Video Length: 3:14
You’re the Expert on How You Feel: What Shared Expertise Means in My Office
About this video
Dr. Baldes explains the model of care he calls shared expertise. You’re the expert on how you feel, what you’ve experienced, what you value, and what your goals are. As a psychiatrist, he helps characterize those experiences, identify whether they reflect an illness, and work with you on a plan that fits your priorities.
He also walks through what he does in a visit (ask, listen, reflect, and verify), what he won’t do (tell you what you feel or hand you a plan without you), and why this isn’t a quick fix but a path to trust over time. Read more about his approach or seeing him as a patient.
Educational content, not medical advice. Watching this video does not create a doctor-patient relationship. Please talk with your own clinician about your care.
Read the transcript
Hello everyone, my name is Dr. David Baldes. I'm a board-certified psychiatrist since 2013 practicing in the state of Minnesota and accepting new patients. I'm here today to talk to you about my model of care, which I refer to as shared expertise.
The basic idea of shared expertise is that you're the expert on how you feel, on what you've experienced, on what you value, and what your goals are. And as a psychiatrist, I have expertise in characterizing those experiences, identifying whether or not they reflect an illness, and helping to devise a plan that works for you within your values and your priorities in order to meet your needs.
So in shared expertise, the patient is at the center of care. You bring your lived experience, you bring your goals, you bring your values. And what I bring is understanding and problem-solving and a path of opportunity. I can't and I won't talk down to you or hand a plan to you without you. Instead, we figure out what works for you and we do so together. All the action lives within the patient and the doctor is merely a facilitator.
So in a visit I'll ask, I'll listen, I'll reflect back what I'm hearing, and I'll verify that it actually matches what your experience is before we move on to the next steps.
What I won't do is tell you what you feel, what you care about, what your goals are, or how you should be.
This is not a guarantee of any kind of a quick fix. We know that mental illness is complicated. The treatment is subtle and sophisticated, but there's no question in my experience that putting the expertise of the patient and their experience first is a pathway to happy and satisfied patients who are getting more out of their lives that they want, and a doctor who feels satisfied and proud to provide that service while building a relationship of trust and shared goals over time.
And so I look forward to the opportunity to work with you if you have a need. You can find me at davidbaldesmd.com or drdavidbaldes.com and I am accepting patients at Lakeview Behavioral Health in Duluth, Minnesota. That website is lakeviewbh.com, and we are taking patients for in-office visits as well as telehealth for all patients in the state of Minnesota. Look forward to seeing you. Bye bye.
More from Dr. Baldes
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