Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) is celebrating the World Family Doctor Day on Friday to acknowledge the vital role family doctors play in the delivery of comprehensive and continuing healthcare for the community.
Family doctors are recognised by PHCC as having a vital role in harnessing their personal and professional skills to build trusting relationships with patients and raise awareness by offering guidance on how to best overcome daily hindrances and live a healthy lifestyle.
“Family doctors not only give medical care to patients who require treatments to heal a pathological situation or a disease, but also build and maintain a strong relationship with patients”, PHCC managing director Dr Mariam Abdul Malik said.
This year, Family Medicine Doctor Day will shed some light and raise awareness about depression and the role the family physician plays to assess and manage one of the most common mental illness in Qatar that affect over 25% of the population.
Depression continues, in its basic forms, to be underdiagnosed and goes unnoticed because of the patient’s reluctance to seek professional help. As the first point of contact for patients with common mental health problems like depression, PHCC has focused on the patient-physician communication as an integral part of its clinical practice and has developed the appropriate tools for addressing patients presenting to Primary Health Care Centres with mild to moderate depression and referring them as deemed appropriate.
“Experienced family doctors with eclectic international experience in family medicine practice were consulted and recruited into the PHCC – mental health committee. They helped in developing solid project foundation layout and implementation such as producing appropriate mental health screening tools, practice guidelines and policies for addressing patients presenting to Primary Health Care Centres with mild to moderate depression”, Dr Mariam added.
World Family Medicine this year is also a chance to celebrate the progress being made in primary care and PHCC will hold educational health awareness activities at its health centres and in public venues to highlight the special contributions of family doctors to the health sector.
“Family doctors not only give medical care to patients who require treatments to heal a pathological situation or a disease, but also build and maintain a strong relationship with patients”, PHCC managing director Dr Mariam Abdul Malik said.
This year, Family Medicine Doctor Day will shed some light and raise awareness about depression and the role the family physician plays to assess and manage one of the most common mental illness in Qatar that affect over 25% of the population.
Depression continues, in its basic forms, to be underdiagnosed and goes unnoticed because of the patient’s reluctance to seek professional help. As the first point of contact for patients with common mental health problems like depression, PHCC has focused on the patient-physician communication as an integral part of its clinical practice and has developed the appropriate tools for addressing patients presenting to Primary Health Care Centres with mild to moderate depression and referring them as deemed appropriate.
“Experienced family doctors with eclectic international experience in family medicine practice were consulted and recruited into the PHCC – mental health committee. They helped in developing solid project foundation layout and implementation such as producing appropriate mental health screening tools, practice guidelines and policies for addressing patients presenting to Primary Health Care Centres with mild to moderate depression”, Dr Mariam added.
World Family Medicine this year is also a chance to celebrate the progress being made in primary care and PHCC will hold educational health awareness activities at its health centres and in public venues to highlight the special contributions of family doctors to the health sector.