Reach out to your GP with Share your Sound
Professor Chris Dowrick is a Professor of Primary Medical Care at the University of Liverpool and a GP in a busy Liverpool practice. Here, as part of our Share Your Sound campaign, he urges tinnitus patients to feel empowered to approach their own GPs.
Tinnitus can be a very isolating condition to live with, as the BTA’s recent survey has shown.
Sixty one percent of respondents said their tinnitus makes them feel isolated from society – and for me, as a GP, that’s a heartbreaking statistic to read.
As somebody with tinnitus, however, I can see how the problem arises. There is a widespread lack of knowledge about the condition among both the general public and the medical profession, too, and the BTA has launched the Share Your Sound campaign in a bid to tackle this issue.
If we as people living with tinnitus don’t talk openly about the condition and how it impacts on our lives, how can we expect others to understand it? Opening up and sharing your experiences with others can often help release any frustration, as well as help those around you to understand how the condition is affecting you and make sure you get the support you need.
Earlier this year the BTA released GP guidance to try and help the nation’s doctors manage tinnitus patients’ needs more effectively. The guidelines provide GPs with valuable information around when to refer patients onwards, as well as details around the different ways tinnitus can be managed.
These guidelines have been well received but patients need to feel empowered enough to challenge their GP if they feel they’re not getting the right kind of support.
That’s why as part of this campaign the BTA is asking patients to take a copy of the guidelines to their own GP, sharing their story with their doctor and making sure he or she has the right, up-to-date guidance to deal with their case in the right way.
We want to increase our knowledge of the condition and we want to ensure we as a profession are doing all we can to help those living with tinnitus.
Head to www.tinnitus.org.uk/sys to download the GP guidelines and share your pictures with us via social media using the campaign hashtag #ShareYourSound. You can follow the BTA on Twitter at @BritishTinnitus and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/BritishTinnitusAssociation.
If you would like to be sent a Share Your Soud pack in the post, please email [email protected] with your name and address. Thank you for getting involved.
