The 3rd Helen Lester Memorial Lecture
This is a public lecture (free of charge) – everyone welcome
Wednesday 6th July 2016 Dublin Castle
Printworks Building, Main Hall
17.30 to 18.15
Speaker: Professor Chris Dowrick
Professor of Primary Medical Care in the University of Liverpool and a
General Practitioner in Aintree Park Group Practice
Please book your free place for this lecture in advance via this form
Suffering and Hope
In her life’s work, Helen Lester demonstrated two themes of fundamental importance to medicine in general and primary mental health care in particular: acknowledging suffering and offering hope. I will address these themes in her memorial lecture. I will explore our ambivalence to acknowledging suffering, how despite our best intentions we doctors often find it hard to listen to our patient’s distress. I will consider some of the strategies we use to distance ourselves, as well as systemic barriers that make it difficult for us to engage with our patients, and suggest ways in which we can turn towards suffering. I will then explain how we can offer hope to our patients in distress: through the exercise of compassion; by adopting a positive approach, from the discovery and application of new knowledge - evidence-based hopefulness - and perhaps by changing the ways in which we think about our patients as persons.
If you are attending the SAPC ASM 2016 in Dublin as a delegate there is no need to book a place at this lecture.