Focusing on people not symptoms: the consultant psychiatrist

Treating patients as human beings with a wide range of interests, and identities beyond their health problems, is perhaps what makes consultant psychiatrist Akeem Sule so popular with colleagues and those he mentors.“I will discuss fashion, books, and TV shows with patients,” Sule says. “I’m interested in their world, and that enables you to engage on a deeper level. I’m always trying to teach that to junior doctors.”He adds, “I remember we had a patient who was interested in Cliff Richard. We both started singing ‘The Young Ones’ and the junior doctors were cringing, but that was a real connection with the patient. I was trying to tell them that your patients aren’t just a cluster of symptoms—they have lives and they have interests.”Sule qualified in 1997 in Nigeria before coming to work in the UK. He decided to specialise in psychiatry early on, partly inspired by his mother who…
Read Original Article: Focusing on people not symptoms: the consultant psychiatrist »