[Nfbmo] Panel on How the Health Care System Treats the blind

[Gary Wunder]

My impression in listening to the panel is that we often get more out of the
wait staff at a restaurant then we get out of some of the service people who
work in doctor's offices and hospitals. If there is any place where we need
one-on-one human contact and some awareness of individual human needs, it is
in the medical setting, and this doesn't just mean when we are in a bed or
with a medical professional. When you hand an eighty-year-old an iPad, you
better expect that many of those folks are going to need help. If you hand a
blind person and iPad, not only will he need to know how to use VoiceOver,
but your form will have to be accessible, and you will need to know enough
about voiceover to help in the same way that you would help sighted people
if they had trouble with the form.

One of the things I found particularly irritating was a statement by a panel
member that the university hospital requires paratransit buses to drop
people at a location where there is no one to help them. The normal visitor
walks in the front door of the hospital and is immediately greeted by
someone from the information desk. Because the hospital is large, many
patients will need a wheelchair to get from one location to another. There
is no one to offer those wheelchairs where the paratransit service is
allowed to drop off. We can and should do something about this.

One of the things I think we ought to discuss is what it's like to be the
visitor at a hospital. In being with my dad over the course of the last year
or so, I realize that there is certain help that he asks for from family
members that he doesn't ask from me. He may ask them to grab his water and
handed to him, and he doesn't feel like he has the energy to direct me to
where his water is even though he knows that I am ambulatory and would be
glad to get it. So, in the same way that I ask for some orientation to my
hotel room to learn how to work the thermostat, perhaps we should figure out
basic questions that we should be asking when we go into a loved one's sick
room. Forgive me for being what might be considered vulgar on the list, but
one of the things my father needed was for someone to help him throw up, and
this he did repeatedly for almost a day. Now holding that bucket and
emptying it isn't something that is fun or pleasurable, but the only reason
it isn't doable if you're blind is if you aren't smart enough to figure out
that there is a bucket and where it is. The other thing I found that I
needed to learn was what tubes were inserted in my father and their
location. Which hand has the IV and which can he use to get water when he
asks for a cup? Where are the wash clause when he wants help cleaning his
face? Where is the nursing station relative to his room so that when he
needs something immediately, I can go and make the demand directly just as
any sighted visitor would do

I don't know that these are things that the panel could have addressed, but
perhaps we can wrestle with some of them and come up with answers. Thanks
for reading.


-----Original Message-----
From: Nfbmo [mailto:nfbmo-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Daniel Garcia via
Nfbmo
Sent: Monday, April 04, 2016 12:24 AM
To: NFB of Missouri Mailing List
Cc: Daniel Garcia
Subject: [Nfbmo] Panel on How the Health Care System Treats the blind

On Sunday's general session there was a panel discussion on how the health
care system treats blind people whether they are patients or family members
of patients. If memory serves me, it was Carol Morgan who talked about the
challenges of filling out medical paperwork. Due to time Constraints there
was no opportunity for Q&A or comments from the floor.

If the doctor's office does not send the paperwork by mail in advance of the
appointment for you to fill out, another way of dealing with this issue is
to take to the doctor's office a printed paper with the type of information
they are likely to ask for. Most medical forms ask for your contact info,
your primary doctor, medicines you take on a daily basis and their dosage,
allergies, surgeries, family history of certain diseases, etc. Of course,
the social security number is not something to be said out loud on a crowded
waiting room as Carol pointed out. This information can be given in private
to a staff member or nurse once they call you into a room.
I hope that this message prompts other people to ask the questions or bring
up the comments they were not able to bring up at convention.
Best Regards

Daniel H Garcia
Board Member NFB of Missouri
First Vice President Kansas City Chapter NFB of Missouri

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