Kaz's Scribblings

Posted by meloukhia

http://disabledfeminists.com/2010/03/19/dear-imprudence-the-unmannerly-doctor/

http://disabledfeminists.com/?p=2994

This week’s Miss Manners featured an interesting piece of embedded content which I think that a lot of readers probably skimmed over. The main letter of the week was a complaint from a reader about online review sites. The reader felt that such sites are injurious to the reputations of the professionals and businesses reviewed, saying: “People who expect and deserve good service from the business they patronize politely bring any shortcomings to the attention of the owner/manager and give them a chance to rectify the situation.”

The part of the letter that interested me was this:

I, personally, am horrified by the bad reviews I see. The revered and highly respected ob-gyn who successfully steered me through an extremely difficult twin pregnancy was given a one-star review by someone who visited his office once.

She announced to him she had decided not to have children. He engaged her in what he thought was harmless banter. She flounced out and gave him a scathing review. He lost patients. I just related this story to strangers at a coffee shop, and they immediately knew who the doctor was and were amazed that he had a bad review from anyone!

Does this look familiar to you? “…everyone likes her so much, and she is well known for being very good at what she does.”

Miss Manners made several important points in her response, including a pointed reference to the fact that it’s often aggrieved business owners who complain most vociferously about online review sites, usually only after receiving bad reviews. One of the things she said was: “But not every person or company is conscientious — or even reachable. Reviews have been a much-needed outlet for those who have been given the Your-Call-Is-Important-to-Us runaround.” From my own experiences with businesses which have given extremely bad service or failed to meet my needs, I’d echo this; it is sometimes really hard to get anyone to pay attention, but when you blare the name of a business on the front page of your website, suddenly you get attention.

And, of course, for people with disabilities, there may be barriers to making complaints in person. Miss Manners unfortunately reinforces the idea that people always need to complain in person first, but at least she admits that it’s not the only option.

But the more important and FWD-relevant point was this: “Miss Manners considers it injudicious, at best, to banter with a patient over an important and emotional issue.” I wish that she had expanded upon that a little bit more. Because the original letter illustrated for me a very common attitude; “harmless banter” can’t hurt, so people who “flounce” are clearly just overemotional. Plus, everyone else likes the doctor, so clearly he couldn’t have done anything wrong.

As Miss Manners rightly pointed out, the doctor did not behave appropriately. The patient was well within her rights to be upset. And we have no way of knowing; perhaps she said “Doctor, I find this really inappropriate” and he kept going, or did not apologise. Perhaps she called the office to say “I was extremely disconcerted by the way I was treated when I came in for my appointment” and received no response. Or “Well, Doctor Obgyn is a joker! Haha! Everyone just loves him!” And maybe then, only after she had tried several times to get some kind of resolution, she turned to an online review site. We don’t know that. Maybe she tried being polite first and it didn’t work.

What we do know is that a woman went to a doctor for some medical care, and what she got was “harmless banter” which upset her so much that she evidently felt unsafe in the doctor’s office and left. And she was upset by that, and she wanted other people who needed medical care to know about how she was treated. And I am glad that Miss Manners pointed out that the doctor’s actions were inappropriate, full stop.

©2010 FWD/Forward. All Rights Reserved.

Posted by lauredhel

http://disabledfeminists.com/2010/03/19/recommended-reading-6/

http://disabledfeminists.com/?p=2999

Hi everyone! This is an extra huge edition of the Rec Reading, because it’s my last one for this particular RR stint. I hope you’ve all found something interesting, enjoyable, or useful out of my roundups over the past couple of months. ~L

Warning: Offsite links are not safe spaces. Articles and comments in the links may contain ableist, sexist, and other -ist language and ideas of varying intensity. Opinions expressed in the articles may not reflect the opinions held by the compiler of the post. I attempt to provide extra warnings for material like extreme violence/rape; however, your triggers/issues may vary, so please read with care.

SBS World News: Young candidate steps up to challenge [more information on the Dignity for Disability party here]

Young playwright Kelly Vincent has stepped up to be the main candidate for Dignity for Disability in the South Australian state election, after the death of the party’s founder. [...]

“To step up to this new position is a great honour to me,” Ms Vincent says. “I’m running to improve the situation [for the] one in five disabled Australians.” Ms Vincent says the situation for disabled people is ‘dire’, and that she’s faced many challenges in her day-to-day life.

“I’m currently sitting in a wheelchair I’ve had for four months, but it took two years to get,” she says. “Prior to that I was using the same wheelchair from the age of ten to 21, so you can imagine the physical pain and discomfort that I was having because of that, and the loss of independence. So I learnt a lot in that experience, in battling for that chair.”

As well as issues with obtaining basic equipment, the candidate says disabled South Australians face issues with finding suitable housing and care, and find it difficult or prohibitively expensive to travel from place to place.

jeneli at almost normal: Yes I am

I’ve been thinking about disability a lot lately. Dancing around the word itself, never quite daring to apply the word to me. Never quite daring to dip more than a toe into the water, so to speak. I’ll use the word indirectly, by tagging a post with ‘hidden disabilities’ or by saying ‘I feel disabled by X, Y and sometimes Z’, but that’s about as far as I’ve gone–and even that fills me with doubt as to whether I have the right to use these terms.

The Vancouver Sun: Women under-represented in Paralympic sports

Nearly five times as many men are competing at the 2010 Games. It’s skewed by sledge hockey, which is a male-only event. But subtract the 118 hockey players from the 506 competitors and women are still outnumbered by more than three to one. [...]

Even in Canada, women with disabilities are among the poorest in the country and even without needing customized and specialized equipment, sports are expensive.

But there’s also self-selection. Women generally don’t participate in sports in as large numbers as men. They also are less likely to engage in risky behaviours and, as a result, fewer disabled women acquire their injuries. Qualtrough says most women are either born with disabilities or have had cancers that required amputations. Plus, there’s the whole issue of children and families.

frolicnaked at RH Reality Check: How Endo-Aware Are You?

So yes, it’s still March, which means that it’s still Endometriosis Awareness Month. And talking with some of the members over at Live Journal’s endometriosis community brought to light how much the lack of information and lack of accurate information can make dealing with endo harder for some of us.

These misconceptions are harmful, since they can contribute to stigma associated with chronic pain and make it more difficult for people to seek out and receive proper treatment:

More from frolicnake: WHAT and Pains?

Herald Scotland: Millions in disability benefits go unclaimed by cancer sufferers

Cancer patients nearing the end of their lives are losing out financially with approximately £8 million in disability benefits going unclaimed in Scotland every year.

A report released today by leading charity Macmillan Cancer Support also shows that nearly a third of people diagnosed with terminal cancer are not claiming benefits because the system is confusing.

Top News: ‘We need a national advisor to PM on disability’

In order to ensure the rights of people with disabilities, there is a need for a national advisor on the subject to the prime minister, former chief justice of the Delhi High Court Ajit Prakash Shah said Thursday.

“There is a need for a national advisor on disability to the prime minister, as it will help in bridging the gap between policies and ground realities,” Shah said at the inauguration of a two-day meet on the disability sector in the capital.

Boston Herald: Dead man’s dad takes on wheelchair co. in $10M suit [warning: description of death may be upsetting]

The father of a South End quadriplegic who died in 2007 after his wheelchair malfunctioned during a repair session said yesterday a $10 million lawsuit against the company is about fair treatment for the disabled.

“It’s infuriating,” said Charlie Thompson, whose son Jeffrey, 29, died a day after his wheelchair malfunctioned while two technicians from Franklin, Tenn.-based National Seating & Mobility were doing routine repairs.

Rye & Battle Observer: Disabled boy forced to miss out on school

The parents of a 12-year-old boy with learning disabilities say they have been forced to educate their son at home because the education authority will not pay the £12-a-day taxi fare to get him to school. [...] Lee used to get the bus from outside his house to the school gates but when the route was discontinued and replaced by a school loop bus, Lee twice became confused and ended up lost in the town centre.

Lee’s mum, Mrs Godden, said [...] “The education department know that my own disability also prevents me from taking Lee to school myself so I am at my wits’ end about what to do.”

The Age: Legally blind social worker denied permanent visa

The Immigration Department has refused to grant a skilled worker’s visa to a highly qualified social worker from India because she is legally blind. Simran Kaur, 29, came to Melbourne in 2007 on a student visa with her husband, Jasmeet Singh. She had obtained a master’s degree in social work in India and completed a diploma in community welfare and development here last year. [...]

The [Commonwealth medical] officer said she met the criteria for legal blindness and she would be eligible for the blind or disability pension ”in due course”. ”Such a person with this condition and severity, staying for the proposed duration of stay (permanent), would likely require the … blind or disability pension. This would result in significant cost to the Australian community,” the officer wrote.

Chicago Tribune: Artful disabilities act

“Chicago is so progressive,” says [Carrie] Sandahl, 41, an advocate for disability rights who has become a leading researcher on disability and the arts. She arrived last fall from Florida State University in Tallahassee to head a new program at the University of Illinois at Chicago called the Program on Disability Art, Culture, and Humanities. The curriculum is devoted to research of and the creation of disability art.

©2010 FWD/Forward. All Rights Reserved.