The Art of Healing
Healing and health pose interesting and exciting challenges for Dr Andrew Marshall.
“Have you cured anyone today Andrew?†a colleague asks me sometimes in the tearoom. We exchange wry smiles.
A traditional view of the role of a doctor is to heal: diagnose an illness, treat and cure, and restore the person to wellness.But there are challenges to this view. We all die, so if the role of a doctor is to preserve life, then he or she will be ultimatelyunsuccessful. Illness and health are not black and white; all of us have degrees of physical, mental and spiritual wellness balanced with a range of minor or more significant problems. And for some people, and the healthcare professionals that treat them, a cure is not an option.
The role of a palliative care physician is not to cure, but to alleviate pain and treat the complications of a progressive and eventually fatal illness. So it is with the branch of medicine in which I practice: childhood disability. Almost never is the child before me able to be cured, at least not in any conventional sense. My role as a Developmental Paediatrician is firstly to diagnose correctly the condition the child presents with, be it intellectual disability, autism, cerebral palsy, or a range of other physical and developmental problems. Then I assist parents, whanau, and others involved such as therapists and teachers, to make the most of the child’s potential.
Grief-filled journey
Often, the parents’ journey is filled with grief for the loss of the normal child they had hoped for, and exhaustion from the demands of the child’s disability. Perhaps my job is to provide a map for the journey ahead, offer information about the disability and what the future may hold, and help
answer the hard questions about why it has occurred. While there is usually no cure, there are usually a range of treatments, often specific educational approaches and therapies which will promote more normal development and improve the child’s adaptive function and quality of life. Medications to control epilepsy, manage difficult or violent behaviour, treat anxiety, or improve muscle function may be required.
So where does Christian faith fit with the job I do? We know of Jesus the healer and Luke the physician. However, the miraculous healings in the Bible often involve the kind of neurological disabilities I manage but cannot cure. My focus changes to the best scientific evidence-based practice, delivered with compassion, respect, communication, skill and experience. All of these threads are woven together to provide the best possible care consistent with Christian principles.
Advocacy
One of the facets of my work is advocacy, on both a personal and policy level, for disabled children. They probably the most powerless, and therefore vulnerable group in our society, one that has been disproportionately abused or neglected by those who should be caring for them. In the ‘social model’ of disability, an impairment only becomes disabling if the environment is not adapted to it. As an advocate, my role is to try to ensure our society values the humanity in all its members, and to break down the physical and emotional barriers that exclude disabled persons from meeting their potential.
Andrew Marshall works for the Child Development Team at Kenepuru and Wellington Hospitals. He worships at Wellington Cathedral of St Paul, and is a member of the St Paul’s Cathedral Choir.
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