If I Had a Hammer

I was taken on a tour of a treatment facility not too long ago and invited to sit in on the clinical staffing. The facility was once a psychiatric hospital converted into a detoxification and treatment center. As the medical director reviewed patients charts with the treatment team he mused “almost everyone here is bipolar and on medication”. Of course they are, I thought. This is a medical facility on the grounds of a psychiatric institution. How else would patients be treated? Abraham Maslow once said that if the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail. This is the dilemma with many healthcare facilities. Everyone is a nail, patients are over diagnosed and over medicated; too many hammers. I’ve got nothing against hammers, but I would want my healthcare provider to carry more tools. I am impressed when providers and programs can think outside the box of the western medicine paradigm. I heard a psychiatrist friend of mine express concern that too many of the medications available for his patients carry horrible side effects. He is encouraging his patients to explore alternatives. Another psychiatrist friend declaired she was moving in a direction of Integrated Medicine. This is encouraging news for the consumer of health services. Perhaps there are other, more natural and holistic means to manage mood and behavior. Looking for an introduction to progressive and alternatives treatments? We can help you get started.

-John