FAQs

Any care provider in Washington is eligible to call the Psychiatry Consultation Line about care for their adult patients.

Patients, family and caregivers are NOT eligible to call. This includes healthcare providers seeking advice about their own loved ones.

Prescribing providers may call any time, 24/7.

Non-prescribing care providers may call the line between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday (excluding holidays).

You reach the PCL by calling 877-WA-PSYCH (877-927-7924) or you can schedule ahead using our online calendar.

The average consult takes about 15 minutes, including a brief intake with our navigator and time speaking with our psychiatrist. However, if you need more time that’s ok.

The PCL consultation is covered by HIPAA, section 45 CFR 164.506. If you have any questions or concerns about patient privacy and consent, you should speak to your own compliance and privacy experts. It is outside the scope of the PCL to provide legal advice of any kind.

Yes. You can schedule your consultation at a time that is convenient for you in a few ways:

1. Use our online calendar system.
2. Email pclwa@uw.edu and include your name, preferred day/time and a brief description of your question. Please do not include patient identifying information. One of our navigators will work with you to schedule your consult. Of note, the PCL email is only monitored non-holiday weekdays, 8am-5pm.
3. Call 877-927-7924 to speak with a navigator who will work with you to schedule your consult.

Assessment, diagnosis and treatment planning, including medication management or other treatments. Our real-life example calls can give you more information about the types of consultations the PCL receives.

Our PCL psychiatrists answer mental health and substance use questions about assessment, diagnosis, medications, and treatment planning. The PCL is staffed by a large team of psychiatrists with varying experience providing psychotherapy. Therefore, psychotherapy supervision is considered out of scope.

For more information on consultation topics that are in scope and out of scope for the PCL, please see the “example questions to ask” page.

Yes. Our adult psychiatrists, many of whom are board certified in addiction psychiatry, are able to consult with you about patients with substance use disorders. In 2023, all PCL psychiatrists began receiving additional training on medications for opioid use disorders (MOUD) to enhance their skills in this area.

Callers will be offered the option to transfer to the Partnership Access Line for child and adolescent psychiatry questions, or to the Perinatal PCL for perinatal psychiatry questions.

If you have never called the line before, the intake is primarily data collection and takes about 3-4 minutes to complete. If you have called the line before, the process will be quicker.

After the intake, callers are connected directly to a psychiatrist about 85% of the time. If a wait is necessary, our navigator will help you connect to the psychiatrist at a future time that is convenient for you. The callback time varies but the average is less than 15 minutes.

The average consultation takes about 15 minutes, but you will get as much time as you need.

When you call 877-WA-PSYCH (877-927-7924), you will reach a UW mental health navigator for a short intake of information, including: the patient’s name, DOB, gender, city of residence, Medicaid status, and any barriers the patient may face in accessing mental health or substance use disorder services.

The navigator will then facilitate a warm handoff to the UW psychiatrist or schedule a phone call for a date/time in the future. After the consultation, our team will send you written documentation of the recommendations via an email from pclwa@uw.edu typically within one business day.

In response to feedback from PCL users, we created case presentation format to help you prepare for your consultation and case presentation to the PCL psychiatrist. The outline is meant as a guide to help you get to the heart of the matter quickly, maximize time when you have the psychiatrist on the line, and it mimics what many providers are taught in their formal training about presenting a clinical case for consultation.

As part of the PCL intake, we will collect basic demographic information about the patient before the actual consult begins. Most of the questions are reporting requirements of the Washington State Health Care Authority, the entity which administers the PCL contract. The more information you have about the patient the better, but we will assist you using whatever information you have. See our intake form, case presentation outline and sample case presentations and example calls to learn more.

Yes. Support staff can call us to schedule a consult at a later time and/or to provide intake information. We will keep the intake information in our system for one week at which time it will need to be marked as an incomplete consultation and deleted.

We ask that if the goal of the call is to get specific medication recommendations that the prescriber call us directly since these conversations require a comprehensive knowledge of the patient’s medical history and other risk factors.

Taking notes is not necessary, though you certainly may. After the call, the UW psychiatrist you spoke with will send you a deidentified, written summary of the recommendations via email from pclwa@uw.edu, typically within 1 business day of your consultation.

There is no limit to how many times you can call the PCL. If you call more than once about the same patient, it is helpful for the navigator to know so we can refer to previous recommendations you may have been given.

The PCL is funded by the State of Washington and administered through a contract with the Washington State Health Care Authority.

If your patient is suicidal, homicidal or otherwise at imminent risk, you or they should call 988, call 911 or refer the patient to their closest emergency room. The PCL is not a crisis or suicide hotline, is not a substitute for an emergency room, and cannot coordinate ER visits, psychiatric hospitalization or law enforcement intervention.

PCL psychiatrists are currently unable to:

• Provide legal advice related to mandatory reporting, duty to warn, controlled substance regulations, etc. We strongly encourage you to consult with your practice leadership and risk management teams
• Satisfy Single Bed Certification (SBC) requirements
• Review written records
• Find follow-up care, facilitate patient transfers or referrals to UW Medicine or elsewhere, provide resources or assist with discharge planning
• Take calls from the patient, family or friends of the patient
• Offer psychotherapy advice
• Provide clinical supervision
• Help with behavioral care plans

To support providers across Washington State who are taking care of patients experiencing mental health conditions, including substance use conditions, by providing convenient access to consultation. Increased access to mental health care can lead to earlier diagnosis, improved adherence to evidence-based treatment, and better patient outcomes.