Systems of Surveillance or Systems of Support?

Systems of Surveillance or Systems of Support?

Systems of oppression are pervasive, interlocking and inform one another in all fields of life. Similarly, doctors who have more than one marginalized identity also faced greater barriers and discrimination. For example, Diana Cejas, who is a Black and Latina disabled physician has said in an interview:

“For a lot of physicians of color, and trainees and medical students, the bar is so high. We have to be perfect. People already expect that you don’t know what you know, they expect you only got in for affirmative action. So you’re having to prove you can do the work, you’re intelligent, you know what you’re saying and doing.” (Lu, 2021)

 This shows that even though there are systems in place to support and forward the rights of people who are marginalized such as affirmative action, intersecting marginalized identities can make it extremely difficult to access these systems holistically. Another example of such an instance can be seen in the tweets of Black disabled doctor Justin Bollock who is an Internal Medicine Resident and lives with bi-polar disorder. Talking about the Physician Well Being Committee/Fitness for Duty Process(FFD)which is supposed to be in place to support doctors, they had to say the following about it:

Wendy Lu, Justin Bollock

Lu, W. (2021, July 22). Disabled Doctors Were Called Too ‘Weak’ To Be In Medicine. It’s Hurting The Entire System. From Huffpost: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/disabled-doctors-medicine-ableism_n_60f86967e4b0ca689fa560dc

Mahvish Nazar

Update re: Physician Well Being Committee/Fitness for Duty Process(FFD)! Some powers that be thought they were sending me to get support; institution now seems to acknowledge that that was NOT the case and is trying to improve that for others...A THREAD/1https://t.co/uhj5lLdan4

— Justin Bullock (@jbullockruns) October 3, 2020

There have been lawyers involved (from the institution but not me). FFD is inherently a very legal process: one can lose their ability to practice medicine. An excessively intrusive evaluation ended where it began: I have active bipolar disorder. I am not a risk when I work. /2

— Justin Bullock (@jbullockruns) October 3, 2020

Despite this, I must have regular check ins with a faculty 'mentor', a case manager (whom I call my parole officer), I continue to meet with my own psychiatrist & therapist (as I was before all this). My institution was fixated on me doing a very specific type of therapy: DBT. /3

— Justin Bullock (@jbullockruns) October 3, 2020

I asked what would happen if I did not sign the contract of agreement. I was told by a co-chair of the committee I could not work. The institution has confirmed that statement was NOT true. Once I am determined to be safe & patients are safe, I could've worked sans contract. /4

— Justin Bullock (@jbullockruns) October 3, 2020