Starting with a psychiatrist... how often are visits at 1st?

Family member has long-term depression, anxiety, and sleeping problems.

How often does a new psychiatrist want you to visit them at first?

Once every month when a new patient? Every 2 weeks?

I'm sure it 'varies," but what's the norm?

I ask because this family member has an appointment with a new psychiatrist in his hometown in Iowa, but only visits there every month (he's in college). He's a new patient, and never been on any medication before. He's doing some counseling with a therapist, but that's it.

Is it a waste of his time to see a new psychiatrist now when he won't be able to visit again for one month? Would a psychiatrist just give him medicine for 2 weeks and say "come see me in 2 weeks?" He chose to see a psychiatrist in his hometown now because he couldn't find a psychiatrist with an opening in his college town until the first week of March.

My experience is that the psychiatrists are really just there to prescribe medication. And often the standard medications for things like depression can take 4-6 weeks to kick in. So monthly appointments would probably be normal to begin with. If you hit on the right medication you may not even see them again, other than for a review if needed.

The norm is once every month if you're just starting medication or adjusting therapy.

Most meds need that kind of time to work anyway so it's kinda pointless any sooner unless you're under bad side effects and need to switch med immediately .
If you're feeling stable on the meds, probably once every 2-6 months or some years. If you're gravely depressed (as in you made plans to kill yourself) once a week.
This is just for meds, if the psychiatrist also does psychoterapy then it could be once a week too depending on the circumstances.

That was my experience.