Dr. Gary Bloch sees a lot of patients. Many of them have far more than their health to grapple with. Many live below the poverty line. Many have stressful living arrangements. At a certain point, Bloch realized that his medical training only prepared him to deal with part of the problem.
The problem is that the treatments he was prescribing were suited to address disease. There was another factor that both made diseases worse and prevented treatments from working well.
He was approached by the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty and was asked to do something crazy, so crazy it might work. He started prescribing a different medicine.
And it worked … for a little while, until the government changed the rules on their welfare program and prevented Bloch and the coalition from prescribing income. That didn’t stop him from finding more ways to help.
As he learns more, Bloch continues to advocate for policy change. He encourages other physicians to do the same, work together to provide support for their patients, and follow-up and follow through on their treatments.
See the full talk below:
