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DIVERSE PEOPLE CAN help to create a more inclusive world. As a mother of five and an intensive care paediatrician, I often marvel at the complicated, unique, and brilliant qualities that make up a human being.
Diverse qualities are cause for celebration. These musings are one small reason why LGBTQI+ allyship has long been a passion of mine. The most significant and urgent reason for my advocacy in this area is the exposure I have had to the disparities faced by our LGBTQI+ community within healthcare settings.
LGBTQI+ individuals encounter complicated layers of challenges in everyday life which many of us will never have to even consider. Indeed, according to Visible Lives research, 26% of LGBTQI+ adults do not disclose their sexual orientation to any of their healthcare providers, often due to fears of experiencing a negative reaction because of their identity. Just imagine having to deal with the fear of judgement before you even begin to discuss a sensitive health-related issue with your doctor.
Members of the LGBTQI+ community have unique healthcare needs. To ensure the medical profession is meeting their needs, doctors must not only acknowledge this but advocate for a safe culture of diversity, inclusion and belonging.
To educate myself, I like to look at people in history who were pioneering access to healthcare and serving marginalised communities well ahead of their time. People like Kathleen Lynn, the remarkable Irish humanitarian, and her partner Madeline French-Mullen advocated for healthcare, housing, and education for the most underserved communities in Dublin.
Lynn established herself as one of the most distinguished physicians in Ireland and was known worldwide for her tenacity and activism. Elizabeth O’Farrell, a trained midwife, suffragist and trade unionist supported workers during the 1913 Lockout and famously delivered the surrender to British troops on the 1916 Easter Rising.
There are countless trailblazers in Ireland who have paved the way for all of us to develop empathy and an understanding of the challenges each community and individual faces. They’ve been crucial in shaping Ireland as a society with a greater culture of inclusion, positive changes in its laws and societal perceptions of genderism and sexuality.
Today, the medical and healthcare sectors in Ireland have much hurt and historical distrust to undo with those in the LGBTQI+ community. Patients from groups that are especially at risk of marginalisation within health and social care, e.g., the Travelling community, people living with a disability, and LGBTQI+ people, have previously reported disrespect and judgement from healthcare staff.
Conversion practices are an example of the poor legacy in healthcare left behind by laws against homosexuality in Ireland. Conversion therapies are practices that can be defined as any treatment aimed at changing a person’s sexual orientation.
Practices involve the use of a combination of cognitive, behavioural, psychoanalytical, and religious/spiritual methods which focus on reducing sexual behaviour that is judged to be aberrant.
There are concerns that health and social care professionals who create barriers to education and care for sexual health or shut down discussions about sexual orientation may be interpreted as a form of conversion therapy. Conversion practices have been widely discredited as being both ineffective and harmful to those who are exposed to them.
The Minister for Children, Equality, Disability and Youth, Roderic O’Gorman has confirmed that the Government will soon bring forward proposals to ban conversion therapy for LGBTQI+ people. The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth commissioned the School of Nursing and Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin to carry out research in this area and its findings were published earlier this year. It indicates that conversion therapy does still take place in Ireland.
The personal accounts of people subjected to conversion practices make for harrowing reading. Practices seeking to undermine a person’s identity and sexual orientation can carry lifelong consequences.
Considerable research has largely concluded that sexual orientation change efforts are pseudo-scientific, ineffective, and harmful to the individual being ‘treated’. Young people are particularly vulnerable as they may be presented to doctors by their families seeking a ‘corrective’ treatment.
In the Medical Council’s Guide to Professional Conduct and Ethics, the role of the doctor as an ‘advocate’ is described. It is the ethical duty of a doctor to speak up for their patients, and any suggestion in the form of employment contracts or otherwise, that a doctor might be silenced is not acceptable.
We are a trusted profession, and not only do our patients trust us to raise concerns – but the public quite rightly expects it.
A strong stance in the healthcare profession supporting the proposed ban on conversion practices in Ireland would go a long way towards making sure there is trust and pride in healthcare.
Trust in healthcare and professional conduct means respect for everyone. Recently, Census 2022 statistics showed that human health, social work and education were among the largest employment sectors with 77.3% of these workers identifying as female. With a growing and progressive generation of doctors, I am confident that this flourishing sector will continue to advocate for high standards of healthcare for marginalised communities, empowering them to access safe healthcare without judgement.
With that in mind, because advocacy can be lonely as a solo voice, I’ve found that seeking out those who feel similarly to you makes putting your head above the parapet a little easier.
Engagement with a group, be it a professional body, union, political party or charity provides confidence in speaking. Speak always with the agreement of any group you are in.
As medical practitioners, we should strive to address past injustices by ensuring that we advocate for partnership and informed consent in our relationships with patients. To advocate means to use your voice to speak up about a particular issue, or on behalf of a group of others. If you were to use your voice one hundred times and improve the life of one person, it would be worth it.
Dr Suzanne Crowe is President of the Medical Council and a consultant in paediatric intensive care in Children’s Health Ireland Crumlin. She is also a board trustee for LGBT Ireland, Cheshire Ireland, and The Down Syndrome Centre. LGBT Ireland offers a range of services to provide support and information for LGBTQI+ people. The service is also used by individuals questioning if they might be LGBT, as well as the family and friends of LGBTQI+ people, and professionals looking for information.
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I’d say the coverage will be unreal and the customer service second to none, said the sarcastic priest.
Paddy Wackery
Some of you are obsessed with customer service, can’t remember the last time I had to call them.
I can’t stand 3. Worst shower I ever had to deal with in my life.
If you were getting terrible network coverage in an area that’s on their map as a good area and then their customer service didn’t care, then you would be worried about their customer service, I think this is a terrible move, they should have used Vodafone or Meteor’s infrastructure, nothing good will come of a Three partnership, mark my words
Been with 3 for 4 yrs not a problem
Maybe UPC should sort their customer service first! They’ve gone from the very best to one of the worst!
@Ruairi: When were they ever the very best? They were still awful when they were ntl and Cablelink before that!
I’m stuck with them as I live in an apartment but their digibox and channel line-up is very poor vs Sky. Their broadband is excellent though but that’s about all they have going for them.
its only gonna get worse. Three’s customer service is based overseas and is answered by some poor sods in Punjab earning 150 Rupees an hour (€1.85 an hour).
Ian, I have UPC and find them very good. You’re right about the NTL days but I have never hit a brick wall with their customer service since they became UPC. Certainly better than Eircom(unists) and Sky
Ruairi,
when was the last time you called their customer service?
they changed a number of years ago and are actually very good.
easily accessible by phone, email, twitter and boards.ie
Last 3 mths they continue to overcharge me & exspect me to pay & I’m talking overcharging €30 they are incompdent fools
Let me guess. They’ll sell “bundles” that give you your home phone, mobile, Internet, TV and cat food in one package, so it’ll be even more difficult to switch providers.
Yes, and they’ll hold a gun to your head and force you to subscribe to it.
A lack of competition and options is effectively a gun to your head if you want to partake in the 21st century.
There is a lot of competition, don’t be ridiculous.
I think the technical term for such bundles is a fourplay.
For a small market the competition is fierce.
Cpm, there is one Cable TV provider in most cities in Ireland.. One.
“Cpm, there is one Cable TV provider in most cities in Ireland.. One.”
You were talking about bundles a minute ago, now it’s just cable TV?
I think you’re losing track of your argument in an effort to have the last word.
@Jeremy Osborne: Actually the entire point is that the competition is NOT fierce ENOUGH – Ireland’s mobile networks have amongst the highest Average Revenues per User in the EU – which is why the European Commission is now forcing 3 to open it’s network to TWO more competitors.
@ Ben Gunn – its referred to as Quadplay. Fixed Telephony, Broadband, Cellular and TV.
@ Picasso….. I know, I know, but please allow me a little attempt at schoolboy humour on a friday afternoon.
Such negativity. I see UPC’s entry into the mobile market as a positive for UPC customers. I am with UPC 7 years and I have phoned them on at least thirty occasions and the customer service staff have always been helpful to me.
30 times in 7 years? Why would anybody need to call them every 2.8 months!?
Moving house, reporting faults, general enquiries and a load of calls trying to convince them to give me a Cisco 3925 so i could bridge it and use my own Router. I got the 3925 in the end :)
And at all times the staff were courteous and helpful.
after buying O2. three should use their customer service
That will hardly happen. They will go with whatever is cheapest.
Wonder will they bring in femtocells to boost indoor mobile coverage?
No, they are a MVNO, however they may integrate it with the UPC phone app. which lets you use your mobile as home phone over any broadband connection.
The could sell a booster that plugs into their modem.
They’ve been around a while & would tie in well with the rest of their business.
no need too, they have the hardware in place already just use the wifi signal.
Great so another price hike on the way!!! Ffs
What?
Every time UPC get a bright new idea it means they increase the price on their packages for everybody to pay for it. In the last 2 years there has been around 3 or 4 price increases.
I’ve just gone through 3 years of emails from them and there was one price increase.
I’m sure you did. My bill has gone from €63 to €75 in the last 2 years for same service.
I did, yes. one email on 21st January this year about a price increase (a price increase of €5 and a self-service discount of €3, so a total increase of €2.
Why don’t you switch to Freeview or Sky?
Yes that one of them which varied in different amounts depending on which package you were in. The largest increase was for people who were out of contract in order to force them to sign up for a new one. There have been many increases over the last 2 years including the one you just mentioned. There was also one last summer to pay for their on demand service.
every time they raise prices is a change to contract, just ring customer care tell them your leaving because the price increase. they’ll put you through to customer retention department and offer you big discounts, if they don’t then move. (not many people end up moving)
Freeview do broadband and phone service now?
“Freeview do broadband and phone service now?”
UPC are the only providers of these services so, are they?
True brian iv done this a few times now ring saying im switching to sky. They put to on to loyalty line got good deals to stay each time. But after so long there channels are boring compare to what sky can offer. And for a better price
I left Sky for a month and they offered me 75% off my bill for 9 months. Sweet deal.
Id prefere it if they sorted out the issues with the Horizon Box of Sh#te..Bring back the dodgey boxes thems were the days.
I have no doubt that there will be an awful advertising campaign for this. That’s one area where they excel at. The TV ads from UPC make me change channel. I was with UPC once and never again. Three coverage is rubbish too. Both companies are welcome to each other.
Dennis O Briens UPC
uh…..no.
I hate the fact that we are stuck with upc because we are in an apartment. The horizon box is the worst product to ever be produced ,nothing but trouble with tv and broadband since getting it in
I wonder if they will tie in a data bundle for existing broad band customers, much like the horizon free wifi from other horizon boxes….
The guy to the right looks constipated ( main photo)
You look like you just let off a sneaky fart ;)
Brilliant 2 company’s know for their excellent customer service!,,,,,
The 3G/ 4G would be second to none, but the buttons/ design would be all over the show, with any incorrect entries leading to channel 100, adverts.
Jayziz look at those yokes. Hold on to your wallets.
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