Hey, I don’t know anything about this field, but I thought some of my readership might. My best friend’s mother is in really bad shape because of cancer and because of delayed diagnosis because of doctors being indifferent to her care. She sent me the following e-mail:
Can you ask the Secular community what patient advocacy resources are available, and where to demand better, more thoughtful treatment? I think a lot of the shit Mom’s had to deal with has been a combination of medical error and the terrible quality of health care in SC, but I feel like this process has been complicated because, in general, doctors and nurses are rude and dismissive. This is a huge problem because I think it sends people into the arms of quacks on the “alternative medicine” side, and I’d really like there to be some kind of secular answer to that bullshit. I just don’t know where else to start.
Any thoughts you have would be wonderful, and if you don’t know, that’s OK too. Secular community help me out!
Ashley's co-blogger is a third year student at Northwestern University who runs on coffee and snark. . At some point, she'd like to make people sit on couches and tell her about their feelings, but right now she writes in different places around the internet and makes silly faces when she doesn't know what to say. She's the president of her local Secular Student Alliance affiliate, and she is on the Secular Woman speakers bureau. Opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the Secular Student Alliance
2 comments
wfenza
October 16, 2012 at 11:15 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Bookmarking this. I’d like to know too, if anyone has any suggestions.
elfreda
October 16, 2012 at 1:02 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
This is something I’ve been thinking about for a while now. I had a very delayed diagnosis of pernicious anemia. It took a long time because they just assumed that I was depressed and/or a hypochondriac. I still get treated as a “complainer”.
I wish I knew of any advocacy groups to recommend. The best I can suggest is the work of Dr. Rob Buckman. Here is a link to an interview with him titled “Dr. Robert Buckman on how to communicate with patients.”