Thread by @daniellelorenz

Hi! I’m Danielle Lorenz, a PhD candidate at @UAlbertaEd & Knowledge Mobilization Editor for @TheCJDS.

My presentation comes from my lived experience as a disabled & chronically ill woman. #MCGConf2021PIF

I’m tweeting from what is currently called Edmonton, located w/in Treaty 6 lands. I mention this b/c as an educator, I want ppl to think about the histories of the land they live on, and how non-Indigenous peoples benefit from settler colonial processes. #MCGConf2021PIF

#Disability in Eurowestern nations has long been constructed as an “individual deficit” [a] or a “problem that exists in a person’s body.” [b] This perception, carried by laypeople and medical professionals alike, situates disability as a deficiency [c] #MCGConf2021PIF

Much of this understanding of disability from the medical model is tied to eugenic ideologies and policies, where those deemed “defective” would be killed, [d] sterilized, institutionalized, [e] and prevented from integrating into society. [f] #MCGConf2021PIF

Accordingly, attitudes towards disability in medical students still tends to be negative [g] though they can be dependent on how disabled persons describe their situations. The same is true among practicing physicians. [h] #MCGConf2021PIF

For this reason, the medical model of disability, and the deficient-based thinking that characterizes it, plagues physicians, med students, and medicine as a discipline.

(Yes, that pun was intentional.)

#MCGConf2021PIF #MEdEd

What I want to suggest is an alternative: looking at disability from a human rights perspective. Degener’s human rights model is comprised of six prepositions, coming from the signing of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2007. #MCGConf2021PIF

Integral to this model w/ respect to this paper are the ideas that (1) everyone deserves human rights regardless of their status of illness/wellness, & (2) disability/chronic illness should be seen as normative aspects of human functions and life. #MCGConf2021PIF

By changing how we frame #disability we can hopefully begin to destigmatize it at the societal level, while simultaneously diversifying the medical field and providing more patient-centered care. #MCGConf2021PIF #MEdEd

When disability is believed to be a deficit, this impedes the number of medical students deemed “fit enough” to practice medicine [i] and contributes to fewer practitioners with lived experience of disability or chronic illness. #MCGConf2021PIF

Disability, as it is understood outside of the medical model, is a more recent and rare addition to medical education. [j] I think it's integral that MD programs change their curriculum because to do so will produce more empathetic practitioners. #MCGConf2021PIF

Research shows that having medical students interact with disabled people pre-clerkship offers greater empathy and understanding of disability than lectures alone. [k] This humanizes disability & chronic illness in ways that are difficult to do in the field. #MCGConf2021PIF

As a volunteer in the Patient Immersion Experience program at @UAlberta_DoM, which is based on the work of Arno Kumagi, [l] I believe that this approach can be impactful to students while also giving disabled persons agency in improving medical training. #MCGConf2021PIF

However, changing medical education curricula won’t lead to immediate results: it won’t destigmatize #disability at the societal level, nor will it end #ableism. #MCGConf2021PIF #MEdEd

But it will increase the likelihood of disabled and chronically ill folks getting more empathetic and patient-centered healthcare which is an important result for us #disabled folks. #MCGConf2021PIF

References: bit.ly/PifRef

The font in the images is Open Dyslexic if folks are curious!

opendyslexic.org