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Room to Breathe: Making the Health Case for Green Spaces
The intentional implementation of green spaces originated in elite classes of society when intricate gardens used for strolling and hunting exhibited... -
Cultivating Collaboration: A Primary Care Setting and Community Hub Address Arthritis Management and Social Health Needs
A diagnosis of arthritis-associated pain or disability is a frequent reason for a primary care visit. Even when not the chief concern, arthritis is... -
Wellness for Everybody—in Every Body
In recent years, several qualitative studies have given us field notes of patients describing their experiences having larger bodies and interacting...
Archive
Perspectives in Primary Care features writing from practitioners, activists, and community members representing organizations, practices, and institutions across the United States and around the world.
Exploring Work That Scratches the Soul: Reflection on a Rural Health Independent Study
When my fellow Harvard Medical School classmates asked “what I was up to,” I called it my Rural Family Medicine Adventure Month. More formally, it was my extreme privilege and pleasure to learn Family Medicine across northern Maine and western Massachusetts as part of an independent study in rural primary care in June 2021. My travels brought me to the Jackman Community Health Center, the Northern Maine Medical Center, the Barre Family Health Center, the Behavioral Health Network Methadone Clinic, and the Community Health Center of Franklin County. I explored the ...
Restructuring the Power Dynamic: How a Patient’s Narrative Can Help Us Understand the Role of Trauma in the Clinical Encounter
In many ways, medical school trains its pupils to be detectives, capable of discerning and interpreting even the most subtle physical signs of the human body. Yet, when patients are so generous as to entrust us with their stories, as illustrated by their verbal or body language, we often lack the skills – those akin to literary analyst – to elucidate motifs and themes that could both explain and perhaps facilitate the patient’s relationship to their health and the healthcare system. The ...
