Rx for Healthcare with @UNWELLUNLIMITEDLY

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1) A photo of Kaia framed by an illustration of a cell phone. Black text that reads: “At its core, medicine has a power problem. Western medicine over everything else, doctors at the top, and patients are nowhere on the map.” 2) Text reads: Kaia M. Arrow (she/her) recently completed her Bachelor of Social Work. In her writing about the biopolitics of health and chronic illness, she brings together structural understandings of power with an anti-colonial, anti-capitalist, and body neutral approach. Kaia is a Mad, sick & disabled, queer, Filipina settler.]

YES! A more collaborative system – we NEED this! Love this powerful quote from Kaia @thewillowswork, who I’m featuring as part of my new series #RXingCare. Kaia is, among many things, my friend, neighbour, fellow #spoonie, and as of today, a voting buddy too. 💕

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I also love this quote from her:

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“Everyone in medicine- including patients- has their own expertise. We’d provide better care to everyone if we could work together.”

Do you agree? I DO!

Kaia also shared some other EXCELLENT prescriptions for our healthcare systems:

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“My dream healthcare experience is collaborative and interdisciplinary- not just between specialists, but between approaches. I’d love to see practitioners asking more questions and asking for help. Ask me what I think, and give my answer weight. I’d love to see a rheumatologist consult with a practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine, or a social worker consult with community elders in how best to support a family.

I’m imagining medicine gardens planted alongside hospitals built with access to nature in addition to sterility in mind- and nobody rolls their eyes when Indigenous healers bring their expertise to the bedside. “Helping professionals” asking permission to practice this kind of work on stolen land. I’m imagining naturopathy and acupuncture accessible to all, and healthcare available literally for all. I’m imagining asking for help and saying you’re sorry and being okay with learning and unlearning. I’m imagining community healing.”

Defiant resistance by Yen Out Loud & The Willows Work

Image ID: Kaia is gorgeous South East Asian Filipino woman with long wavy hair wearing a mask but obviously smiling as she sits on her wheelchair, hands on hip in a confident joyful pose. This image is cut out agains a teal background with black handwriting around he that says “ Being a young person of colour with a cane or wheelchair in public is an act of defiance. I am not ashamed of my mobility aids.” A white animated squiggly line outlines her image then circles the words defiance and not.

TEXT BY YEN OUT LOUD:

The next post is her full quote. It’s so honest and I think a lot of you will be able to relate. I connected with this deeply when she wrote to me saying that being young and a person of colour using mobility aids is an act of defiance.

It might not make much sense from the outside but I am also from a south East Asian family and for me… using mobility aids in public without shame, required a huge shift internally due to the cultural values and ideas I hold being raised by a first gen migrant SE Asian parent. This is a culture with values I’m proud of which has helped me get through much of the challenges in life but some aspects of all cultures can really can be at odds with accepting the need for mobility aids. Especially as a young person & a young woman. It challenges how we value ourselves. We see ourselves through a cultural filter so this statement made so much sense to me and helped me understand my own internal changes as it was articulated so well. Thank you Kaia.

Go follow her over @thewillowswork for more of her work, she is such an honest & thoughtful writer. She has some really great posts around self compassion & the internalised ableism so many of us struggle with that pushes us to value ourselves based on what we do, rather than our inherent worth because we exist.

Let’s talk Intersectional Healthcare on Wednesday, May 26!

A stylized orange and yellow image designed to mimic instant messages. The text reads: Join #NewDemoChat and @TheWillowsWork to discuss systemic barriers to care, discrimination and bias, communication, and more! LET’S TALK INTERSECTIONAL HEALTHCARE! Wednesday May 26, 7-8pm EST on Twitter: tag and follow #NewDemoChat! With Special Guest Kaia Arrow @TheWillowsWork. There are two circular message icons: a photo of Kaia, a young Asian woman smiling gently towards the camera; and a graphic orange with the text NDC #NewDemoChat overlaid on top of it.

This Wednesday May 26th, I’ll be joining @NewDemoChat on Twitter to talk about Intersectional Healthcare! We’ll be discussing systemic barriers to accessing care, discrimination and bias, communication, and more- all my favourite topics.

Come join the discussion from 7-8pm EST by following @NewDemoChat and @TheWillowsWork on Twitter, and tagging your tweets with #NewDemoChat!

NewDemoChat is a grassroots collective of NDP folks, but everyone is welcome to join in on the conversation regardless of political affiliation or involvement. Wednesday chats feature conversations on under-served communities with an equity seeking and intersectional lens.

What’s wrong with #InspirationPorn? featuring Frizz Kid Art!

An illustration of four disabled people by Hana Shafi of @frizzkidart , with handwritten text reading, “Disabled people don’t exist to inspire you.” @the.mad.muslimah wears a red hijab with a flower crown and heart sunglasses over a sweet leopard print coat. @thewillowswork is drawn seated in her electric wheelchair, with floral shoes, a long blue skirt, and a blue crop top. @preezilla stands next to her, rocking glasses, a yellow top tied up above their waist, and wide leg lavender pants. @infiniteecho97 is seated with one ankle over their over knee, wearing a bright pink “queer as fuck” and red shoes.

WHY IS DISABILITY #INSPIRATIONPORN BAD? I’m in the drawing! I’m honoured to have been drawn by super-cool Toronto artist FrizzKidArt whose work includes the iconic, “Healing Is Not Linear” piece. A lot of commenters asked why considering disabled people inspiring is a problem.  

* It’s not inherently wrong to be inspired by a disabled person, but it is a problem when all disabled people are EXPECTED to be inspiring. 

*Who gets to be an “inspiring” disabled person? Who doesn’t? Young, thin, ciswomen with visible disabilities are often assumed to be inspiring. What assumptions do we make about fat disabled people? What do we assume about less visibly disabled people? 

*With the assumption that disabled people exist to inspire able people is anger when disabled people are NOT inspiring. 

*We need to talk about what barriers disabled people have to overcome, rather than praising individuals for overcoming problems that are systemic.

*Finally, inspiration porn is often used to shame others into doing more, like “what’s your excuse?” This puts down the accomplishments of disabled people, and it pressures able people while oversimplifying issues they may be facing.

I do not live my life to inspire able people- or to infuriate them, which I do just as often. I don’t often name my diagnoses, which puts people off. They want to know which box to put me in: deserving or undeserving, inspiring or uninspiring. But my diagnosis/disability has nothing to do with whether or not my behaviour is inspiring.