Grr.

[rivka]

In a main hallway of the hospital where I work, there's a health promotion office. They have run some nice mini-programs - seated massage days, smoking cessation, exercise classes, an indoor walking trail they've laid out through the hospital - and they have a big display window that they use for educational displays on stroke symptoms, childhood asthma, et cetera.

It's a nice place, so imagine my shock when I walked by the display window today and saw a new poster: "Appearance matters! Don't let yours be ruined by imperfections." Accompanied, of course, by a picture of a thin white woman looking into a mirror. There was also a list of things that could "ruin" your appearance - sun spots, spider veins, rosacea - and some glowing words about plastic surgery.

I hesitated for a moment, and then walked into the office. As soon as I opened my mouth, I realized that I should've taken a few minutes to plan out what to say. After a little bit of stumbling, I came up with this:

Me: "This is a health promotion office, right?"
Health Promotion Woman: "Yes...?"
Me: "I was concerned about the poster in the window that doesn't seem to have any other purpose except to cause body image problems."
HPW: "You mean the..."
Me: "The 'appearance matters' one.
HPW: "Well, that's from our plastic surgery department. It's not meant to say that appearance is more important than who you are on the inside, it's just that some people are looking to make changes to their appearance..."
Me: "It's one thing to provide information to people who are interested in plastic surgery, but the poster actually tries to create body image dissatisfaction. It tells people to worry more about how they look."
HPW: "..."
Me: "I wanted to express my concern."
HPW: "I'll pass that on to them."

Afterwards, I realized that I should have challenged her "I'll pass that on to them." If her job is to promote healthy behaviors to patients, visitors, and staff, then she is ultimately responsible for unhealthy propaganda posted in her window.

I think I'll wait a few days, and then send a letter if the poster is still being displayed.

Grr.

Comments

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

I saw a dermatologist Friday before last and again last Friday and we clearly had different ideas of her purpose. I'd gone because I'm sweating a lot when I sleep and my primary wanted me to have a dermatology evaluation for that. I was happy to have the full body exam for skin cancer (got two moles off, both benign, so I'm still the oldest person in my family who hasn't had skin cancer) and she answered some other questions I had, but all her comments and answers had to do with looking better. I finally told her that I was interested in function, not form. My skin is covered with stria; I'm not that worried about some small brown marks, as long as they're not damaging.

(We already checked for lymphoma, so it now looks like the hyperhidrosis is from the Cymbalta, which I really like, so I'll have to figure out how to deal with it.)