Rebecca Bloom, who wrote the book “When Women Get Sick: An Empowering Approach for Getting the Support You Need,” was recently the guest of host Simon Doong on “A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast.” Listen to their conversation here.
Doong opened with: The U.S. health-care system disadvantages many groups of people, but especially women. How can women and those that support them navigate this system so that women can actually get the care they truly need?
“First, no woman should ever go on a health journey alone,” Bloom answered. She tells people she works with to “draft your team when you go into a health journey.” Match the skills people have with what the patient needs.
“Say you have a relative who’s an accountant. That would be a good person to keep a spreadsheet,” Bloom said. “Somebody who’s a great cook, just ask them to make extra food. It’s not hard for that person. Draft your team and rely on others so you can do the work that you need to do, which is healing or getting better or birthing a child. Save your energy for the fundamentals.”
There’s no such thing as asking your health care provider too many questions, Bloom said. “Women have indeed been under-researched,” she said. “Pain can get dismissed. We have evidence of all this.”
“There is nothing more important than your health. Don’t edit yourself,” she advises the women she works with. “Ask the right questions and ask as many as you need to. That said, prepare and be a good partner to your doctor. Communicate clearly. Take notes. Be respectful. All those things add up to a better health journey.”
If you’re employed, “remember also to start from a cooperative place,” Bloom said. “Your employer, human resources [department] and co-workers are also part of your team. Our safety net in this country is imperfect, but if we think about our social connections, our relationships and our ability to communicate respectfully with one another, we can do so much better for women.”
That first task — drafting a team — is something faith communities and churches can provide, Doong pointed out. “It can be as simple as someone bringing a meal or saying, ‘Just sit with me.’ It’s something the church is pretty good at.”
If there’s a doctor in your faith community, that physician can help you to read your scans, Bloom said. “Maybe a lawyer in your community can say, ‘You need to appeal that bill you got? Let me help you write that letter.’ We have these things available to us if we will just link arms with the people we are connected with.”
Asking for help can be difficult for many women, Bloom said. “We’re conditioned as women to hold up the sky, take care of everybody, to always be thinking about what everybody else needs,” said Bloom, an attorney. “It’s uncomfortable and difficult and frankly intimate to express that we’re the ones who have a need.”
Just as patients are entitled to the healthcare benefits they’ve paid into, “so, too, with the social and spiritual capital that you’ve contributed to,” Bloom said. “It’s a strength and a blessing to receive in the same way you’ve always given.”
Of course, there are others who can be of service, Bloom noted. Health insurance companies have case managers. There are assisters in the state system “who help people speak this language.” There are human resources professionals “if you’re getting coverage in your employment.” There are people who work for the government in Medicaid and Medicare “who help people understand what’s covered and what isn’t, and what it costs. There are more and more patient advocates in hospitals and in medical systems.”
Helping a person on a medical journey can start by asking, “Could I help you organize the ways in which you might need help?” Bloom said. “Can we talk about the specific help you might need, so I can help you find it? I can do some of those things, or I can help you connect to the different resources you might need.”
New episodes of “A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast” drop every Thursday. Listen to previous installments here.
Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service (Click here to read original PNS Story)
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