Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
You may not know this, but a doctor's a really great starting point if you're feeling down,
hassled, or if you're just having a really hard time and you don't know why. When do
you normally think of your doctor? If you're sick, you got the flu, or you've hurt yourself.
Well, they're actually there to talk to you about your feelings as well, like if you're
anxious or depressed. You might already have a doctor you can talk to, but if you don't,
you can look online for doctors in your area, or ask a friend to recommend one. It's a good
idea to make an appointment rather than just turning up. All you need to do is tell the
receptionist your name and when you want to see the doctor. You don't have to tell them why.
Going to see a doctor to talk about your feelings might feel weird, but that's a normal reaction.
A lot of people get nervous. You might even start thinking of excuses not to go, like
what if you run into someone you know? But if you think about it, I could be here for
any reason. I don't know why anyone else is here.
But if you're really stressing out, you could ask a friend or family member to come with
you. Or maybe bring in some music, a book, or catch up on some out-of-date gossip.
Hi Steve, how are you going?
Good.
Good to see you. Come through. Cheers.
I wanted to ask you, can young people come to talk to their doctors about any feelings
or problems they may be having?
Oh look, absolutely. Look, as GPs we're trying to do all sorts of stuff. We look after people
who might be having some sort of physical health problem. But yeah, we're definitely
also available and are happy to see people who might be having some sort of personal
problem or emotional problem.
So when someone comes in to see you, what do you usually say and how does it usually
get started?
If it's the first time that I've seen the young person, I might not always like to introduce
myself and just have a bit of a chit chat just to make the young person feel a bit more
comfortable and relaxed. And yeah, then I might start asking them some questions about
themselves, and just listen and let them tell me what's going on. And then I might start
to ask some more specific questions that I need to know to try to clarify what's going on.
What are the kind of problems that young people come to speak to you about?
We do see a lot of young people who are suffering from stress issues. Whether that's anxiety,
depression... It's often because of some sort of stress in their life. Something's not going
right. They might be having hassles at school, some kid's bullying them or something like
that. Or they might have just broken up with their boyfriend or their girlfriend. Or they
might be having hassles with their parents. Or they just might be doing things tough in
some other way. So yeah, we like to try to get to the bottom of it and be there to help
and deal with their problems.
So you often have people that come in, and then maybe they're a bit nervous or embarrassed
to talk about certain issues?
People are a little bit more embarrassed or shy whatever, to talk about personal things,
and that's understandable. We're all like that, and that's normal. But like I said,
we try to just gently talk them through it and try to help them open up.
Do you ever see someone that you think may need to see someone else, like a counsellor
or a psychologist?
I guess if we've come to the conclusion, or if I've come to the conclusion that look,
someone's having some sort of anxiety problem or depression, yeah, then I'll like to start
talking about their options. Well, what can we do about this? After all, that's usually
why they've come. They sort of want some sort of help. They want the problem to go away.
So I might explain to them what sort of treatments are available. One of the most important,
and one of the most effective treatments for those sorts of issues is counselling. So I
might explain to them what counselling is, and who does counselling, and how we can organise
that. I might talk a bit about medication. It's not that often that we need to use medication,
but it's good to give people a bit of information because they might have heard about it from
friends or family or read about it. So it's good to give them the facts.
If you think that a young person maybe needs to see someone else, do you tell their parents?
Or do you tell anyone?
No. Look, the way it works is anyone that comes to see us over the age of 16, we think
they're mature enough and intelligent enough to be able to make their own mind up about
what they want and what sort of help they need. But yeah, over 16, it's really your
call. It's private and confidential, unless there's some worry that I have that the young
person might not be safe, if they've talked about maybe wanting to hurt themselves or
hurt someone else. If they're a bit younger, it depends. If they're 12, 13, or 14, we usually
would like to involve their parents. And so I'd talk to the young person and try to get
their permission and get their okay, and maybe bring their parent into the room whilst they're
there, and we'll talk together. I'm not going to talk about the young person behind their back.
In regards to a young person coming to see you, how much does that usually cost?
Some GPs will bulk bill. That means the young person doesn't have to pay anything. They
just have to present their Medicare card, and Medicare pays for the cost of the visit.
But some doctors might charge a fee. And so they might get the young person to pay upfront,
but then the young person will get some money back from Medicare. So say, for example, the
GP charges $50, Medicare might pay you back 40. So you're out of pocket $10.
Okay. That doesn't sound too expensive at all.
No. And there are some other places like community health services, and headspace centres that
see a lot of young people for health and mental health problems that have free services or
very low-cost services. So there's plenty of affordable places for young people to go.
Thanks Steve. Thanks very much for speaking with me. It's been great.
Yeah, no worries Tim. It's been a pleasure.
So you can cover a lot of stuff with your doctor, and the more you talk, the more they
can help. Guess that's why they call it general practitioner.