Mel Houser, M.D., Executive Director, All Brains Belong VT (9/13/2023)
At Brain Club this month, we are discussing The Double Empathy Problem. The Double Empathy Problem is a term coined by Dr. Damian Milton, Autistic social scientist in the UK, referring to miscommunication resulting from the mismatch of communication style and world view.
This plays out all day long — in relationships, at school, at work and, of course, in healthcare. Clinicians and patients often don’t understand one another very well. And it’s often a story of conflicting access needs.
Patients come to All Brains Belong because their needs were not met by the traditional healthcare system. I spend a lot of my day hearing patients describe their experiences of being misunderstood, dismissed, invalidated. Shamed. Traumatized.
The Double Empathy Problems allows us to see that the true villain of those stories is not an individual, but a system.
In the short video clip above, you can watch me and my colleagues here at All Brains Belong, Gabe Worzella DO and Sierra Miller APRN, discussing how the healthcare system thwarts everyone — patients and clinicians alike. Nobody has their access needs met. And everyone suffers. You can watch the full interview here.