It can be a tricky and pressure-filled business, but there are ways to protect yourself. The most important thing to recognize is that ultimately you and you alone are responsible for managing your own health. I learned how to use health professionals as consultants rather than as gods. To heal, or become whole, is not the same as being cured. A cure comes from outside of ourselves.
Healing is something that occurs within.
And being healed may not mean that we are cured. Getting the most out of health care services requires you to be active and vocal in all aspects of health care. You need to see yourself as a customer who is purchasing services from health care providers. Being prepared and having faith in your life experience and your common sense will help you avoid feeling intimidated by places and providers who may appear cold and distant. Health care providers are not free of the common negative stereotypes of disability which cause the discrimination, environmental and attitudinal barriers that people with disabilities encounter daily.