Meltdown at Mayo Clinic

Meltdown at Mayo Clinic
M

Muldoon

Registrant
I had to go to Urgent Care at the Mayo Clinic Friday and when I got done with the insurance info the lady handed me a small blue paper.
"The nurse will ask you these questions." "Why" I asked
"We have to ask them of everyone. Urgent Care is where most victims of domestic abuse come for care. "
One of the questions on the paper was would you like information on child sexual abuse. I told the nurse that I would like all the info they have on that subject. She came back with two brochures. I started reading one of them as I waited for my meds.
Child Sexual Abuse, What it is and how to prevent it, by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
On the cover was a drawing of a mother and daughter sitting in a chair reading. There was some super good information in this brochure however as I read it I became very upset with the writing. When talking about children there was reference to her and she through out.
I started to boil over with anger. How could a big name medical provider like Mayo be handing out such out dated information? It was copyrighted in 1990. This was written for a mother and daughter.
I just couldnt let it go by with out saying something. I went storming back to the desk and demanded to see who was responsible for putting it out. I was sent over to the education center ,about a 4 block walk, to talk with the head of the department. Luckily I was able to get my rage under control as I walked over there.

I told Kathy how upset I was over this brochure, and that boys are sexually abused and we have to talk about protecting them also. The brochure made it seen that only females are abused and this has to change now. How could they be putting out such outdated information in the year 2003?
She seems to agree with me and thanked me for bringing my concerns to her. It also pissed me off that the American Academy of Pediatrics is printing such an old brochure.

Kathy at the Mayo said that maybe they would have to develop their own brochure on this subject. If any one knows of a good brochure please let me know so I can pass that info on to the people at the Mayo clinic. Thanks Tom.
 
Muldoon,

This is a terrible problem. I am sorry I dont have any assistance in this matter for you and all the other people that visit the Mayo clinic and the other clinics and doctors offices.

I changed my primary care physician almost a year ago, I had lost all trust in the one I had been seeing for 22 years. On the health history questionnaire, they had a question that asked if you were the victim of sexual assault. I answered yes. When they went through the questionnaire with me to verify the answers and my medical history, they skipped over that question on sexual assault. At this time I was already seeing a Pdoc and a T.

Now that you bring this up, this is bothering me. Ill have to bring this up when I go there this week.

Thank-you for bringing this to my attention.

Bill
 
This is a problem that we have long recognized as you have as well. We have discussed collaborating with others to provide accurate educational materials and we will eventually do so.

Tom, Bill and others, lets use this thread to provide suggestions from everyone for the content of a brochure about male victimization. MS can develop a PDF doc for healthcare professionals to download and print for distribution on our web site.

This is another reason why its so important to support MS.
 
While we don't as yet have a brochure on the subject, we have developed several things:

"Myths About Male Sexual Victimization" and "Ten Facts about Sexual Abuse of Boys and its Aftermath" are both available on the Home Page.

We have also developed a two page discussion called "About Male Sexual Victimization." I will discuss with Fred how to get this onto the web site as well.

It seems to me that it would be easy to turn these three documents into a pdf file with information about MaleSurvivor and good graphics. But in the meantime, you can copy the two documents on the Home Page and use them to fight ignorance. That's what they are there for.

Richard Gartner
President
MaleSurvivor
 
Fred and Richard I have taken your ideas and moved forward with them. I was a Mayo all day yesterday so I printed out the articles and brought them to Kathy in the education dept. I like the idea of us trying to put together a brochure. I know we have all the talent at MS to put togeather a !st class brochure. I would like to help get this going. I will talk with Mayo and see if they would help with this.


Bill
On the health history questionnaire, they had a question that asked if you were the victim of sexual assault. I answered "yes'. When they went through the questionnaire with me to verify the answers and my medical history, they skipped over that question on sexual assault.
Click to expand...
That is so fucked they didn't know how to talk with a male about it so they just skip over it. Guess we have a big Education project on this subject. If the Professioals can't talk about it who can. Good luck in dealing with them.
Tom
 
Hi all,

Over the last several years I've had to change physicians several times due to changing insurance carriers, etc. I've been much more open with my physicians regarding the SA. It's become a litmus test for me now. I developed a sort of medical CV just so that I could keep track of all the medications, injuries, surgeries, etc. I've included in that the fact that I'm seeing a therapist to deal with childhood sexual abuse and that I think I'm dealing with it fairly well. If the physician doesn't want to talk about it or wants to just ignore it then it's an indicator to me that they might not be the one I want to continue seeing.

I do volunteer work at a local rape crisis intervention center and the material available on sexual abuse is certainly limited. This center has included men for the last 20 years or so. They have included training on adults molested as children and have stressed the effects on men and boys and how to talk to them when they call.

A simple straightforward brochure would be very helpful.

Take care,

Steve
 
Today I recieved a questionaire about the health care service provided by the doctor/nurses/medical center. At the end was a comment section and I filled it up with the skipping of the SA question when reviewing my history sheet. How while at the time I was under the care of a Pdoc and in T it was for something else and didn't begin T for the SA for some time later. And how there is a lack of information provided for the male survivor. And how they missed the opporutunity to get someone on the road to recovery and provide them with much needed information. I enclosed, with the questionaire, a copy of "Myths About Male Sexual Victimization", "Ten Facts about Sexual Abuse of Boys and its Aftermath" and the article about the difference between male and female survivors of SA.

It is time to get these professionals to help those that need help.

Bill
 
Thanks Bill. You will make it better so some other men you will never know.

I find it odd, that of the physicians I have told of the CSA, not one has asked if I might tell him more about it and how our patient/doctor relationship might be better.

Bob
 
Just a update on this . IN the last 2 years the Mayo Clinic has sent me two letters thanking me for my interest in changeing the material, They said that they where going to put something together.

However they have never moved forward to do anything positive on this. This may have been a good thing because now I think we can MOVE them in the direction of creating information that guys in grade,middle'and high school can use to end the sexual abuse.

I am going to show them Kevin and Charlies letter. Think that they may be open to do something nationaly on this. It is important to give the guys a chance to change their lives stop the abuse and get help while they are still in school.

Tom
 
If anyone on the Board reads this and decides to create a brochure, I would be willing to work on the design. I have designed brochures before using MS Word and I have Acrobat Professional to convert the document when it's done. I would just need the information sent to me. You could also send me .jpg files of the MS logo as well as maybe a photo of Ken Singer or other therapist who is active on the board.
If there is an interest, please PM me.

Sophiesdad
 
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