Page 138 - Demo

Chapter 6136Collaboration in the healthcare chain y There are often multiple professionals involved around a patient, with lack of communication, coordination, and alignment between these professionalsy Roles and responsibilities are not clear to practitioners, other involved professionals, and patientsy There is lack of MID knowledge within the healthcare chaina For readability, the term practitioner is used for both GPs and MHNPs; when relevant, GP or MHNP is specifiedTheme 1: GPs’ and MHNPs’ struggles with adapting to challenging patient characteristicsParticipants indicated that patients with both MID and MH problems often present with multiple problems, medical and non-medical, simultaneously and that these patients easily become disoriented when facing problems, manifesting in anxiety, stress, and somatic symptoms. Partly because of these aspects, this patient group frequently consults the GP.Their reason for encounter is often unclear or difficult to discern. Patients do not explicitly request help, have a multitude of requests, or the stated request does not align with the underlying problem.They always have a lot of problems...’What are you actually here for, what was the question?’ ‘Oh yes’, as if they completely forgot...then it’s very difficult to go in a certain direction. (F3, MHNP)This causes practitioners to spend a considerable amount of time clarifying the help request, untangling the multitude of problems, maintaining structure in the consultation, prioritising, and devising a plan of action.Participants experience that this patient group generally requires a different approach for diagnosis and treatment than described in the standard MH guidelines, as patients’ abilities and circumstances often render these not directly applicable. Deviating from these guidelines and applying a suitable approach requires the practitioner to have specific knowledge and experience, which is often lacking, as stated by this participant:Katrien Pouls sHL.indd 136 24-06-2024 16:26