Here a staff member shares an encounter of being body shamed for weight in a healthcare setting….
Isn’t everyone (including ourselves) deserving of being treated with dignity and respect? Especially when we are at our most vulnerable.
I recently had an unplanned admission through a local emergency department. Some of the team I came into contact with only saw a fat person and spoke down to me because of that.
One cardiologist who too was larger bodied and vegan, had a deep understanding of what it means to be larger bodied but without the traditional diabetes, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure people presume you have. But almost everyone links having a larger body with these conditions and make judgments based on this bias.
I was treated as a lesser person based on the fact that healthcare practitioners saw a large body in front of them. They didn't see a person who was able to explain their healthcare choices and their medication (or lack of). I was spoken down to; I was judged, and it was presumed that I had various conditions based on my appearance. I felt stigmatised and tempted just to walk away…
In fact, I have been vegan (for the animals) for many years; my cholesterol is well below what is considered the ideal. I ingest no cholesterol, I'm proud that I'm vegan for the animals and I'm pleased that I get health benefits from my moral choices. However, before a cardiac MRI I was asked ‘what do you take for your cholesterol?’ ‘nothing’ I replied ‘yes, you must!’ This was a conversation with a Specialist Cardiologist (ST7). I've never had high cholesterol but suddenly a reasonably articulate and intelligent individual, albeit nervous due to claustrophobia, suddenly had no value and expressing themselves had no meaning to the cardiologist. I was angry, but also disappointed.
It was also assumed I would have high blood pressure and that I would definitely have ischemic heart disease, I disagreed, and I was correct. Members of the healthcare team made judgments rather than caring for me as an individual. They stigmatised me and they clearly thought less of me due to their discrimination and bias. Even if I had been eating a meat-heavy diet, smoked and drank heavily, I should not be treated this way. Inclusivity and equity should apply to everyone and for everything.
So why am I sharing this? Because it is deeply personal, but it needs to be said. Treating someone differently because of their characteristics is unacceptable including the size of your body. It makes me think what characteristics are not included in the Equality Act. People judge and stigmatise you on a daily basis and particularly in healthcare. I'm sure those people who are small bodied suffer in a similar but slightly different way to those of us who are large bodied. No doubt everyone reading this would profess to be inclusive in their practice, but evidence shows the contrary. There is a bias from healthcare practitioners against those who have larger bodies, people being seen as burdensome, a drain on resources, often considered stupid and maybe suffering derogatory comments about their size which is unprofessional behaviour (Lawrence et al., 2021). Surely, we do not need the characteristic of body habitus added to remind us to treat everybody with dignity and respect.
What changes might we make to the curriculum to help future healthcare practitioners be more sensitive to the needs of patients with different body types?
“Fat shaming is no joke” - Rachel Wiley uses her spoken word poem "The Fat Joke" to deliver an amazing poem on society's perception and treatment of obese people and how she loves herself anyway.
References:
Chakravorty, T. (2021) ‘Fat shaming is stopping doctors from helping overweight patients—here’s what medical students can do about it’, BMJ [Preprint]. doi:10.1136/bmj.n2830.
Chika Anekwe, M. (2022) Weight stigma: As harmful as obesity itself?, Harvard Health. Available at:https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/weight-stigma-as-harmful-as-obesity-itself-202206022755 (Accessed: 12 April 2024).
Lawrence, B.J. et al. (2021) ‘Weight bias among health care professionals: A systematic review and meta‐analysis’, Obesity, 29(11), pp. 1802–1812. doi:10.1002/oby.23266.
Talumaa, B. et al. (2022) ‘Effective strategies in ending weight stigma in healthcare’, Obesity Reviews, 23(10). doi:10.1111/obr.13494.
What I learned about being a fat patient as a fat doctor (2021) Chatelaine. Available at: https://chatelaine.com/opinion/fatphobia-medicine/ (Accessed: 12 April 2024).