Tag Archives: Medicine

Glastonbury: Alternative therapy central… but is it real?

Alternative therapy, mental health, safeguarding, Uncategorized, , , , , ,

I’m fed up of coming across people, often with serious psychiatric or medical conditions who stop taking their evidence-based, imperfect but at least understood medications in favour of misunderstood, useless and even harmful ‘remedies’ from elsewhere. I’m sick and tired of reading adverts in theatres, hotels and social  clubs advertising psychic  mediums, faith healers and other woo practitioners who promise, without even a hint of embarrassment to be able to talk to dead people, to angels, to clean your soul, rebirth you, even to steam your womb, all for a small fee, of course.

My original plan was just to rant on my  Youtube  channel about it all but that seemed unfair. So I’ve come to the South West of England, to ‘woo central’ as one of my respondents described it to see if any of the practitioners here can convince me that what they do really is useful.

Even though I was very up front that I’m sceptical if not actually hostile to the very idea of alternative medicines because it either hasn’t been tested or has been shown not to work most people were friendly and had a great  deal to say about their beliefs and in defence of the treatments they offered, although only 4 agreed to be interviewed on camera.

It was fascinating to see what many Glastonbury people thought of as adequate evidence. For many it was merely to make a claim. If you can say it, if you can think it, that’s evidence.

For others, such as the lady I met on the street, simply stating the obvious was evidence enough.

One man in particular, Eddie the potter, whilst still having faith in some alternative therapies was clearly sick and tired of the woo merchants who spend their time ripping off ill people who really need help instead of exploitation.

I couldn’t help feeling that many of the people I spoke with, especially many of those who wouldn’t agree to be filmed are only too aware of the scam they’re engaged in. I won’t say all the healers are deliberate con artists. I met several who seemed sincere although their logic when trying to explain their work seemed confused. But I don’t doubt their sincerity.

Of course it’s not true!

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Yesterday was April fools day.

In keeping with that tradition I posted a story about courageous ants from France whose bravery hormone was the basis of a new anxiolytic drug. I want to be clear this morning…

I made it up.

April fool!

Isolated Red Ant
big forest ant isolated on white background

Privileged glimpses 2: People are just people

mental health, social care, , , , , , , ,

This series of blog posts first appeared a few years ago on a now defunct blog called ‘Care Training’. It was inspired by the training maxim of ‘making the unconscious conscious’. It is intended to take what really ought to be the most basic principles of health and social care and put them down on paper. The series isn’t only an exercise in stating the obvious though whatever the title might suggest. It’s actually intended as a philosophical foundation manual for workers and informal carers to help them get their care ‘on track’ and then to keep it that way.

Be uniqueFollowing on from the ‘no such thing as ‘us and them’ post I’d like to make a more general point about people. Nobody is special. There – I’ve said it. You are not indispensible at work and your boss, your colleagues, your friends and your favourite service user are all replaceable. Nobody is special because people are just people.

If you work in mental health or social care services you will be used to certain professionals behaving as though they are more important or somehow more worthy of respect than others. You may even be tempted to behave that way yourself. Many in my own profession of nursing seem as though they have been pre-programmed to emphasise their own importance way beyond all recognition.

Different professional groups have different responsibilities and different levels of education are important but they don’t make us special. I’m a nurse – a pretty well educated and experienced nurse at that but that doesn’t put me in a position to tell a newly qualified social worker with a basic professional education how to do their job. I’m not special and I don’t know everything.

Similairly whilst I’ll happily defer to a GP when dealing with complex physical problems I’m not about to take their word when planning a cognitive therapy strategy for someone with psychosis. I will listen to them though.

By the same token I may be responsible for planning and organising a shift and delegating care tasks to support workers but I’d better not forget that they are more likely to know the best way to hoist, bathe or feed a particular resident than I do because they know their own jobs.

Nobody is special.

Nobody is indispensable.

Nobody is irreplaceable.

People are just people.