Meet Erin Crown, MHS, PA-C, Psych-CAQ, a board certified physician assistant/associate (PA). She became a psychiatric PA over a decade ago when the number of PAs practicing in psychiatry was less than 1% of the body of certified PAs. Erin is one of the approximately 3000 board certified PAs practicing in psychiatry in the US.¹

Crown shares, “My interest in psychiatry started during my undergraduate years, graduating with a degree in health science and a minor in psychology. I entered my master’s program in PA studies, with the understanding that I would graduate having been broadly educated in medicine as a PA and eligible to pursue a career in any area of medicine. It was during my clinical clerkship year when I completed my psychiatry rotation at a maximum-security men’s penitentiary—SCI-Rockview; I knew where I wanted to be.”

Crown recalls, “over the years, I have experienced amazing career-broadening opportunities in psychiatric practice.” From her early clinical experiences in caring for acutely ill patients on a psychiatric stabilization unit, to splitting her time between that unit and several rural outpatient psychiatry clinics, “I knew I had found my calling.” As a psychiatric PA, Crown’s role has expanded to include co-ownership and management of a private psychiatry practice, supported by her supervising physician, while developing professional and industry relationships encompassing clinical research, professional education for both lay and medical communities, and continued clinical practice.

Crown shares, “As I have traveled and interacted with a wide variety of medical and other professionals, I am often asked how a PA finds themselves practicing psychiatry?” It is through these conversations that I have realized that it may be valuable to introduce the PA profession and PAs in psychiatry to the Psychiatric Times audience.

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