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CHAPTER 6 — The First Script
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With a single elegantly effective statement – “Together we want to find
a medication that you are genuinely interested in taking because it makes
you feel better and/or is doing what you want it to do” – the clinician fosters
both a sense of collaboration and spotlights the goal that such a shared
decision making can achieve – relief from suffering.
While forging the initial medication alliance, it is useful to further
highlight the importance of the patient’s input. I am once again reminded
of the wise words of Robert Schuman in the opening epigram of Chapter 2,
“People want to know that their opinions and concerns are worthy of inter-
est and response.” The following technique reassures the patient that such
shall be the case by stamping it into the initial bond between the prescriber
and the patient:
“I look at it that you and I are both experts. Hopefully, I
know a lot about medications and how different medica-
tions can help in different ways, and I can call on years of
experience, as well as other colleagues, to help. You are
the expert on your own body. The medication goes in you,
not me, and so I’m totally dependent on you to tell me if
it’s helping or not and also if it’s causing any side effects.
I’m counting on your input. You know your body better
than I do. And I think we can be a great team in finding a
medication that works well for you – that really makes you
feel better. How does that sound to you?”
TIP
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Introducing Shared Expertise
“When we try a medication, I always like to remind my-
self that, although we have lots of research on each of
these medications, all people are unique and each person
will handle medications slightly differently. I have lots of
TIP
10
Shared Journey Analogy
As with all of our tips, you can both modify them to fit your own style
of interaction and have variations of the same tip that may, in your opinion,
fit a bit better with a particular patient. While providing a MIM workshop
in Saskatchewan, Canada, Norm Grayston described an elegant adaptation
of Introducing Shared Experience that he found to be quite effective with
his patients, an adaptation that I like to call the “Shared Journey Analogy”: