Ergotherapy, LGBTIQ, professional posture, non-discrimination, active listening, communication, patient accompaniment, healthcare ethics
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Abstract
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Abstract
This document discusses the professional posture of ergotherapists when accompanying LGBTIQ individuals, highlighting the importance of neutrality, respect, and adapted communication.
Extract
[...] Professional posture of the ergotherapist in the accompaniment of people said LGBTIQ 1. Context In our training, we were initiated to the question of accompanying people said LGBTIQ. I then became aware that as a professional, my practice can vary depending on the patients I accompany. The public of people LGBTIQ being almost unknown to me today, I wanted to develop a reflection around the question of accompanying this public, in order to be able to consider my future practice. [...]
[...] The existing discrimination raises a question: how to act, as a professional, if we ever have a person in front of us who is uncomfortable with their sexual orientation: indeed, being focused on their sexual orientation can be an obstacle to the implementation of adapted ergotherapeutic support. The ergotherapist who welcomed me for my internship shared his experience with a patient in his thirties, a carpenter, who had a work accident that paralyzed his right leg. He was being followed to improve his daily movements and learn to live with a viable leg but was encountering difficulties in his couple, having trouble accepting his new physical appearance and having an intimate life with his partner. [...]
[...] According to this principle, we must accompany any person while respecting and listening to them, regardless of their religion, culture, and here, their sexual orientation. In fact, for example, Lucas, a 23-year-old patient, expressed two difficulties: following the loss of a strong dexterity in his right hand, which prevents him from writing legibly and for a long time. In addition, no professional accepted to follow him. According to him, this could be due to his homosexuality, which he had never hidden. The fact that a patient cannot have access to the care they needed seems to me to be contrary to our ergotherapist missions. [...]
[...] The contributions of this writing This reflection has allowed me to put forward the duty as an ergotherapist to care for every person, without any form of discrimination. This has allowed me to realize the need to show a certain neutrality during the first interviews with our patients, and to learn not to let myself be guided by personal judgments6, which would come to harm the quality of my accompaniment and prevent the improvement of my patients' situations. This has also allowed me to realize the importance of learning to communicate7 and to conduct the first interviews, so that my words or gestures do not make the patient feel uncomfortable, but on the contrary, that he feels taken into consideration, whatever his identity and life path. [...]
