Highlighting the Collaborative Nature of Healing with Medications
“The Universe is made of stories, not of atoms.”
Muriel Rukeyser
Important: Please see administrative note on Mental Health Presses below
Highlighting the Collaborative Nature of Healing with Medications
TISA Description of the Problem: Administrative Note:
I would like to start today’s tip feature with a bit of an administrative update. As many of you may know, my book The Practical Art of Suicide Assessment: A Guide for Mental Health Professionals and Substance Abuse Counselors was re-published by Mental Health Presses in 2011. Mental Health Presses is a subsidiary of our company TISA. We decided to procure the rights to publication to ensure a continued low price on the book, for we strongly believe it can save lives, and we wanted to make sure the price was such that front-line clinicians could afford it. By securing the rights we have maintained the price at the original 2004 pricing of $35.00, which pleases us and hopefully will please you as well. The book continues to be a best seller.
The book can be ordered on Amazon.com (as well as BarnesandNoble.com) and through almost all brick and mortar bookstores. You can also procure great bulk sale prices (greater than 20 books) directly from us at Mental Health Presses by contacting us through the TISA website (www.suicideassessment.com) or by directly e-mailing TISA at sheainterview@hughes.net.
For anyone interested in acquiring permissions to quote passages from the book or interested in creating a translation of the book or in foreign distribution of the book, they must contact us (Mental Health Presses) directly for we have sole and exclusive rights to all the content of the book and to its distribution.
Mental Health Presses’ ISBN numbers for ordering purposes are as follows:
ISBN-10: 0615455646
ISBN-13: 9780615455648
Now, on to the October Tip of the Month.
TISA Description of the Problem: As we have noted so frequently in our Monthly Tips and in the Medication Interest Model (MIM), it is critical to create a collaborative approach to using medications both with psychiatric medications and family practice medications. In a recent workshop Norm Grayston, who provided our clinical interviewing Tip of the Month in May of 2013, suggested a tip related to this topic that caught my fancy. I hope you find it to be of use in your practice.
Tip: When introducing a patient to the potential use of a medication I often say something along the following lines:
“When we try a medication, I always like to remind myself that, although we have lots of research on each of these medications, all people are unique and each person will handle medications slightly differently. I have lots of confidence in this medication. Our goal is to make sure the benefits definitely outweigh any potential side-effects for you. So we are on a joint journey or experiment of sorts to find the best possible medication for you. You are the most important partner in our journey, for I am dependent upon you to tell me what is working or not working. So please be very open about all the benefits of the medication and any concerns you may have. As a team I feel confident we will get you some help. How does that sound?”
TISA Follow-up: This tip elegantly and concisely sets a collaborative tone. It fits in so nicely with the Medication Interest Model (MIM), that I will probably include Norm’s tip in the next edition of the book on the MIM. The current edition of this book, Improving Medication Adherence: How to Talk with Patients About Their Medications is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Tip provided by:
Norm Grayston
Yorkton, Saskatchewan, Canada
