Medical care

You may come across the following people involved with medical care:

Medical professional Role overview
Dietitian Dietitians help people to understand the relationship between food and health. They also help people change their diet so that they can become healthier, and stay healthy.
General Practitioner (GP), also known as family doctor GPs are doctors who have completed training in general practice. They have a broad knowledge and the skills to treat a range of health issues.

GPs can decide whether their patients need to see another health professional. If needed, they will make a referral to see a specialist in a certain medical area or to other health professionals.

When people need to see several different health professionals, their GP coordinates their care.

Metabolic Specialist A metabolic specialist is a specialist physician who diagnoses and treats conditions of the metabolism, such as Tay-Sachs and Sandhoff diseases.
Neurologist A neurologist is a specialist physician who diagnoses and treats conditions of the brain, spinal cord and nerves.
Nurse A nurse is a qualified caregiver who provides holistic care and liaises with all members of the multidisciplinary team to achieve the best possible patient outcomes.

A nurse can be involved in the promotion of health, prevention of illness, and care of physically ill, mentally ill, and disabled people of all ages and in all health care and other community settings.

Occupational Therapist (OT) Occupational therapy is used when someone is having difficulty with everyday tasks. An Occupational Therapist can identify their strengths and difficulties, such as dressing or getting to the shops, and will help them work out practical solutions. They are often called OTs.
Palliative Care Team Palliative care is person and family-centred care for someone with an active, progressive, advanced disease, who has little or no prospect of cure and who is expected to die.

Palliative care helps people live their life as fully and as comfortably as possible. It identifies and treats symptoms which may be physical, emotional, spiritual or social, with the primary goal to optimise quality of life.

Most palliative care teams are known as multidisciplinary, which means that they have a mix of doctors, nurses and other types of health professionals. The team works together, and alongside other specialist and community teams.

Pharmacist Pharmacists can supply medicines and provide advice regarding safe use of medicines, including correct dosing, allergies, and whether certain medications are right for certain people.
Physiotherapist Physiotherapy is focused on helping people become more mobile and more comfortable.

Physiotherapists can treat people when they have a problem with pain or movement.

Psychologist Psychologists are experts in human behaviour. They have studied how the mind works and how people think, react and behave.
Speech Pathologist Speech pathology aims to help people who can’t communicate effectively.

Speech Pathologists can help when there are problems with speech, language, communication, fluency, voice, swallowing food or drinking safely.

They can also help with augmentative and alternative communication, and help people who have trouble speaking find other ways to communicate.