Dr Ash was walking from her psychiatry department towards her hospital casualty unit.
She was the psychiatry medical officer on-call that day, and even though it was only 3pm, so far, all the referrals from the casualty unit were regarding similar presentations: young adults coming in due to self-harm behaviour.
She was having deja-vu when all these patients told her of their trigger factor: their parents were just recently divorced, or they were brought up by single parents since they were still schooling.
What surprised her more was that she was told that their self-harm behaviour started as a trend, before it evolved into their coping mechanism, which was poorly handled.
Her patients were not admitted to the psychiatry ward, as the self-harm behaviour were not suicide attempts. They were given an appointment at the psychiatry clinic in a week’s time.
Dr Ash kept thinking of what her patients had told her when she interviewed them separately.
“I feel like I’m a burden to my family.”
“I blamed myself when my parents got divorced.”
“I lost the person I trusted the most when they decided to part ways.”
“I needed to divert the pain I felt inside to something physical.”
“I’m afraid to be close to someone, as I don’t want to get hurt like my parents.”
She was aware that the family problems her patients faced were not something that she had authority or control over. She was trying to figure out how to help her patients within her capacity.
They were still young, and still trying to figure out their lives. So many things ahead of them that they have not yet encountered; places to see, people to meet, and problems to solve.
If they cannot handle the issues facing them right now, she wondered how they would cope in the future.
Apart from initiating medications, Dr Ash also met with clinical psychologists at the end of her on-call shift to discuss possible relevant psychotherapies suitable for her patients.
She also looked forward to meeting their family members or close friends during their appointments so she could assess the social support their patients had within their lives.
It was not an easy decision for the patients to involve their loved ones, but Dr Ash reminded them that they did not have to go through everything alone.
She wondered if the generations were evolving, or the resilience between the previous generation and the current one was not the same.
Perhaps initiating early intervention among the young ones would improve how they viewed their lives and how to cope with the challenges facing them.
It’s not that she didn’t prefer to see her patients in clinics or in the casualty unit, but she believes that prevention is better than cure.
Dr Ash remembered her cousin, Dorothy, who works as a school counsellor at a secondary school.
“I should contact Dorothy to ask how the school students are at her school… about their concerns, and how we can help them. Perhaps, this will give us an idea of the intervention measures or collaborations with NGOs, parents, as well as local communities, on what can be done in their setting,” she thought.
She finally smiled that day, after her hectic and solemn on-call shift.
“Even if it is just a tiny effort, I wish to give some hope to these young people.”
This is the personal opinion of the writer and does not necessarily represent the views of Twentytwo13.
