General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhite middle class medical people and the lower class:
Many poor people are very mistrustful of anyone in the medical field. I've heard comments from lower class people expressing a fear of eugenics (using a needed appendectomy to perform an unwanted abortion) to withholding care because the person was poor (my father-in-law unsure whether his wife was receiving proper care). The specific cases may have been unwarranted, but there are solid grounds for the general mistrust;
http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/26/us/north-carolina-sterilization-payments
http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/2002/jul/tuskegee/
But I'd like to suggest another reason: the poorly hidden contempt that many middle class whites have for the poor. I have many acquaintances in the medical field, doctors, nurses, etc. All too often, I hear an anecdote (often apocryphal) illustrating the stupidity of the poor. The classic example of such an anecdote is the one claiming that the mother was going to name the child "placenta" after hearing the term used during delivery. I heard one doctor drop a series of such comments over the course of an evening, only to wonder at one point why her African American patients were so reluctant to accept her advice. Consider also the term "frequent fliers" applied to those who make frequent use of emergency rooms. Often, the problem is the failure of the system to address underlying problems of mental illness, homelessness, lack of education and poverty, but somehow the blame is placed on the victim.
Not every medical person is guilty, of course, and many object to this attitude. I'm guessing some would claim there is no contempt, only harsh humor in reaction to the stress of working in the medical field. Such humor was once a feature of anatomy labs, and has been driven out by efforts to restore respect for the people whose bodies are used to educate doctors.
https://www.aamc.org/newsroom/reporter/october2012/308520/donor.html
It's well past time for all medical people to accord such respect to the living, as well.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)"Dumb-ass poor people should get up and move to where the jobs are."
Weird how they -- affluent white suburbanites -- clam up when I ask "Where will the poor find money to move? Get housing in a new town? Pay for transportation?"
People don't get that they once got a hand somewhere -- from a rich uncle or from some good hearted Democrats, that is, from back in the day when Democrats actually believed in the power of the government to do stuff to help people.
JustAnotherGen
(31,683 posts)And hold two B.A.s in B.S. But I have started to distrust the medical field. From ignoring my ankylosing spondylitis and shoving me into the women's health ghetto of 'fibromyalgia' when I NEVER had that - to dealing with fertility issues . . . there's no trust there. I also distrust the testing of just about everything (pharma). Nothing gets tested on multi-race women. Nothing. They throw things at us that they really have no clue if it hurts or helps (example enbrel).
I get more healing and whole health from the Cherokee Medicine Man as well as my Chinese Medicine Doctor (who is also an M.D. in WESTERN Medicine) than I ever did from straight Western Medicine Physicians.
And Western Medicine says - let's throw that pill at that black woman of European and Native American heritage - without taking into account the repurcussions of those ethnicities/races that you can't see.
So - is it a 'poor' problem - or cannot it potentially also be a minority problem of all levels of the socio economic ladder?
hedgehog
(36,286 posts)the model of a well nourished white male as the default patient. Part of what you are dealing with is the fact that most doctors don't know how to approach any chronic illness. If they can't cure it, somehow it's the patient who is at fault, not the level of medical knowledge!
raccoon
(31,091 posts)IME, many doctors don't take women seriously--and don't listen.
Liberal_in_LA
(44,397 posts)surgery that was delayed by the stupid diagnosis
leftstreet
(36,081 posts)It's not limited to any particular field
HiPointDem
(20,729 posts)Bunnahabhain
(857 posts)Do not let middle class white people work in healthcare.
Or stop painting a whole bunch of good people with broad brush strokes. We usually refer to that as "stereotyping" and consider it poor form.
We can also examine the demographics of healthcare workers and find they might not be the solid block of middle class whites it is being portrayed.
hedgehog
(36,286 posts)but too many are.
Bunnahabhain
(857 posts)but are sure there are a few good ones...
I mean, a very material proportion of all licensed doctors are from India and Pakistan. Why not start a thread about their views? Tons of nurses from the Philippines...no thread on them? And having my career in public health and health care management I can match every one of your anecdotal stories about Caucasian health care workers with non-Caucasian ones.
Given this why did you single out whites?
hedgehog
(36,286 posts)It seems to be a combination of racism and classism.
Bunnahabhain
(857 posts)I'm not saying you're lying to save face but...
You said in your OP, "I have many acquaintances in the medical field, doctors, nurses, etc. "
The odds of anyone in 2013 American having "Many acquaintances in the medical" field and all of them being white is so vanishingly small as to be impossible.
hedgehog
(36,286 posts)know socially are all white. Some of them are doctors, some are nurses. I am basing my OP on casual conversations with these women.
Bunnahabhain
(857 posts)So now this is all based off 60 or so year old white females that went to a Catholic school for girls?
Yeah, that is the perfect sample universe to be making sweeping statements.
MindPilot
(12,693 posts)Not really that I mistrust them so much as they just don't have as much to offer as they claim. If you have something visibly broken or fluids leaking, doctors are great. But if you just don't feel good, they've got nothing but platitudes and pills that make you feel even worse.
loyalsister
(13,390 posts)It seems like that it has taken an awfully long time for me to get pain meds for broken bones, dislocations, etc.