Educating the medical profession - suggestions please?

[Sweetleaf]

Peer Supporter personnel. Nobody knows us like one of us.

Ooooh that's a great idea.

My pdoc has PTSD and it makes a lot of shit a lot easier with her.

 

[Swift]

Thanks for all your great replies!
Yeah, something like smells isn't something that'd occur to me. I'll definitely mention it.
In the conversation I'll stick to the basics, but I think having a thread to vent isn't a bad thing.
I've already started compiling a research packet to share, as best I can with one hand.
(I also live with two doctors. They're bloody clueless about PTSD and mental health in general, despite years of training. Mostly, though, they have a sincere desire to learn.)
I wouldn't discount my privilege in the fact that they're listening to me, either. I'm young, white, and look abled, as well as this being a small town and I'm doctor-spawn. I share my dad's exceedingly uncommon last name, and his sister (same last name) is high up in health in another state.
My father is well-known medically. My mother less so, as she practises under her maiden name and, is a GP not a specialist, but I went back to the same hospital with my grandparents who've been in this town 60+ years and they knew almost everyone and their families.
Doctors totally give preferential treatment to one of "their own."
It shits me, and I resent it, and I think anybody should be listened to by the establishment. It's also totally morally bankrupt to believe that someone is more worth listening to by lottery of birth rather than merit.
But.
I have this chance and I intend to use it for as much good as I can do, and take concerns other than mine to the table.

 

[Sweetleaf]

but people are responding and will continue to respond with personal trigger stuff that’s highly individualized.

A lot of these personal triggers have to do with being overloaded in some way, or surprised in some way, or having sensory input that is triggering. Telling them to be mindful about not overloading our senses, is a good idea.

Stuff like just being calm around us, or asking before touching us - those seem to fall into more broad categories, but I think stuff like that would be good to mention. It's nice and short too, and pretty broad in scope - like, the touching thing would cover my whole "let me wipe myself off" sort of stuff, and would cover a whole lot of other triggers for me and others.

 

[MyWillow]

Here’s a link which might help...

https://www.blueknot.org.au/Workers...for-Health-Professionals/Trauma-Informed-Care

 

[Sweetleaf]

@Swift lol

When I am around medical people, I am constantly going to myself "oh god they are so going to f*ck up and forget all sorts of shit and not notice things and make a bunch of f*cking mistakes" because, due to past experience, I can only view them as about as intelligent as the average person - so like, f*cking stupid. Not that I'm any more intelligent than that. I'm f*cking stupid too, lol. Having a degree of any kind means jack shit in regards to intelligence, IMO. Ability to work hard? Sure. Determination and ability to stick to things? Sure. Intelligence? Nope.

They're just regular, normal, average people. So they do a bunch of dumb shit :D

Maybe I just have a slightly misanthropic view but - I'm also just kind of saying, everyone is human, and a lot of this shit is a much more widespread problem than just in healthcare.

Nepotism is actually rampant like, everywhere, so, it's not surprising that medical people will be doing the same exact shit.

My main source of work, has been education. I got a job at a school -really- fast. My mother, and my sister, both had high-ish positions in the school district - every single principal of every school knew my mom, and she had a lot to do with the financial side of things. Nepotism was heavily at play. There were times I switched jobs to different schools or different positions - that all went smooth as butter too. During the abuse, when I switched to substitute teaching because I couldn't handle regular work anymore, due to like, you know, being f*cking abused and shit - my process was fast tracked and I had the job in like 2 days. People normally have to wait a lot longer than that.

It's not like I was trying to get privileged treatment - they just all knew my mom and did that shit. All I did was apply because I wanted to teach - that's why I was going to school in the first place.

I got a job over someone who had a PhD once. I have a BA. Happy to say though, after I left that job, they were the one who got it.

Nepotism is -everywhere- sadly :/

 

[Swift]

Nepotism! Thank you! That was the word I was looking for for about ten minutes. (I gave up in the end.)
I got Nero, nihilism, necrosis, necrophilia.
And yeah, it's a bastard of a thing. Sometimes, change has to come from within.
Having grown up with two doctors, I know they're idiots as much as the next person.
I also know they're highly, highly unlikely to make a major conceptual error or catastrophic mistake because they're so well trained in what they do. They literally diagnose everything in everyone, they just think that way, and you can barely watch a movie without them saying the actor might have x or y or z.
I was at a wedding last weekend, so were they. The photographer had the most striking, fascinating eyes I've ever seen. They were literally grey. Like, ice grey. No hint of blue or green or any other colour, just flat as a summer cloud.
We had a half-hour conversation on the way back about what could have caused that. I was talking to the bloke nearly all day so I got quizzed about his family history.
"He seems to have normal pupils and a normal ocular range of movement, and he doesn't seem otherwise de-pigmented" was one of the starting sentences.
It is literally how they think.
Dad can't garden. He's cut the phone line twice with shears trimming hedges. He mistook a mulberry for a hydrangea and cut the wrong one down. Recently he set up a system of hoses to water the garden that malfunctioned about 17 different ways when I tried to use it. I joke that anything he sets up works by the grace of God, because it passes all understanding. He can't sing, but that doesn't stop him trying, or singing nonsense to the dog.
But give him a vague description of a medical problem, and the man will nail it and help the patient like a hound tracking scent. Most things are easy for him, but if he can't get it, he'll bring home a block of dark chocolate and dive into reading literally everything on the fringes of obscurity to diagnose the patient with a condition where there are only 7 in the world, for one, or an undiagnosed condition and treat the symptoms so nothing he's doing makes things worse for the patient, or treating one symptom won't worsen another. He riddles at it until he's got it, in the rare, rare occasion something stumps him. Of course I know not all doctors are like him, but it gives me faith knowing that there's even a few who are.
It's like I might get a note or a lick wrong, but I'm really really really unlikely to misunderstand the key of the piece or muff a chord or add in a chord out of key, unless I were doing it on purpose.

 

[Sweetleaf]

You might have an easy time viewing it like that - but for me that's really hard hahaha. I know they're pretty well trained, and I'm not afraid of catastrophic mistakes, but I have a hard time not worrying about shit.

I got Nero, nihilism, necrosis, necrophilia.

Lol!
I think I just remembered it because I like how the word sounds.

 

[Victory]

Yes, I second the notion that scented products are a problem. I've already thrown up because of exposure to dryer sheets, but personal product scents are also a trigger for me.

 

[DharmaGirl]

How about asking the patient what they need? Everyone is different, I used to work in a hospital, those smells don't bother me. I had eye surgery and they were great about asking me what I needed to feel comfortable. At one point I said that I was starting to freak out, and the anesthesiologist said my vitals were fine, then immediately said that the medicine was coming. I was able to tell him before, so listening to what we need when we say it is important.

 

[blackemerald1]

asking the patient what they need?

Yes^^^^ totally agree.

listening to what we need when we say it is important.

Yes^^^and this.

I know ER can be difficult places at the best of times and staff are over-worked. But not to follow the 'stereotype' or media myths of what PTSD is. So they don't freak out when we do tell them.

Thanks @Swift

 

[Freida]

I was on facebook and found out that the VA in California won't allow service dogs in the ER. So the vet, who can't go out without his, had to choose between going alone to get treatment or staying home. He chose staying home. What a horrible position to be in. And it is totally legal because the VA is exempt from ADA laws. How twisted is that? The VA - the place where the people who fight for American rights go for help- is allowed to set their own rules about disability access

Maybe some education on what service dogs do is also called for

 

[CatInTree]

Something I really appreciated last time I was somewhere (dentist's chair) was that the moment my dentist could tell that I was freaking out more than when I okayed him to start he stopped to check that I was okay.