In this module, we will review the special challenges of communicating with depressed patients. Clinicians need special skills to meet the many challenges of depression assessment and depression management in the general medical setting. In addition, clinicians who treat depression…
Improve your patient’s outcomes related to diet and exercise by giving basic advice and utilizing strategies of proven effectiveness to establish personalized plans. This module describes strategies that focus on supporting motivation, assisting in skills building and assisting in getting…
Smoking is the number one preventable cause of mortality in the U.S. Clinician intervention for tobacco use and dependence is one of the most cost-effective interventions in health care. All clinicians play an important role in influencing and helping smokers…
In this module, we review techniques for communicating effectively with older patients, especially those with sensory, cognitive and functional impairments, and for interacting with their caregivers. These skills and strategies assist clinicians in making more comprehensive diagnoses as well as…
In this module, we discuss concrete relationship-centered approaches to facilitating respectful, honest and safe communication with teens. We organize the adolescent visit into three phases, setting the stage, eliciting the medical and psychosocial history and strength-based counseling. We emphasize that…
Building and sustaining relationships with children and their family members is an ongoing task that includes a set of skills that can be improved with knowledge and practice. Communication between clinician, child and family involves conversation and relationship between human…
Families are the context within which most health problems and illnesses occur, and skillful family interviewing improves health outcomes. Despite changing demographics of American families, most patients live with family members and are strongly influenced by family relationships. The family…
Most Americans say that religion is important to them. If you ignore this dimension, you limit your ability to attend to your patients’ needs. Religious beliefs impact patients’ health and responses to disease, and they exert a special influence during…
In this module we identify basic principles of taking the sexual history. This module offers a framework for approaching the interview and some practical suggestions for ways to normalize sexual history and make it a routine. We focus on special…
The goal of shared decision making is to foster patients’ informed participation in decisions about their health. Shared decision-making rests on the ethical principles of respect for persons and autonomy and promotion of patient well-being. Evidence in the medical literature…
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