Dr. Donald Paoletti provides Psychiatric Services at Catholic Family Services (CFS) in conjunction with counseling services. Many of our clients benefit from medications to aid in the progress of their treatment. Psychiatric Services can be of great assistance by providing therapeutic support with medication. Your counselor will make the determination that medication will aid in your treatment and you must first see a counselor before you can make an appointment with the psychiatrist. Do you recommend psychiatrists? Yes, we view medication as a possible route for God to help you improve, and possibly bring a creative form of healing to your current situation. Just as if you had diabetes, God can use insulin or oral medications to help balance your blood sugar scores, He can also use medications that a psychiatrist would administer to help balance mood or thought disorders.
Can I get better by just taking my medication? Many people take medication alone and live full and fruitful lives. Their challenge is simply more organic in nature, however CFS requires our client to see both a psychiatrist and a counselor regularly to reserve services for medication.
Adult, geriatric and adolescent psychiatry and psychopharmacology
Should you choose to see our psychiatrist, we can provide you with both medication management as well as therapy. Most of our patients choose medication management along with therapy. We can help you with creating an individualized treatment plan that incorporates the biopsychosocial model of treatment for the best possible outcome. Our psychiatrist is an expert psychopharmacologist and can help with you initiating or maintaining treatment.
The initial visit to see Dr. Paoletti is a 60 minute diagnostic assessment. Following the psychiatric interview, Dr. Paoletti discusses diagnostic impressions and synthesizes an initial treatment plan. Dr. Paoletti then writes an in-depth report, which he provides to members of the patient’s treatment team. Initial components of the treatment plan may be implemented at the end of this visit.
Follow up visits for medication management typical last 15 to 30 minutes. Dr. Paoletti assesses responses to medications, modifies treatment as indicated, and addresses other concerns. Critically important, these visits include discussion of life context. Dr. Paoletti works in depth with each patient and coordinates care closely with other medical specialists. This is important given the unique challenges facing individuals.