Looking for psychiatrists specializing in suicidal depressionin
practicing in Chicago-land area (preferably in north-west, north
suburbs).

Thank you

Hi Bobalev,

I think you'll find the resource TherapistFinder.net very helpful for
your search.  You can look up people by reason for counseling, method
of counseling/therapy, patient type, language spoken, insurance
plan(s) accepted, location (there are a bunch for Illinois), and
therapist gender.  When I did a very rough search for "suicide
ideation" under reason for counseling and "Chicago" for location I got
75 results - you could narrow things down by specific suburb, age of
the patient, insurance plan, etc.  Here's the URL:
http://www.therapistfinder.net/.

I found this site by going to the American Psychiatric Association's
list of links (http://www.psych.org/public_info/resourcelinks.cfm),
the link to which I found from the Medlineplus health topic for
depression: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/depression.html.  The
Medlineplus page has links to lots of informational websites from
nonprofit and government agencies.  There are also topics for suicide
(http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/suicide.html) and for mental
health in general (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/mentalhealth.html).

Please let me know if I can help you further with this or any other question!  

Librariankt

The best sources are the following:
1) Ask your primary care doctor or a trusted friend for a recommended doctor.

2) Call the 1-800 number on your insurance card and get a list of the
therapists, psychiatrists, and/or psychologists in your area that are
covered by your insurance.  Alternatively you may be able to get this
information online.

3) If you don't have insurance, review the yellow pages for potential
therapists, psychiatrists, and/or psychologists.  If you don't have
insurance you may want to contact the psychology departments of local
universities as they often provide sliding-scale (reduced fee)
appointments, or can at least recommend doctors who provide this
service.

Once you have done the above, call and ask:
- are you taking new patients? 
- are there specific areas in which you specialize?
- (Cost, if that's an issue for you)

Call at least three doctor's offices.  Rely as much on the feel of how
they (or their office staff) sound as on their specialty or expertise.
 Don't stick with someone that doesn't feel right, as you won't get
what you need.

And finally, get the help you need.  Mental illness is not a character
fault, it is a disease caused by chemical imbalances.  Therapy and/or
medication can help.