Sorry for all the old film and book references. Titles are hard to come up with weekly and hey, read a few books and been around so I have plenty of corny titles up my sleeve. This last week has been a very busy one for me and the volunteers at S2C. It has been one of those weeks that has had me reflecting on myself and how I cope with things and how others perceive S2C.
One thing I have always found difficult is talking to my GP or any Doctor for that matter. I never quiet say what I want to or fully explain things. I miss bits out and rush through or even don’t mention things at all. I also don’t question, accept whatever is said and run out as quickly as possible more often than not feeling like the issues are unresolved or I angry with myself for not talking about the things I needed to. It’s that classic case of difficulty with authority figures as a result of childhood trauma and abuse. You spend your formative years afraid of a dominant figure, lying and hiding truth, in fear of the consequences of discovery. That is bound to have a profound effect on your ability to relate to people in authority and in future years then be expected to divulge your secrets on demand in a ten minute slot.
I think to a degree also many people with health problems, in particular mental health, are inhibited in talking to authority figures due to the stigma of the illness which has a similar effect in wanting to keep things secret and hidden.
So this week it has been interesting for me to have opportunity to see another side of GP’s on three different occasions. Firstly was at an event last Sunday where I sat alongside a local GP on a panel being questioned by an audience about the benefits of creativity. What struck me about the GP was the fact that they were just a normal every day person. With a particular skill and training but they had the same self doubts, stresses, worries as anyone else. Like many of us they operate in their own bubble of experience and technical terminology depending on their education and chosen career. Sometimes those bubbles are very hard to break out of. This particular Doctor described the “leap of faith” they had to take to start sending their patients to socially engaging projects rather than just giving a prescribed medical intervention.
The second instance was talking to about forty training GP’s in small groups and trying to help them see the benefits of social prescribing alongside the normal medical intervention and how the two can compliment each other to provide a very effective support and recovery model for individuals struggling with many different issues. The danger is that people go into medical school from college and have this clinical evidence based practice that dictates their working. To then expect these young Doctors, with little life experience outside of that medical bubble in their early careers, to just accept and start using a model that includes social prescribing with out that same level of clinical evidence is difficult. It was encouraging to see the trainers at the session, themselves very experienced practitioners, highlighting how there was the need to balance medication with social engagement. Plus meeting all the eager training Doctors also made me realise that they are just normal human being, with very specialised knowledge, but human all the same.
This weeks socially engaging artwork:
