Dismissed: The Unheard Voice of Chronic Illness

Empowering The Patient ~ Educating The Doctor

Ever experienced a power imbalance with your doctor? You are not alone.

Dismissive Doctors

We are made to believe that ‘doctors know all’ and this is so far from the truth. Let’s not forget that they are humans too and therefore by their very nature cannot know all and have faults. Having said that though, many doctors themselves hold too strongly to this fallacy and this needs to STOP!

Dismissed: The Unheard Voices of Chronic Illness was born out of the anger and frustration that I and many others have experienced at the hands of our “caring profession” when we have reached out to them for answers, reassurance and support.

Often the journey to diagnosis for those of us battling a chronic illness can be a long and difficult road. We know that there is “something” wrong but more times than not, we are dismissed as being hypochondriacs and attention seekers. If we are lucky enough to get a diagnosis, this then, opens a whole new can of worms as we seek to get the treatment that we so rightly deserve.

Only you know your body, after all you live in it. It is not a one size fits all problem that you bring to your doctor.

DUVCI seeks to not only raise awareness of this issue with the medical profession, but also to support and empower fellow sufferers to enable them to have those all important patient – doctor conversations in a positive, informed way.

We hope to achieve our aims in three ways:

1. Enlist as much support as we can to raise the awareness of how the medical profession are letting down people who are suffering chronic pain, chronic & invisible illnesses.

2. How we can work towards working with our doctors and health care professionals in the recognition and support of the chronic conditions.

3. Support for fellow sufferers to feel empowered to have assertive conversations with their health professionals. How we can change the perception that their word is law and therefore can not be challenged. 

Have you experienced leaving a doctors surgery feeling dismissed, disrespected, ignored, humiliated or silly? Has your doctor made you feel like your are time waster, a drama queen or a hypochondriac then we want to hear from you.

We need your story in order to build AWARENESS, and bring YOUR stories to doctors for them to reflect on.

Check out our blog post on this issue.

We also have a Facebook support group for those of you who would like to share your “Dismissive Doctors” stories with other sufferers, all in the safe environment of a closed group

 

 

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