Telethon-types, activists

October 7, 2005 at 7:07 PM (Uncategorized) (Medical Model of Disability, Social Model of Disability)

can I vote for a third category?

There are those who push for cures (category I)

And then there are those who reject the “cure” idea fiercely, insisting on being taken “as is.” (Category II)

Mostly, I fall in category II. But, I have to admit since I have several intersecting conditions some of which require medication and periodic disccusions with physicians…If I stayed with myself purely “as is…” well…the blog would have all the fascination of a perpetual train wreck, IOW the readers and I would tire of it quickly.

I want a third category. Efficacy. Call it Efficacy. Where either alternative medicine and/or some combination of alternative/traditional medicine make one’s permanent or chronic discomforts ratchet down to acceptable levels *much of the time.* If you could plot a graph, the level and type of medical intervention begins at zero and then slowly rises while the line of the person’s discomfort and difficulty with their physical state begins quite high on the graph, but gradually comes down to that acceptable point where it crosses the medical intervention line,

Voila. Efficacy. Not a cure, and not a search for one…just a period of time when ones difficulties are quite manageable.

It would also help if those who pursue efficacy not be stigmatized as chasing a cure.

And the amount, type and duration of medical intervention to achieve efficacy has to be directed by the person with the disabilit(ies).

Just sayin’