Question

Pretend you are a health psychologist and you are presenting information to a church group regarding medical decisions. How would you help the individuals understand the rights patients have in making medical decisions and the issues involved with medical decision making when the patient is unable to communicate or decide for themselves. How could you be sensitive to the group’s religious beliefs when presenting this information?

Answer 1

Every individual is entitled to choose his doctor and medicine. He or she has the fundamental right to approach a medical professional in case of illness. When we speak of the right to choose medication, it means the independence to decide between

1. Allopathy

2. Homeopathy

3. Ayurvedic

4. Alternative Medicine

Also, the patient has the right to opt injection over ingestible medicine like tablets and syrups.

In some of the associations, people are so conventional that they have a fixed medical practical who could practice alternative medicine or do some alleged magic therapies that would not work.

Making the right medical choice would be a challenge if the individual is unable to communicate orally. If that's the case, then there are other alternatives such as writing on a piece of paper. The patient can also communicate through signs or nonverbal language. Every individual would be counseled and at times one on one to help them understand the consequences of not making the individual medical decisions. The arguments would be supported by the demographic data collected from various studies.

Any such associations that have a common medical doctor or those who adhere to magic remedies would be duly informed that it may not be harmful to believe in miracles but it's essential that the individual should be rushed to the medical doctor in case of health issues.