The stigma, the challenges and the frustrations of the practice do not faze RBR’s new in-house psychiatrist Dr. Myra Lopez.
Although she admits that there might be underlying personal reasons for her choosing to specialize in psychiatry, Dr. Lopez said she was most intrigued by the dynamic patient-doctor relationship in the practice.
“I found out that I enjoyed the patient-doctor relationship more in finding out how the patient feels, how the medical disorder affects him, the family. It’s something that interested me more than reading books,
more than the rigid side of medicine,” she observed.
However, this graduate of the University of the East-Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Medical Center (UERlVIMMC) wore no rose colored glasses coming into her clinic here at RER.
Among others, she is aware that Philippine society still needs to change its perception of mental illness, while the local medical community needs to give psychiatrists a little more respect.
Specifically, she said that most Filipinos still chalk up mental illness to the supernatural such as being possessed by spirits, or superstitions. In other cases, she said that some believe the illness is psychological – that is, it is a character flaw.
“(But) there’s a biological basis to it. It’s like hypertension, it’s like diabetes. There’s something going on in the body that’s making the person have mental illness. It would be best if people see it as that, not as a personality flaw,” she added.
On the other hand, she said that their fellow doctors still need to understand that psychiatry is a medical discipline as well,
Dr. Lopez related that there was an instance when surgeons and internists would refer patients to them, but would ask them to cover their blazers, which carry tags of their department in psychiatry
“They always undermine how the patient would react because of their own bias against the field,” she noted.
But this doctor is more concerned with the challenges in her own practice here at RBR, which she first heard of while she was still at The Medical City.
“In psychiatry every patient is a challenge because it’s never the same for everyone. There’s no formula for all patients that you get to apply for everyone. The challenge is helping each patient and tailoring the treatment for each patient,” she noted
However, she explained that while these challenges motivate her to rise to the occasion, there are also times when she is forced to accept her own limitations.
She says she finds it most frustrating when the medications do not work. For instance, she said that one medication that may work for one patient could not work for another.
“It can get frustrating when you thought you have a formula but it doesn’t work for the patient. The patient gets frustrated as well. Then you realize you can’t do everything for your patient. You also have to accept your own limitations” she added.
Her training in her pre-med course in Public Health at the University of the Philippines-Manila (UPM) may have helped her deal with such challenges. In the course of her studies, she had to do field work, research, diagnosing epidemics, and finding out community health problems – all of which require patience.
In addition, she remains unruffled knowing she has a solid therapeutic program in RBR to back her up.
Dr. Lopez noted that the main reason she joined the RBR team is her belief in the institution’s rehabilitation program. She considers it as among the finest in the Metro because it is best known for handling the dual diagnosis of substance abuse and mental illness.
“When I joined it reinforced my belief in the program and how it helped the patients,” she noted.
She explained that her exposure here is different from that in The Medical City (TMC) where she was Chief Resident for one year.
More specifically, she said that at TMC, they just treat the patients through detoxification and then discharge them, not being able to follow up on their rehabilitation choices..
In contrast to merely medical approach, RBR employs the therapeutic community modality that helps reintegrate patients into their families and communities.
“Here you see what the patient goes through, how recovery really is after detoxification. So it’s interesting and challenging and I salute the staff,” she said.
Because she is busy with her private clinic, her work here at RBR, and her freelance teaching gigs, Dr. Lopez said she is not ready to take up further studies yet, but when she does she said she will probably sub-specialize in sleep disorders.
At the moment, she continues to take every opportunity to learn about her chosen field from her patients, and even from the RBR staff.
