Wednesday, 7 July 2010

If psychiatrists understood...

The patient-psychiatrist relationship is essential to the real
experience of mental healthcare. Psychiatrists are left to guess if they
can't gain the trust of their patient. Patients have an unempowered and
poorer experience of healthcare if their psychiatrist doesn't listen to
them or trust them.

Trust is a vital component of all relationships. If it doesn't exist
then it's not really a relationship.

This lack of trust is common. Psychosis can involve paranoia. Stigma and
fear of consequences of disclosing to healthcare mean patients don't
disclose important details. As always, there are other impacts.

Without time and without knowledge of the individual and openess that
comes from trust and the ability to understand the communication of the
individual the job of a psychiatrist is very difficult. I assume that
psychiatrists use techniques - tricks of the trade - as a shortcut to
making an attempt to achieve those ideals.

NHS psychiatrists don't have the time to gain the trust of patients or
spend time getting to know them. Many are overworked and under-resourced
and yet the resource rich private sector may be little better because
the psychiatrists still suffer from the same problems. They're still
psychiatrists. They're doctors and people perceive doctors differently -
at a raised level of status but alien somehow.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Blog Archive

About Me

We It comes in part from an appreciation that no one can truly sign their own work. Everything is many influences coming together to the one moment where a work exists. The other is a begrudging acceptance that my work was never my own. There is another consciousness or non-corporeal entity that helps and harms me in everything I do. I am not I because of this force or entity. I am "we"