i see that there are several comrades here who share my frustration with the medical establishment. it’s hard to talk about with people who have never had the experience of being discounted and dismissed. i sit here and make memes for lack of anyone to talk to about it.
i’ve also been reading, researching, and keeping notes on ways to organize for the defense of people under circumstances like ours, but there’s no one to share these ideas with bc again, no one wants to listen.
i’m just glad to be here. i’m a little bit timid, but i hope to get to know everyone better with time.
i see a lot of ppl on twitter talking about ways to “fool” healthcare workers and doctors into treating them appropriately, such as wearing sweatshirts from prestigious universities.
we should not have to do this, and ofc, this is not at all effective for most of us. the problem is that we are alone, and the hospital/clinic staff can plainly see that we have no one who will stand up for us. when people understand that they can do or say whatever they want with no consequences, they will often do their worst.
the solution is to stand up for one another. my own circumstances are such that I have no one I could call to accompany me to appointments or the emergency room. we are told that we must learn to self-advocate. i’m sure many others would agree that self-advocacy doesn’t work when our word and our very humanity hold no value in the eyes of the people who do us harm.
this is a systemic problem; individual fixes will never help matters. the people we are vulnerable to in the healthcare system only fear accountability, which is why they behave like monsters to us when we are on our own. solidarity provides protection, it serves as a deterrence to those who would otherwise harm us or treat us poorly. it also solves the problem of credibility - individually, we are almost always given no credibility. but when we’re organized, it’s not so easy for us to be dismissed out of hand.
the easiest way to do this would be to organize networks in which we accompany one another when we need to deal with the healthcare system. but ofc, this can only be effective if we are properly educated/trained politically as well as in practical skills - such as proper documentation, “rights,” and some access to legal advice or counsel would help too.
at any rate, we should not have to be on our own like this. and we don’t have to be. but in order to change things, we have to start somewhere. no one else is going to do it for us.
I’m not the best person to talk about this, because I don’t have a lot of experience organizing. But I think a way to remedy this is to organize as a social movement. Is there any organized social movement regarding health care in your country? Does this social movement has an actionable program with clear goals and tasks on what they need to do or achieve?
I am from Brazil (currently living in Canada), and while we don’t have social movements related to health care, we do have social movements towards housing and land reform. Some of those movements were really successful.
Keep in mind that social movements shouldn’t be tied to any political party, although they can collaborate in many aspects in the political struggle. But that’s not the main goal.
that’s not correct but i am gonna go back into my shell nevermind
Hey, I’m sorry if I didn’t sound polite, I did my best. Sometimes I may not give the best response because I’m usually juggling many different activities. I didn’t want to dismiss your idea.
A social movement can help you create those networks. I’m not talking about activism only but actual efforts to help people. The landless movement in Brazil not only do demonstrations, and land occupation but also organized agricultural workers in cooperatives. They engage in negotiations with companies (even external to Brazil) to buy machines and do partnerships with universities and technical schools to train the workers. They even maintain their own newspaper.
People with the same demands and difficulties as yours need to organize. But in order to have a clear idea on what those demands are, you need to build a program that is actionable.