Health Care and judging people
Thanks for the welcome back!
Now that I'm here--I have no thoughts worth sharing except I was furious at a peer of mine posting this piece of crap:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/starner.asp
Just linking it because the ideas are so offensive to me that I don't want to expose people unless they are fully warned.
Excuse me? Many of my pts come in because they have worked all their lives, lost their jobs, lost their families due to financial stressors and don't get mental or physical help until they ARE in an emergency room. Often after they've tried to kill themselves.
Are their people who make poor choices that end up in ER? Of course! My brother, who was an ER doc, used to call them "self-inflicted wounds" as in the pts decided to drink and drive, decided to go to the "bad" part of town to buy drugs, etc. But because some people making poor choices, NO one in need should get health care?
I'll admit: There are "frequent flier" pts that do occasionally give me the wish to sterilize them before they leave. (Dual diagnosis people who are on their 4th child with severe fetal alcohol syndrome and all in the hands of child protective services...) But then I realize, It is not my place to make these kinds of choices for anyone. I can encourage them that getting their shit together might be a better idea than having another baby, or say, hooking up with someone they met on the unit... Simply, people have the right to make poor choices. People have the right to make good choices. And even the best of us, making the best choices we can make, can still end up in crappy places needing help in getting health care.
Now that I'm here--I have no thoughts worth sharing except I was furious at a peer of mine posting this piece of crap:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/starner.asp
Just linking it because the ideas are so offensive to me that I don't want to expose people unless they are fully warned.
Excuse me? Many of my pts come in because they have worked all their lives, lost their jobs, lost their families due to financial stressors and don't get mental or physical help until they ARE in an emergency room. Often after they've tried to kill themselves.
Are their people who make poor choices that end up in ER? Of course! My brother, who was an ER doc, used to call them "self-inflicted wounds" as in the pts decided to drink and drive, decided to go to the "bad" part of town to buy drugs, etc. But because some people making poor choices, NO one in need should get health care?
I'll admit: There are "frequent flier" pts that do occasionally give me the wish to sterilize them before they leave. (Dual diagnosis people who are on their 4th child with severe fetal alcohol syndrome and all in the hands of child protective services...) But then I realize, It is not my place to make these kinds of choices for anyone. I can encourage them that getting their shit together might be a better idea than having another baby, or say, hooking up with someone they met on the unit... Simply, people have the right to make poor choices. People have the right to make good choices. And even the best of us, making the best choices we can make, can still end up in crappy places needing help in getting health care.