Dr. Joseph C. Shanklin, MD

"Dr. Shanklin is a wonderful human who is truly dedicated to his patients. He gives the necessary time to truly develop an understanding of your situation and medical condition(s) and does his best to develop the most appropriate and effective treatment plan for the individual. He listens to concerns willingly and answers question clearly while explaining the “why” for how the answers are found. I can honestly say in contrast to many other doctors, he factors in all relative information and THEN develops an objective plan for you… Unlike many other doctors who just want to give you a pill for this or that and be done with you. Always professional, polite, kind hearted and a truly devoted to his passion of helping others be able to enjoy their best life. I would recommend him to everyone in need of his professional help!"

"Dr. Shanklin is by far, my most favorite doctor! I feel very comfortable talking to him and whatever the subject may be, he has knowledge of it or will certainly look it up and share what he knows. I look forward to seeing him, he has a great sense of humor and I like that he's a genuine human being. As for waiting sometimes a bit longer than usual, I appreciate the fact that he at least takes the time to spend with his patients rather than be some uptight serious doctor who only knows me by my diagnosis and not my name. Not sure if many people are aware of the fact that there is a serious shortage of people in the field of psychiatry. They have so many patients coming to them from sometimes hours away because there isn't enough mental health providers where they live. I was told one time I would have to wait 8 MONTHS just to get in as a new patient with a doc!!! For me and my issues, that just doesn't cut it. On top of my mental health, I had some medical issues that my own primary care doctor didn't take the time to figure out and I was really hurting, physically, and all I had to do was tell Dr. Shanklin what was going on and he was the one who sent me to get the CORRECT & APPROPRIATE labs drawn and figured out I was critically low on a vitamin level and HE is the one that gave me the prescription I needed and within weeks I was feeling so much better. I also deal with constant chronic pain and he's pointed me in the right direction of a Pain Specialist who I'm really looking forward to seeing next week. He pointed out that until I get help to get some relief from this excruciating physical pain, I can't get over my depression and he is so right. I don't care if I have to sit in the waiting room a bit longer. That patient that is in there now may really need that extra time...you never know what someone else is going through. But I know what I am going through and when it's my turn to see the doctor he will take the same amount of time with me, actually listening to me."

"Dr. Shanklin is a very good Psychiatrist if you have the time to wait in the waiting room well past your scheduled appointment. For my first scheduled appointment, I waited almost an hour to see him. I assumed there must have been an emergency. For my second appointment, I waited only 45 minutes to see him. For my third appointment, I visibly witnessed him walk into the building 20 minutes after my scheduled appointment time. RUDE! After a total of 50 minutes, I rescheduled requesting his next available FIRST APPOINTMENT of the day. A month later, I called the day before my appointment to confirm and I asked if he was going to be on time. The response from the receptionists "I don't know". I explained my past experiences and that I needed to get back to work. She said "All I can tell you is that you have an appointment at 9:20". Wow. So for my fourth and last appointment, I waited 25 minutes before I informed the receptionist that I was leaving and why I was leaving and informed her that I wouldn't be back. Her response as she was shutting the partition which she had opened about 4 inches after I had tapped on the glass was "okay". By the way, the Receptionists in Dr. Shanklin's office are as professional as an ATM machine, but with less warmth or concern for customer service. Which is odd because when you see them behind the glass they seem quite friendly as they are engrossed in conversation with one another. Sorry to bother you ladies! All that being said, I believe that Dr. Shanklin is a good Psychiatrist. Based on my limited experience with him, he listened, he connected, he instilled confidence, and he seemed to really care about his craft and me as a patient. I was genuinely excited to work with him. (By the way, I am a nurse and I have worked in the healthcare field 26 years - including Psych services for 8 years - so I am quite familiar with the topic that I am addressing). But just as I hired him to perform a service, I also had to fire him and I will have to hire someone else to perform the same service. Just like Dr. Shanklin, most other people in the world work for a living, have family, obligations and all the other things that make up their life. And because people have unique and complex lives, they each have to carve out a little time from complexities of their life to go to scheduled appointments. Scheduled appointments are an agreement between two or more parties ensuring that each party is respectful of the other's time. Waiting a few minutes for a scheduled appointment from time to time should be expected and okay because we live in an imperfect world and life happens. But being outright inconsiderate of someone else's time is rude. My time and your time is just as important as Dr. Shanklin's time or anyone else's time!"

"Dr. Shanklin is the best!! I have been seeing doctors since the age of (5) I am (23) last Wednesday I was having a meltdown and Dr. Shaklin saw me without hesitation even when it wasn’t scheduled. He took an hour out of his time and listened to me, empathized and acknowledged my emotions without making me feel like a burden or “stupid” for how I feel. A friend of mine recommended me to him and I couldn’t be happier!"

"Dr. Shanklin takes his time to truly develop an understanding of your medical complaints and does his best to develop the most appropriate and effective treatment plan. He listens to concerns willingly and answers question enthusiastically. I can honestly say in contrast to many other doctors when I am seen by him I feel like a person and not just another appointment he has to get through. Professional, polite, kind and very knowledgeable I would recommend him to anyone."