Ariel
Senior Member (Voting Rights)
The MEA and other organizations representing the interests of patients need to learn how to respond appropriately to those who have been affected by long-standing and horrifying medical and institutional abuse and neglect. Without addressing them and these issues properly, things cannot change in the way that they urgently must.
It is going to take a long determined fight to change things and to even begin to deal with the damage caused. The willingness has to be there, however. People cannot get decades of their lives back, but they can be spoken to and treated with respect going forward. It should start with our patient organizations, and spread outwards from there.
While CS often responds impatiently, this is a problem of a different order of magnitude due to the subject matter. We are talking about the abuse and neglect of a patient population. I was horrified by the messages I read, many of which read as attempts to minimize abuse or harm reports. I also noticed that he used the term "we", grouping himself together with Prof Findley, not with the MEA or - crucially - with patients.
The MEA should be an organization representing and advancing the interests of patients, not a lobbying or networking organization for professionals. Who is "we"? Who will represent us?
I continue to hope that someday we will be brought into the mainstream of medicine and normal medical practice (with all its flaws!). We really need representatives who understand the problem and do not align themselves in practical terms, in spirit, or in professional solidarity, with those who have harmed us for so long.
It is going to take a long determined fight to change things and to even begin to deal with the damage caused. The willingness has to be there, however. People cannot get decades of their lives back, but they can be spoken to and treated with respect going forward. It should start with our patient organizations, and spread outwards from there.
While CS often responds impatiently, this is a problem of a different order of magnitude due to the subject matter. We are talking about the abuse and neglect of a patient population. I was horrified by the messages I read, many of which read as attempts to minimize abuse or harm reports. I also noticed that he used the term "we", grouping himself together with Prof Findley, not with the MEA or - crucially - with patients.
The MEA should be an organization representing and advancing the interests of patients, not a lobbying or networking organization for professionals. Who is "we"? Who will represent us?
I continue to hope that someday we will be brought into the mainstream of medicine and normal medical practice (with all its flaws!). We really need representatives who understand the problem and do not align themselves in practical terms, in spirit, or in professional solidarity, with those who have harmed us for so long.