Healthcare and Drug Clinical Trials

Healthcare is a huge issue facing many individuals in the world and in reality those of us in the Westernized world should not be compaining even though there are many issues and problems with healthcare in the U.S. and Canada.  I tell my kids regularly, ‘count your blessings that you were born and live in Canada.’

Other countries are not so fortunate nor do they have the financial means to even offer basics in healthcare to its citizens and here we are up in the North complaining about wait-lists, not enough General Practitioners, shortages with medications and such.

Speaking about medications: read this article re: clinical medication trials. From the article:

“You’ve said, “This project will make information about drug clinical trials easier for Canadians to find and use so that they can make informed decisions about their health.” But such a list, as we have learned in other countries, probably won’t empower patients. And it wouldn’t have saved the lives that have been lost because of a lack of transparency around clinical trials.
Share your thoughts with me please.”

As social workers what do we do, or, say to a client re: medication shortages? How do we answer questions related to whether or not they should participate in drug trials? Many will want to ask us because we are much more approachable than the doctor and often we have a bit more time to spend with them. Again, our role is to assist with problem solving or help to answer their own questions. We cannot supply the answer. We can ask our clients the questions, “So, what do you think?” or “So, what do you want?”