Health at Every Size at a hospital?

[kmd]

I'm working as a Chaplain Resident at a large hospital for the next 10 months and I am picking around the edges of the idea of starting a HAES discussion/action group in the hospital setting. Challenges abound. The hospital has a pretty much total patholigizing posture wrt fat, bathrooms marked as "bariatric friendly," fat patients in any context

Comments

[midwestmystic]

Having just finished my chaplain residency, I sympathize. i get angry at the assumptions of so many people that fat equals unhealthy. I hope you saw the article about heart disease and fat not being as related as they used to think. However, I do understand where that bias comes from, as I have worked in the Heart Institute and have seen that size, diabetes, heart failure, and renal failure are all intertwined for so many people, esp. those from lower socioeconomic levels. Of course, there's just as many skinny minnys struggling with similar problems and there are even more large people with no problems at all. Medical staff seem to want to blame inabilities to get better on something... and a non-compliant large patient is a physically present target for them. I've found that not all docs are like that however and I've found some great encouragement for healthy lifestyle that doesn't press the weight issue. Congrats on almost being done with your residency!