#disabled healthcare workers

[spacedocmom]

Doctor Beverly Crusher @SpaceDocMom I believe your lived experience over what I read in a textbook at the Academy decades ago, and while I may use that textbook for reference in treating you, your information and consent are the most important factors. emojis: black heart, blue heart, masked 3:53 PM · Jan 17, 2024

#star trek #doctor crusher #star trek the next generation #kindness #support #care #compassion #health care #star trek tng #healthcare #star trek memes #medicine #doctors #health care workers #medical gaslighting #medical gatekeeping #chronic illness #chronic pain #chronic fatigue #disability #listening #respect #spoonies #spoons

[travelingneuritis]

idk how much mxtx was trying to make this specific point with the way that likable shen yuan took over violently unlikeable shen jiu’s body & attendant changes in quality of life for the shen qingqiu brand, but sometimes i think about how survival in many places in this world are explicitly a popularity contest despite there being way more than enough resources and money and healthcare to go around, and how shen jiu lost that contest and shen yuan won it, and i get really unhappy

#i'm not even really talking abt the stuff that lbh does to him. i'm talking abt the resources and protections he 'earns' or fails to earn #and how the presence or lack of those resources at various points in his life (childhood adolseence adulthood) shape him so extremely #in this twisted feedback loop #can u tell i'm stressed to be a contract gig worker w/o children in a country w/ vehemently anti-life healthcare eldercare & disability &... #svsss

[feckcops]

Why Has the Left Deprioritized COVID?

“Left failures to incorporate an analysis of disability and ableism are detrimental to our vision and organizing capacity. Capitalism itself is fundamentally ableist, awarding the food and shelter necessary for survival on the basis of an individual’s ability to work for pay. Capitalism ensures its own survival by turning disabled people unable to work, along with other unemployed people, into a surplus population whose existence disciplines employed workers into accepting poor working conditions and little pay, lest they fall into the abject poverty and exclusion experienced by many disabled and unemployed people. Work under capitalism is a disabling process, as workers become debilitated through unsafe jobsites, injuries from accidents or repetitive stress, and the mental and psychological tolls of a work culture that is almost universally unsustainable …

“In 1970, the Young Lords, an organization that fought for self-determination for Puerto Ricans and all colonized people, occupied Lincoln Hospital in the South Bronx to demand better healthcare. In 1977, disability rights activists occupied a federal building in San Francisco for 26 days, demanding the right to access any service that receives federal funding: hospitals, universities, schools, public transportation, government buildings, libraries, and more. That sit-in wouldn’t have succeeded without the support of the Black Panther Party, Gay Men’s Butterfly Brigade, and United Farm Workers, who provided the occupation with food, security, and personal attendant care. These groups understood that their members had a stake in disability rights, whether or not they were disabled themselves.

“The left needs to unite against pandemic ableism, not out of goodwill or charity towards disabled leftists, but for our movement’s survival. Organizations limit their potential membership when they romanticize pre-pandemic organizing practices, where everything happened in person and those who couldn’t attend due to disability or illness, lack of transportation, a work conflict, or family caregiving duties simply couldn’t participate. When unions fail to understand – or act on the understanding – that scarce, poverty-level disability benefits and the end of pandemic unemployment supports are political attacks on all workers, whose exploitation happens in relation to the parallel misery of unemployment, they miss an important opportunity to help build power for the working class as a whole …

“We need to organize collective action that builds bridges between our individual workplaces, issues, or identities. We need to work together as teachers, nurses, school staff, retail workers, seniors, and disabled people whose lives are increasingly dangerous and isolated, to shut down production and consumption to demand a public health response that puts life over profit. To get there, we need to call the pandemic what it is: an exercise in eugenics, a mass disabling event, and an escalation of racialized class warfare. The left’s job is not to accept the narrative of events that corporate media and government officials give us – ‘the pandemic’s over’ – but to craft our own, showing each other how many more people could be kept alive with policies such as universal free healthcare and housing; abolition of prisons, borders, and nursing homes; and broad mask requirements, ventilation upgrades, and widespread, accessible testing. We don’t need to accept mass infection. To survive this pandemic and the next one, we need to recognize that we all have a stake in transforming this extractive system, and together we have the power to shut it down.”

#covid 19 #covid #coronavirus #covid pandemic #pandemic #healthcare #disability #ableism #leftist movements #the left #workers rights #trade unions #mutual aid #organising #capitalism #racism #eugenics #american politics #politics

[enbycrip]

Yesterday I posted in a Facebook thread about “your opinion is less valuable if you’re not an expert” essentially with “yes, but with the caveat that this is much more complex with direct personal experience - notably there is a big issue with doctors, especially GPs, treating women and women-read people as unreliable witnesses to their own symptoms throughout the history of medicine which still continues today” and noted that my GP had initially told me repeatedly that my fucking sublaxions were somatic depression”.

I got a three-reply screed from someone claiming to be a nurse who said a) it’s my fault for going to a GP, not a specialist b) why am I complaining on the internet instead of “taking responsibility for my own health”? c) she disregards patients who talk about their health on the internet d) it’s the fault of people like me if the entire medical system collapses e) “your GP will still do better diagnosing other things than you do”.

And obviously I replied pointing out the truly massive unfounded assumptions she made about me, her clear lack of understanding of the U.K. medical system, and her huge logical fallacies, but honestly the gut punch yet again at yet *another* confirmation of the systemic disdain and defensiveness disabled and chronically ill people are dealing with from healthcare workers has left me feeling absolutely floored.

This was a level and detached a remark about “historically there has been a serious issue with how systemically marginalised people are treated where personal experiences are concerned, particularly in healthcare, and this still persists to this day - a notable intersection is the ongoing higher mortality rate of black women in childbirth” and the result was this vicious personal attack full of incredibly baseless assumptions.

I am genuinely sorry to load any decent healthcare workers reading this with anything else given the level of bullshit you have to deal with from our political class, but yet again I need to ask you to challenge this behaviour in your colleagues wherever you see it. Including in private spaces which patients will never see.

Because this online attack mirrors so many of my personal experiences in trying to get really quite basic healthcare. Worse yet, I *know* those experiences were serious factors in killing disabled friends and acquaintances, and I know other people who are going to suffer life-altering ongoing health effects due to them.

#disabled #disability #disableism #chronic illness #chronic pain #chronic fatigue #medical disableism #medical racism #intersectional disableism #misogyny #defensiveness #privilege #uk nhs #heds #pots #healthcare workers

[ratoybox]

wow the cdc REALLY fucken hates disabled ppl huh

#ratext #ableism // #guess im gonna have to get that flomask sooner than i thought #gonna have to wait after bloodwork appointment (where workers probably aren't even fucking masking to begin with) to make sure i got the #money to buy #cause sometimes medical services will be like “oh btw if you don't have the money to pay rn then we can't do your health stuff today” AFTER #you already arrived #which like. cool. awesome. #as you can see healthcare is fucked and disabled people are fucked over time and time again #cdc #covid isn't over #mask up

[agayconcept]

.

#wow ok so the new nurse practitioner im connected with is uh. The Worst Person #extremely discriminatory #doesnt give a fuck about her patients well being or health #wont do her job properly even when its fucking over said patients #is lazy as shit and tries to get out of doing any work whatsoever even just checking a fax #and has now screwed my healthcare over bc she's going on vacation for 2 weeks and DIDNT INFORM ME even tho i have tests scheduled #and am supposed to start meds that r extremely time sensitive #but now i just. Cannot access them bc she wont prescribe them before she leaves #so uh. ok. we're fuckin Done w this #gonna talk to my support worker tomorrow and explain and ask for a referral outside the program #which suuuucks bc that means said NP would have to do it and im sure she'll put up a fight but uh #ya no sweetie we r done w this #u hate disabled ppl and think my life and health is a joke #u have spent 3 weeks sabotaging any attempts i have made at getting adequate care and access to resources #genuinely and actually Fuck Off And Die #this is. truly infuriating i rly dont have words #like hooo boy if i had to quote some of the shit she's said and done y'all would be shocked #which is rly saying something considering the abysmal state of healthcare in most countries rn #aiyaiyai #Fuck This #i am. so so so done

[imjustli]

The actors and writers genuinely did an amazing job at making different tributes that are all memorable in some way. Especially in contrast to the capitol kids, who all wore uniform and had pretty similar body language.

#its also great how many disabilities were included #like it sucks they were all the poor district kids #but on one hand that makes more sense considering they have less access to healthcare and more situations were they would get hurt or sick #but also like. rich office workers who are the epitome of health also get disabled #tho im not surprised if the capitol believes in eugenics #like overall theyve done a much better job than most movies. but they couldve done it better #tbosas spoilers

[faint-blood]

I have wanted to commit acts of violence everyday for many years now, and While I haven’t acted on that want, I’m not sure how much longer I can go on with all the anger and hatred in my heart

#text #I scream #every video I have seen of protesters being beat by cops makes me #homicidal #every trump flag I STILL SEE makes me homicidal #every poc talking about the daily #racism and bigotry they have to face makes me homicidal #every lost trans brother and sister makes me homicidal #every stolen culture and hurt child and abused service worker and disenfranchised SWer and every white person who says ‘it doesnt matter’ #every disabled person left behind and indigenous life lost and family ruined my war and healthcare freedom taken from people #makes me homicidal #I genuinely do not know what to do with it #channel it into protests? into staying informed? into mutual aid? #I do that I’ve done that now all I can think of is violence #violence violence violence

[breads-voice]

Leaving the NHS was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. I have had a 10 year career within it, holding various positions, most recently as a nurse within a busy cardiology unit. A sense of duty is ingrained in us from the moment we enter University and doesn’t really leave us. We are taught the NHS is the only option, with private and non-clinical options being rarely discussed and non-NHS clinical experiences as students being nearly non-existent. Nurses have been historically seen as subservient martyrs, drawing the mental image of the ‘Lady and the Lamp’. The fact it has been seen as a female dominated profession due to the women as carers stereotype hasn’t helped. It’s a poison that has been spoon fed into the minds of the general public, that nurses ‘knew what to expect’ on entering the profession. It’s led to public disdain for nurses demanding better working conditions as ‘patients should come first’. No nurse would contradict this statement. However, the implication of this is that nurses are being expected to ignore their own, essential needs in favour of others. They need adequate rest, to feel safe on shift, hydration and nutrition. Nurses are still human. Without being able to care for themselves, they wouldn’t be able to care for their patients. 23% of nurses consider unaliving themselves. I was one of them. Resilience is crucial as a nurse due to the range of traumatic experiences we witness, but not to the point of expecting us to respond like robots. A sense of duty is important, but caring for our own physical and mental health is more important.

Nurses aren’t martyrs. They are highly educated professional and deserve their basic needs met.

#nurses #patients #nhs england #hospital #healthcare #health #disability #uk politics #strikes #uk government #protest #unions #worker rights #medicine #disease #covid 19 #pandemic #fair pay #fair pay for nursing

[overenthusiasticcartoonlover]

Things that are a nightmare:

- Getting diagnosed with a disability you have

- Getting your work to recognize that said disability means you are going to have to miss work, every now and then, because disability makes you sick a lot

- Getting any kind of financial help when said disability sends you to the doctor a lot, and you miss work, which means you don’t get paid for work, and despite being technical full time, you don’t always make full time hours, and said disability, combined with other things makes all the food you can eat, way more expensive than anything other people can eat, not to mention just rising prices on everything in the first place.

Fuck the US and fuck capitalism.

#i hate this country #We need worker's rights first off #Second off we need better disability assistance #and universal healthcare #I 'make too much' to qualify for assistance #I make #like #1500 a month maybe #And that's only on a good month #But i still 'make too much'

[spacedocmom]

Doctor Beverly Crusher @SpaceDocMom If medical appointments freak out you even when you have kind, supportive health care workers, communicate with them in advance to come up with strategies to mitigate your stress. Good HCWs want to set you at ease, and it's easier if they know what's needed in advance. emojis: black heart, blue heart, masked 1:44 PM · Aug 27, 2023

#doctor crusher #star trek #star trek the next generation #support #kindness #care #compassion #health care #healthcare #medicine #health care workers #good doctors #good nurses #spoons #spoonies #anxiety #chronic illness #chronic pain #chronic fatigue #disability #mental health #stress #coping

[sweet-as-kiwis]

I feel like I should be making a list of all the violations I’m seeing at work

#it’s not wheelchair accessable #there are no disabled stalls in the bathrooms #corporate refuses to buy a cleaner for some. compactor thing and it’s resulting in Fly Infestations Every Year #I know for a FACT there is expired product currently in the dairy section that won’t be removed till a customer finds it #we had. milk. sitting in the back. unrefridgerated. for A FULL WEEK AT LEAST. BEFORE SOMEONE TOOK IT OUT. IT WAS SOLID. #I’m part time and was not offered healthcare but they took a healthcare payment out of my paycheck. for healthcare they Are Not providing #we require a managers signature on Almost Everything. the manager is only here for about three hours three days of the week #I’m fully aware some of these ain’t violations anymore but like ??? #I Am Not payed enough for this #it smells rancid #it’s 90 degrees upstairs and under 60 downstairs #I just get assigned random ass tasks when I finish with My job because it means they don’t have to hire another worker in that section #I am part time and scheduled for 37 hours. the manager wants me to schedule for More. #the manager is also Very Insistent that I transfer to the location near my college when I move back there. for a minimum of 37 hours a week. #I am taking 18 credit hours. my shifts start at eight and end at three. my classes start at eight and end at three. #he does not seem to understand I Cannot work what is practically full time. during the school year. #half the tech is broke #we have a freezer that’s broken. we call it the snowglobe cause it’s frozen over half the time. #the roof leaks. they got it fixed two days ago. it’s leaking again today. #help

[smoov-criminal]

i just rbed a post about something similar but. i need my white disabled to folks to be more aware of the privileges they have when navigating the healthcare system. every bit of medical ableism one can experience can be made even worse by being a poc. some of us can't threaten to report a doctor to the ethics board, or refuse care from healthcare workers who aren't masking, without jeopardizing our access to care in general or even our physical safety. we are more likely to be seen as drug seeking, or marked as noncompliant, or experience medical abuse and neglect. that's not to say these things don't happen to white disabled people, but i just think it's important to recognize how dangerous receiving medical care can be for disabled poc specifically. please keep this in mind when giving advice on navigating healthcare.

#mj.txt #disabled #disabled poc #black history month #cripple punk #medical ableism #medical racism #medical abuse #lots of tags sorry

[drew-jupiter]

Was so caught up in following my dreams that for a moment I lived in a world where I wasn't disabled and reliant on meds to function

#when i told my mom that i wanted to be a tattoo artist #one of her attempts to try and convince me to not do that was by reminding me that most tattoo artists #are either contract workers or self employed #and therefore its harder to get healthcare from it #but like. its the same thing with pretty much any other art #so if i were to prioritize healthcare that much. then itd be best to not go into the arts at all #which isnt worth it to me #but god thats so fucked up im lucky my familys well off enough and my disability isnt so bad #that id have to abandon art as a career entirely just for my health #i hate america #drew-jupiter is typing #vent

[shroom-ish]

shut the up fuck

(this sentence will read differently when i don‘t have more „masks“ to give out — edit: a post, a flop, such is the internet. genuinely i don‘t care how out of date this post is if u can get ahold of me the offer is still valid)

hi ik i don‘t have many followers rn but i got into a spat with someone protecting corporate interests during this time of COVID when they literally sent us all out to die and steal priceless resources from us (our own health and ability to produce labor under their backwards ass system). I assume this anon is related because I‘ve done little else other than angst about ships and that‘s usually not controversial lmao.

The point of the post that @project-butch made was that we should all be wearing masks (preferably N95s) because disease is a fuck and if they won‘t protect us we gotta. On that note if you are any of:

- disabled (esp, sensitive to covid)

- have financial need

- are a frontline worker

send me an ask or a message with a little about the effect that COVID has had on ur life (i don’t need personally identifying details, I’m just trying to weed out trolls) and I will literally cashapp (preferred but I also have paypal/venmo) u $20 for „masks“ I don‘t actually care what u spend it on I trust u to make good decisions. I don‘t even care if you don‘t like my opinions we have to help each other or they will drown all of us.

I have to limit how much I can give out (~$100) because I‘m planning on moving to help my own COVID-sensitive disabled partner soon but I‘m not gonna let anons like you crush a good message because ur too busy quibbling over the „right“ action instead of actually doing anything.

Also if anyone not a part of these groups wants to steal my money to „prove a point“ (other legitimate need is welcome of course though) I’m just gonna remind you that I am not responsible for your desire to be immoral in response to my desire to be kind to the world. Have the day y‘all deserve.

#disability #chronic illness #mutual aid #covid isn't over #healthcare worker problems #also anon u really need to step ur fucking game up #I got death threats over the headcanon that Sherlock is ace before that was a popular interpretation #this is tumblr not twitter lmao

[sizzlingsandwichperfection-blog]

Hi. I've started writing a semi-weekly TB Newsletter, if you're interested in that kind of thing. Here's the second letter--about public-private partnerships, leprosy, and my forthcoming big announcement about expanding access to tuberculosis care. You'll hear more about that on Thursday. Anyway, here's the newsletter. You can sign up here.

---

In advance of the Big Announcement this Thursday, I made a vlogbrothers video today on how we end TB–with the comprehensive care plan often known as S-T-P, which is short for “Search, Treat, and Prevent.” But one thing I didn’t discuss in that video is the downstream benefits of comprehensive TB care.

Once you’ve hired community health workers to screen for TB, it becomes much easier to screen for other illnesses like diabetes, high blood pressure, and non-TB lung issues (especially lung cancer). TB is notoriously a disease of vicious cycles–a disease of malnutrition that makes malnutrition worse, a disease of poverty that makes poverty worse, and so on–but addressing TB can be a story of virtuous cycles: TB survivors become TB advocates, as I’ve seen with my friend Henry in Sierra Leone. More effective TB treatment leads to less stigmatization of the disease, as communities come to see the disease as curable and survivable rather than terrifying and deadly. And better access to TB care leads to a stronger overall healthcare system, because more community health workers are better connected to more primary healthcare clinics, which allows communities to better address all kinds of health problems.

—

Mycobacterium tuberculosis is not the only bacteria of its family that causes a lot of human suffering; there is a closely related species called mycobacterium leprae that causes the disease known as Hansen's Disease, or more commonly leprosy. There are still around 200,000 cases of leprosy diagnosed each year around the world, and while the disease is curable, it also remains–especially if not caught and treated early–a significant driver of suffering and disability in our world. 

There are many connections between TB and leprosy: Not only are the bacteria that cause these illnesses very similar, but patients have often expressed similarities in experience. TB patients who were encouraged or forced to live in sanitariums often compared themselves to lepers. One disheartening parallel between the diseases is that in both cases, those living with these illnesses are often abandoned by their families and must make new social connections within the new community of “leper” or “consumptive.” Also, both Hansen’s Disease and TB continue to exist largely because of systemic failures rather than due to a lack of knowledge or technology.

—

I really recommend Dr. Salmaan Keshavjee’s TED talk about how we ended TB in the U.S., and how we can end it using the same strategy around the world.

—

Last link from me today: I’ve been thinking a lot about the complex intersection between public and private investment (for reasons that will be clear on Thursday!) and I keep coming back to one infographic in an excellent paper (https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0256883) about the public money that was poured into the creation of the GeneXpert Machine, which can quickly and accurately test for TB. The GeneXpert machine has created a lot of profit for Danaher’s shareholders, and it has also created some societal benefit, but it could create a lot more societal benefit if it created less profit for Danaher’s shareholders. This tension seems to me one of the defining features of 21st century life. Anyway, here is the infographic:

That’s the money–over $250,000,000 of it–that came from taxpayers (mostly in the U.S. and Europe) to fund the creation of the GeneXpert Machine. And yet, this tech largely funded by the public is controlled entirely by private enterprise. I’m troubled by that model of value allocation, even if I still believe that private money and private enterprise have important roles to play in fueling innovation. But taking a quarter billion dollars of public money and then claiming total ownership over a technology, and using that ownership to deny the technology to the world’s poorest people, seems like a deeply flawed system of resource distribution to me.

I’ll see you on Thursday. I’m nervous and excited.

DFTBA,

John

#tuberculosis #it's so funny how this became my job #not like my paying job but the one i do and think about all the time #like of all things #it was this #this is my hobby #anyway #beats jkr's horrible fucking hobby anyday