@roycroftmom So you’re first argument in #11 holds some water. Yes, it’s possible there is a dearth of mental health providers in the nearby community. But your argument in #12 isn’t correct. I am a physician and board certified psychiatrist, myself. I actually prescribe for a women’s college in the Boston area and an engineering college and I always write a 90 day supply (or more) to get students through the summer until they return. It’s considered abandoning a patient to prescribe for your patients, then leave them high and dry, just because it’s summer break. Once you’re started treatment, that patient is your responsibility.
Your argument that they are not the student’s primary care physician makes no sense. It’s not the primary care physician’s job to take over from a specialist or prescribe for another doctor who has taken on a patient during a school year. It was especially tough to see my daughter hurting and I couldn’t find someone to see her given my own profession, but PCPs are increasingly afraid to prescribe antidepressants given fears of suicide and there is just so few of us. I go to bat for my patients, and I just want someone to treat my child the way I care for those under my care.