Our new Bravewell Fellow
The Bravewell Collaborative has developed an acclaimed course for doctors who want to work on their integrated practice.
Dr Catherine Zollman has beaten stiff competition to become the first UK Bravewell Fellow. Over the next two years she will be studying at the cutting edge of integrated medicine with the University of Arizona. She'll be using her new knowledge in her Bristol-based GP practice.
Here she describes the patient body she cares for and why she is interested in the integrated approach. We'll be following Dr Zollman's progress as she moves from internet learning to live experience in Tucson, Arizona.
Most of my patients are down-to-earth, common sense people who work hard and are used to taking responsibility for themselves.
Since medical student days I have been interested in combining holistic and conventional approaches. I was an active student member and then Trustee of the British Holistic Medical Association. I did my student elective in China and studied the complementary use of acupuncture and conventional care there. I have since studied primary care level homeopathy, acupuncture and counselling and relaxation skills.
I have been working in general practice in Bristol for 14 years. My practice is based in Brislington in east Bristol, an area where there are many working families, some spanning four generations. It's an area where community values are strong and there is a strong culture of self-help, although not a very widespread awareness and use of complementary medicine. Most of my patients are down-to-earth, common sense people who work hard and are used to taking responsibility for themselves. Over the years that I have been there, I've begun to talk more about preventative, self-help and complementary approaches and found that generally people are very open-minded and interested.
We now have a creative writing group, an art group, an exercise referral scheme and a 'books on prescription' scheme and I'm hoping that there will be more different initiatives soon. I also offer some primary care homeopathy and acupuncture within my NHS consultations. GP colleagues have referred patients to me for this and for discussion of other complementary approaches. I also do sessional work as a holistic doctor for Penny Brohn Cancer Care (formerly the Bristol Cancer Help Centre).
I feel that integrative healthcare in the US is more advanced than in the UK and that we have much to learn from the many different models of integration that are used there.
As people are so unique, it follows that the healthcare approaches that are available to them must be individually tailored to enable each person to achieve their optimal health.
For some, a purely conventional intervention will be most appropriate, but for many people suffering with common and chronic problems, conventional medicine does not have very satisfactory answers. For them, it is liberating, empowering and often healing (as well as being more satisfying for me!) to be able to offer a range of other approaches alongside the conventional. What really appeals to me about a truly integrative approach is that we are not having to choose one method over the other but are simply able to draw from a range of conventional and non-conventional disciplines to achieve the best package of care for each individual.
I’m very excited about starting the Fellowship programme because I feel that integrative healthcare in the US is more advanced than in the UK. We have much to learn from the many different models of integration that are used there.
I’m hoping to deepen and broaden my knowledge, research awareness and practical skills in a number of CAM disciplines and be better able to combine these in my UK NHS practice. There will inevitably be challenges and frustrations on the way. Recent changes in NHS primary care do not facilitate continuity of care and therapeutic practitioner-patient relationships. I may have to spend some time looking at how our NHS system can be adapted to provide more holistic care.
However there are many people associated with the Foundation and with organisations such as the British Holistic Medical Association and the NHS Alliance who have long championed this idea and who have made real changes here in Britain. I feel very privileged to be able to draw on their experience and feel very honoured to have been chosen to represent them in taking up this Bravewell Fellowship.