1. I was sitting in one of my hectic clinics one day. Patients came in and out the room one by one. A mum was denying that her son was over-active when the fact showed clearly that the child was running up and about the room and his condition was getting worst and worst from the perspective of his class teacher.
2. What can I do to accelerate the turnover of patients? I scanned the file of my next patient. Here..there is some familiarity. I called the mum in. The boy was wearing the red shirt. Oh..similar with this patient. However, in striking contrast, the newly identified boy was full of order and looked like he was well compliant with my treatment.
3. I made much of this and suggested he must be taking medicine as prescribed. The mum nodded.
4. Well, can you tell her what happen to your son after taking medication, I seemed to suggest. They were looking at each other, unbelievable and hardly say anything for a moment.
5. The mum of the orderly boy started by describing how she gave the medication and to her astonishment, it’s work.
6. Well, then, I wonder, they just need facilitation. I facilitated the discussion to the point where a mum told the others that teachers won’t be able to handle hyperactive kids in the class. Imagine they have 30 more kids to look after. There is no teachers’ aid in Malaysian setting, either.
7. Finally, the former was influenced to start her kid on medication and that solved my biggest headache of the day.
8. Many parents are misinformed about the need to start medication on their hyperactive kids. To some extent, the internet is to be blamed. The benefit has to outweigh the risk before any medication has to be started. By and large, from my experience, at least 80% of children will respond to medication.
9. The only problem at the moment is that the child has to swallow the pill or otherwise the pill has to be crushed. No liquid preparation is available.
Idea-logy 