Session 1
warm environment and dignity and privacy, such as could be provided in a consumption room.
The aim of her team was‘ fundamentally about keeping people alive and avoiding disability’, she told the conference.‘ We want people to stay as healthy as possible whether or not they’ re accessing drug treatment services.’
Next up was service user advocate Nick Goldstein, on the importance of getting the right connection between pharmacist and patient. As someone actively involved in pharmacists’ training to help raise awareness of the reality faced by service users( DDN, March 2017, page 12), he stressed that the pharmacists being trained were usually‘ quite young and open to ideas, and they’ ve also got long careers ahead of them, so they can spread the message to others as well’.
As he was only given a 30-minute time-slot with the trainees he needed to‘ boil it down to two main themes’, he said – humanity and identity.‘ In terms of the first, I did that by talking about myself, my family and friends, my hopes, dreams, fears and woes, to show I was a person rather than a label.’ Reinforcing the second theme was important to‘ show that we’ re individuals’, he told the conference.‘ My request is simply that I want to be treated like anyone else, like someone who comes in for any other prescription.
‘ In time the questions like“ are you on drugs now?” stop and they become things like“ what can we do for you and your community?”’ he continued.‘ And the tone noticeably changes as well. It shows that proper communication is vital to any therapeutic relationship.’
‘ Getting the right connection between pharmacist and patient.’
nICk GoldsteIn
Closing the first session was Birmingham GP and DDN Post-Its From Practice columnist Dr Steve Brinksman, on ensuring proper connections between doctor and patient.‘ In 27 years of being a GP, one of the things I’ m most pleased about is that there are now far more GPs who are willing to work with drug users,’ he said.‘ Things can change, and you can change people’ s perceptions.’ There were issues of perception on both sides, however.‘ I’ m not going to stand here and say that every engagement with every health professional will be perfect. People like me can seem scary and bossy to you, but a lot of doctors might be as frightened as you are – remember, they haven’ t been taught about these things in medical school.’
There were three basic models of doctor / patient relationship, he said – active / passive, guidance and cooperation, and mutual participation. While the first
enormously.‘ There’ s also their medical knowledge and knowledge of the patient, their family and community to consider, alongside personality, age, gender and ethnicity.‘ Added to this were external factors like time availability, workload pressure, policy, finance and the influence of third parties.‘ I’ m afraid we can be constrained by some of these things,’ he said.
‘ It’ s essential for both parties to be honest about what they want to achieve. Sometimes there’ s a tendency on both sides to tell the other person what you think they want to hear. Be honest, be on time, be open about what you want to achieve and behave appropriately. If you’ re in the surgery surrounded by little children and little old grannies it’ s important that your behaviour fits into that situation. But at the same time, doctors have to be honest, give you time and treat everyone the same,’ he said.
Doctors also had a duty to provide information in a way that could be easily understood and that was backed up by evidence, he said.‘ It’ s not my choice how you define your ongoing treatment, but if we can do these things
two were sometimes necessary,‘ we need to be moving towards mutual participation’, he said.‘ I might not always agree with your decisions, but they are your decisions.’
It was vital that patients and service users were empowered to ask for the right information to inform these decisions, he stressed.‘ The relationship between practitioner and patient can be a key element in any progress made, as much as the medication.’ Key things to consider about patients were their concerns and expectations, knowledge, attitude, personality, age, gender and ethnicity, he said, while the attitudes and values of doctors could also vary
‘ there are now far more GPs willing to work with drug users.’
dr steve BrInksmAn
together we can start to work towards that mutual respect that will make a huge long-term difference.’ DDN
8 | drinkanddrugsnews | March 2018 www. drinkanddrugsnews. com