Views of Medical Practitioners and Psychologists on the Inadequacies of the Biomedical Model and the Role of Psychologists in its Extension

Abstract

Today, health providers are reawakening to the significant role that humanism plays in helping people get well and maintaining a high level of well-being. As medical science has rapidly developed with new drugs, treatments and instruments, there is a genuine concern that the humanistic dimensions of health care have not paralleled these scientific achievements. In this article the author indicates that we are faced with the necessity and the challenge of broadening our approach to disease to include the psychosocial, without sacrificing the enormous advantages of the biomedical model. The results of this study indicated that the majority of medical practitioners in urban and rural areas acknowledge psychologists as having an important role to play within the medical setting. These findings are discussed and the importance of psychosomatic medicine, holism and a multidisciplinary approach towards the treatment of medical disorders is emphasized.