Imagine that you are working at the front desk of a professional medical office. Part of your job is to greet each patient and help them feel welcome. A patient comes in and you smile and offer a greeting, but she does not respond. Instead, she sits down in the corner and starts talking loudly to herself. It seems like she is listing ingredients in her favorite recipe as she says “sugar, flour, eggs, sugar, sugar, eggs…” This is unusual behavior—in fact as you previously learned, it may even be considered deviant since it is not what most people do when they come into a medical office. You wonder whether she has a lot on her mind, or if she may just be weird or rude. A few minutes later, the patient’s mother comes in, approaches you at the front desk, and begins to fill out the paperwork for her daughter. She tells you that her daughter has a disability which is why her behaviors are different than the behaviors of other patients.
Answer all three parts of the initial prompt below
- Based on what you learned in the readings this week, explain how attitudes toward mental illness have changed over time.
- Reflect on the term medicalization. Explain how your perception of the situation changed when you found out about the patient’s disability.
- Discuss ways that employment, poverty, and disability may be related.