Treatments Decisions
This section is for people who are newly diagnosed or actively managing a psoriatic condition. It provides a guide to examining treatment goals, weighing treatment options, making treatment decisions, working with your care team, and identifying other supports that you and your loved ones may need throughout your condition.
Downloadable version of this section is available to save or print!
Click each heading below for additional information.
Why Learn to Work with Your Care Team and Make Treatment Decisions?
You’ve received your diagnosis, informed yourself about the condition, and met with members of your care team — hopefully your family physician or nurse practitioner and a specialist, like a dermatologist. Maybe you’re also receiving care from a naturopathic doctor, a yoga teacher, or another therapist. From this list of providers, you may have received one or more treatment options.
Now you’re asking yourself: What’s right for me? What are they going to do to my body, mind, emotions? How much will they cost? Do I qualify for coverage for any of them? If not, how much will I need to pay? Treatment decisions can sometimes feel overwhelming! Making this more complex, your treatment decisions, your care team, and the benefits, costs and known risks of them may change over time. For psoriatic conditions in particular, you may find that some treatments become less effective over time. This means the skills and tools that you need to work with your care team and make treatment decisions are really important, so that you and your loved ones can manage changes whenever they happen.
Making Treatment Decisions and Working with Your Care Team
The resources in this section are about helping you make treatment decisions and will guide you through working with your care team as a part of this process. In particular, we will talk about:
- setting your goals,
- discovering more about how you think,
- assessing your treatment options, and
- weighing your treatment options in order to make treatment decisions.
How to work with your care team and loved ones as part of the treatment decision-making process will also be touched on throughout this section.
When establishing goals for your condition, making decisions about treatments, and monitoring the impacts of what you do over time, some people find it helpful to write everything in one place, such as a binder or journal. Keeping a journal or binder helps you keep all of your information organized and helps you track changes over time.
Setting Your Goals
The first important question to ask yourself is “what do I hope to achieve?”
Discovering More About How You Think
Discover the many factors that influence how you think and make decisions.
Assessing Your Treatment Options
You’ll find that there is often more than one treatment option available to you and different types available too.
Weighing your Treatment Decisions
Now that you’ve assessed your treatment options, how do you decide what is right for you?
Treatment Decision Aid (Psoriasis)
External link
Last Thoughts
Here are some last thoughts for you as you go through this decision-making process.
Last updated May 31, 2024.
Disclaimer
This Site was designed for educational purposes only and not for the purpose of rendering medical advice. Individual variances in psoriasis cases require the consultation of a physician to make sound medical decisions. The information presented on this website is not intended to replace the counsel of your physician. It is important to see your doctor before altering anything in your treatment plan. The Canadian Psoriasis Network does not endorse any medications, products, equipment or treatments for psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. Any of the information contained within the Canadian Psoriasis Network’s Site is not presented as a substitute for informed medical advice. Visitors to this site should not engage in self-diagnosis nor act on information contained in the Site without seeking specific advice on the particular matters which are of concern to them from qualified health professionals and advisors. Some of the information contained in the Site has been provided from external sources. While efforts have been made to ensure the accuracy, currency, and reliability of the content, the Canadian Psoriasis Network accepts no responsibility in that regard. Please refer to our Terms of Use for further details.
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