General medical practice in a multicultural and multiracial environment: report from a multidisciplinary casework seminar.
The impact of culture and race on the doctor-patient relationship, and hence on management, treatment and outcome, is not yet part of medical training programmes. This is true for graduate and undergraduate levels. In order to explore the format for such training, a pilot inter professional seminar in transcultural casework was carried out in East London over two terms in 1987. The initiative for the course was taken by a small group of professionals in psychiatric, primary health care, probation and social services. Nafsiyat, an inter-cultural therapy centre based in London, was approached and asked to provide a facilitator for the seminar. Participation in the seminar and dissemination of the lessons learned formed part of the work of Community Roots Project, Department of General Practice, St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College. The Project has worked, through development work, group work and training, to explore ways of strengthening relationships between primary health care facilities and the communities they serve. The paper outlines some of the issues discussed in the seminar.
D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D005006:Ethnicity; D005194:Family Practice / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D008131:London; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011822:Race Relations