Letter to the Editor: Journal of Family Practice

Last month, an MGH Life Skills program colleague sent me an article from the Journal of Family Practice (“What family physicians can do to combat bullying” (2017;66:82-89)) and the Editor-in-Chief’s associated commentary (“It’s time to screen for bullying” (2017;66:66)). The articles described the harm of bullying and the need for doctors to screen their pediatric patients for bullying. After reading the article and editor’s response, I felt compelled to write a letter to the editor, which will be published in the April 2017 issue. While I agree with the need for doctors to screen for bullying, it is equally as important for doctors to be able to counsel their patients and caregivers on effective ways to resolve the bullying problem. Identifying a bullying problem and leaving the resolution up to a caregiver who may not understand the fundamentals of bullying or effective ways to resolve a bullying problem could result in the problem getting worse and potentially an adverse effect on the patient’s health. My letter emphasizes the need for doctors to be able to provide effective counseling to bullied patients and their caregivers. But more than just raising this issue, I also developed a counseling guide for physicians based on the CirclePoint Target Support System that should help them to have a brief but effective discussion with the patient and caregiver on how to solve the problem. This quick-counseling guide, which has been added to the Materials page of the CirclePoint website as a free resource, will also be provided to schools that use CirclePoint student guides but have not fully implemented the program so that educators in these schools who become aware of targets can also provide effective counseling and guidance.