Letters

"Stigma is a key barrier to progress in mental health care"
(February 2008)

I was so pleased to read Dr. Patrick White’s article “Stigma is a key barrier to progress in mental health care‿ in his recent President’s Word column. Although the concept of stigma in psychiatry is not new, it remains a critically important issue for our patients and our selves.

Of late I have had the experience of being on both sides of this issue. As a psychiatrist with major depression, I too have suffered the stigma of my illness. I have dealt with the humiliating and dehumanizing experience of defending myself to insurers who do not believe that depression is disabling to a psychiatrist. I have faced the well meaning suggestions of colleagues who believe that work is the best cure. And I have felt shame and guilt when meeting my patients who cannot understand why I too have let them down. Fortunately, I have also been blessed by the love and support of friends and the superb care of my physicians and therapists. I know that I am an exception in being able to access such care in a timely and personalized manner and I am grateful.

It is my hope that a better understanding of the illness and the patient’s perspective may in some small way diminish the stigma within our own ranks, and perhaps fulfill Dr. White’s goal that we all “speak with one voice‿.

—Dawn L. Ross, BSc, MD, FRCPC
Halifax, Nova Scotia

"Should prescribing drugs be left to physicians?"
(December 2007)

I want to add my few words to the debate on prescription medicines being prescribed by medical doctors only, which was the topic of The Last Word in the December 2007 issue of Aujourd’hui.

I have a high regard for pharmacists. When I feel the need to re-asses or question a prescription of one of my patients, it is to the pharmacist that I turn for help.

He/she, superbly educated, can and does guide me.

Currently I have a patient whose original physician prescribed and prescribed and prescribed.

Consequently, she moves about in a fog most of the time. However, she likes her fog, and is very reluctant to whittle down the medications. (When she first came into my psychotherapy practice she was on seven mood-altering drugs.)

The pharmacists have been invaluable as to guidance in this difficult situation, and between us we are gradually helping her to cut back.

You could say that she now lives in a mist, rather than a fog.

—Marlene E. Hunter, MD, FCFP(C)
Victoria, British Columbia

© Copyright 2008. Canadian Psychiatry Aujourd'hui. All rights reserved.

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