I care about you, not your title
Last night I had a great conversation – well actually, that sounds too formal – I had a wonderful chat with a lovely person from Madrid: Dr. Ángel Aledo-Serrano* who is an epileptologist.
I say “person” prior to “epileptologist” because that’s what epileptologists are – they have their profession playing a key part in their lives but it’s not the only thing!
Ángel and I of course spoke about epilepsy, but also ended up talking about Japan, plants, and some cool people we knew!
I know another brill person, semi-retired neurologist Dr. Jim Morrow* who I spoke to in the last podcast (see here and here).
Just like Ángel, Jim continues to go the extra mile as far as patients are concerned, but he’s also an author (see his latest book out in 2 weeks, which I’ve just ordered!) who makes me laugh with every chat that we have!
I have another friend who works in corporate finance. Now, come on – tell me that you didn’t have a sudden flash of what you thought that person might be like. 😆
You might be surprised to hear that she contributes to reducing climate change through global infrastructure. She’s also a vegan who spends personal time volunteering on an organic farm and cracks me up with her humour!
It’s important to recognise that we should not define people by their title or their profession. After all, we meet people of the same job title (whether that be doctor, cleaner, plumber, blogger (!), or whatever), some of whom we like, and some of whom we think: “urgh”. People can have the same job title but we find that their attitudes and therefore impact on those for whom they care, vary immeasurably.
Just like with people in medicine or care, patients are not only that. We may have epilepsy, cerebral palsy, Parkinson’s, MS, or whatever, but that diagnosis and the impact on our lives doesn’t mean that we don’t have anything else to talk about (to be honest, if I only spoke of epilepsy or mental health, I’d probably cause myself to have a seizure due to upset and anxiety caused by boredom!).
I don’t know about you, but I love being connected with people who can inspire me, make me laugh, and with whom I can identify a connection. If they are in the fields of neurology and patient empowerment – then that’s great too – but it’s not essential!
I have a friend who happens to have epilepsy (plus other things, unfortunately), but she makes me laugh! Sometimes we talk about medical conditions, but mostly about stuff like cycling (she’s an avid cycler), the latest course she’s doing, and just general blethering to be honest!
It’s natural for us all to make presumptions and of course to have unconscious biases, but we must identify and challenge these.
One more thing:
I while ago, I read about a person boarding a Qantas aircraft who flipped out because staff didn’t refer to her as “Dr.”. Oh, do come on. She tweeted: “Hey @Quantas, my name is Dr O'Dwyer. My ticket says Dr O'Dwyer. Do not look at my ticket, look at me, look back at my ticket, decide it's a typo, and call me Miss O'Dwyer. I did not spend 8 years at university to be called Miss."
Arrogance gets you nowhere. Humility, we value.
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Torie Robinson
Keynote Speaker, Podcaster, Epilepsy Sparks CEO, Editor, Writer, et al.
*You’ll see me often referring to people by title the first time that I mention them in a blog, to give readers some indication of their academic background (which as I’m generally writing about epilepsy, neuroscience, etc., is appropriate).
