Medical Bias and disablity
I was writing an article on Medical bias and we see that it can be
very hard to spot due to the way medicine is taught, however, we do see that
there is a growing awareness of disabilities as we have seen in Australia and
the developed word we see that people with disabilities are often seen as the
afterthought, or even it is seen that as an adult we can be spoken to and for
this also now comes into medical bias.
But as
we see in this article it does become more complex than this as there is a
culture of cover-ups in hospital systems due to the lack of investment in
hospitals and a lack of support staff as well.
However,
we do know that doctors and medical treatments have been targeted toward a very
specific group. This being white males women and people with disabilities have
been left behind and I know that some nurses have said in social setting’s,
that people with disabilities namely behaviour’s of concern, need TLC these being medications that change
people’s behaviour.
The T
stands for Temazepam: Uses,
Dosage & Side Effects - Drugs.com
The L is for Loratadine - Wikipedia
The C being ? does change
depending on the country and this can be an issue as well as the country regulations
around nursing staff being able to prescribe medications varies but I am based
in Australia and nurse practioner’s I have the upmost respect for they can
prescribe in there scope of practice but often it is the nurses that pick up
the doctors mistakes and it could cost them there jobs if the dare speak up
about it and speak up about the cultures of cover up’s.
Often hospital pharmacists will pick that these medications are
all medications that seem unnecessary, but the two main ones are temazepam and
the one that is dependent on the country these are chemical restraints, in the
perspective of a person with a disability, and by putting them on these
medications you are risking having them over medicated and this isn’t a good
thing in a way. As in the short term
makes their job easier but in the long term if they go to supported living it
makes the support workers’/caregivers jobs harder than they need to be, as they
then need to advocate for the person to get off the medication.
So it is easier for the person not to be put on medications at all times, we
see that people need to be educated that people with disabilities do have a lot
to offer and give to society but they are often treated like children in adult
bodies, in some cases there mental capacity is childlike but in some cases, it
is because they haven’t had the option to be able to grow up they have been
protected and sometimes overprotected.
Also if you are a woman often very real medical issues are blamed
on periods or it is in your head. Now I
see that doctors are often overworked and tired so medications are the easy way
out for a medical professional when the longer-term solutions are education, home
health care, or a referral to an Allied health professional, for pain
management.
As this is the other issue that goes to responsible health care is
having good staffing ratios and good education but in going back to this
article we see that this sometimes doesn’t happen and causes both the doctor
and the patients harm.
I know that as the NDIS rolls out more appropriate housing for
people with disabilities we see that people are being placed into more appropriate
settings as people with disabilities can’t be discharged from hospital until
they have appropriate housing and care, this can be tricky if you need an
accessible house or your current housing situation isn’t accessible to you or
you need family or friends to look after you in the short term but they can’t
do so.
It is then questioned what happens then there used to be a
state-run system but this was scrapped in favor of the NDIS how this is the
issue, instead of being rolled into the NDIS some of these needed facilities
simply were shut down.
So then people weren’t moved out of the hospital they were kept in
until a place could be found and often this was in aged care of people with disabilities
as well, and this is where charities like young care came to be, but there is
still a massive push for people with disabilities to not be the afterthought
but to be included in the conversation.
From
the time that they were planning the medical care and this goes to the
underlying issue that people with a disability are often the afterthought and
not included in the conversation about things that will in the long term affect
them. So things like assessable
housing, levels of care, and future planning of our sites.
I will be
doing a longer blog post on all of these issues in the future and I hope to be
a little more outspoken on the issue as well.
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