A Primary Care Psychologist together with the Family Physician: the experience of the Health Psychology School of Rome
Abstract
It is known that at least 50% of the requests that people make to family physicians, behind the proposal of a somatic symptom, express relational/existential distress, often in very early phases, in which the intervention could be short and easy: the doctor, however, is not always in the position to offer an answer, and therefore ends up carrying out analyses and administering drugs whose uselessness he is the first to recognize. A response by referral to a psychologist appears problematic given the difficulty in identifying both the patients to be referred and the appropriate referring methods. Anyhow, the acceptance of the referral by the patient appears unlikely, since contact with a psychologist is still burdened by strong social stigma. Read more