June 28, 2013

Ostrich policy?

Just saw this ted talk by a doctor: He is talking bravely about his mistakes- and makes an appeal to change the culture where doctors are supposed to NEVER make mistakes- and never talk about it, even if they do! I wonder if it would ever happen in the field of stammering therapy?
http://www.ted.com/talks/brian_goldman_doctors_make_mistakes_can_we_talk_about_that.html


There are two problems: we, the pws, dont want to talk about our experiences with therapy. We are uncomfortable. We think -if I failed to benefit, it must be my mistake. Second- if I talk about it, my therapist will be angry and think that I am ungrateful for  criticizing him/ her. Therapist dont wish to acknowledge the unsatisfactory outcomes because of the fear of losing their clientele and reputation (actually, few do a proper follow up to find out long term outcomes). In the process, therapy (and science) of stammering stagnates, fails to benefit from all the clinical evidence which is lying all around. It seems that in the stammering desert we all are acting like ostrichs!

5 comments:

Joy deep Majumder said...
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Joy deep Majumder said...
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Joy deep Majumder said...
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Joy deep Majumder said...

.."It seems that in the stammering desert we all are acting like ostrichs!"

For those of you who like me were a bit confused with Sachins's phrase.. Here is the connection ..picked from the google desert :)

"When an ostrich is scared it sticks its head in the sand because it thinks that if it can't see the thing it's scared of, it can't see it either. That's why when people talk about sticking your head in the sand and acting like ostrich.., they mean ignoring the thing you're afraid of and not doing anything about it."


Satyendra said...

Thanks Joy! That is really helpful for many of us..