Communication barriers in therapist – patient – caregiver relationship

• Main Author: Iuliana Guiță – Alexandru
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy Publishing House 2014-12-01
• Series: Romanian Journal of Military Medicine
• Subjects: communication; relationship therapy; case management; psycho-education; occupational health; therapeutic benefit; therapeutic alliance.
• Online Access: http://revistamedicinamilitara.ro/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/2014-34-full.52-57.pdf

The success or failure of a therapeutic approach, medical or psychological, are influenced by many factors. Among them we can mention the patient’s insufficient knowledge about the disease, preconceptions of patient or caregiver’s fear of stigmatization, the issue regarding duration and side effects of treatment, cost of medicines and so on. Last but not least, the therapist’s ability to communicate accordingly to the beneficiaries’ comprehension and barriers encountered in the communication between actors directly involved in the therapeutic process (patient caregiver, psychologist, and doctor) can change the opportunity to obtain a suitable therapeutic benefit yet from beginning. Materials and methods: In order to assess the concordance between the messages sent by doctors and how they are received by patients and caregivers, we have applied a different questionnaire for the three categories of respondents mentioned above. These three distinct sets of questions were completed during 100 psychiatric consultations, in ambulatory regimen. Results: Comparative analysis of the questionnaire results has shown major differences between the information that doctors thought they had sent and what was actually received by patients and caregivers. Paradoxically, the more medical explanations were elaborated and detailed, the less volume of adequate information was taken home by beneficiaries. Conclusions: It is necessary for each of us to have a self-assessment of how we communicate with patients and which is the real benefit that we offer through our words. It is also mandatory to adapt the „language of medicine” to the common people understanding abilities (without medical training).