[Photo by Michael]
“The Child is the Father of the Man”—William Wordsworth1
Wordsworth’s observation (forgiving his gender pronouns) is truly one of the core principles of family medicine. Yes, we care for children because we are concerned about them, but also because we are concerned about the adults that those children become. As family physicians we may or may not care for a specific child into adulthood, but we certainly care for adults whose health has been influenced by their experiences as children.
For family physicians, parents are often our patients as well; they do not exist as unidimensional “Moms” and “Dads” but are complex people with strengths and challenges. We know if they have a chronic or acute illness, or are caring for an older parent, or have a difficult relationship with a partner, or a boss, or a substance. This facilitates our ability to help them work on the most positive, nurturing, and supportive plans of care for their children, because we are aware of the particular difficulties that may be confronted by those parents, that family.
[For more of this story, written by Joshua Freedman, go to http://www.stfm.org/FamilyMedi...Vol49Issue1/Freeman5]
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