and psychiatrists and psychologists are especially vulnerable to disgruntled (and possibly delusional) clients and frustrated (and possibly unreasonable) caregivers giving bad reviews.
My psychiatrist solicited me to leave a good review a while back to bring up his average. Online reviewing is a tricky thing, especially with a small sample size. It’s vulnerable to gaming in both directions, and often service that’s just fine but not exceptional in any way is not rewarded.
I did not leave a review for this psychiatrist btw, not that I don’t think he’s a decent psychiatrist, but I was unsure of the ethics of solicited reviews.
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@oldladyblue. Interesting about mouthshut. I’d never heard of mouthshut and just picked something from the results when I Googled on healthcaremagic.
I did type a question in and then tried to pay for the answer with PayPal, but something went wrong and healthcaremagic rejected the payment.
I started to created an account and then got paranoid about all the information healthcaremagic wanted and aborted the whole thing.
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No, especially since now there are sites where physicians get paid to answer questions. There appear to be many of them.
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It seems that almost everyday someone is soliciting us for reviews. Even McDonalds solicits for reviews by printing on their receipts that you can get a free item or buy one get one (BOGO) if you answer their survey. So, I do the surveys and get the free items because I’ve been a happy customer for decades now.
All too often, praise is deserved by people and companies who don’t get the praise they deserve. So I think it is OK if folks ask for praise, and companies. As you said, “service that’s just fine but not exceptional in any way is not rewarded”. Often, that is true.
Maybe it would be OK to leave a review for your psychiatrist. Just my opinion, and you are welcome to take it or leave it. 
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