#AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA #AMZING ARTICLE #LOL what ever wave length it is #its working cuz i def saw the white brother being like a alcoholic like anxity run engex drinking just trying to his best kinda of guy #got me thinking of a whole new lore #LOL well now i guess he on cocaine too now #maybe a a failed medic too alflhsfkdjf #def torturing ocs territory now #meanwhile red's got himself together #i am chewing on the TABLE
These tags!!! <3 Happy to hear it gave you stuff to think about, I like your ideas!
It's fun watching everyone find out that the entire medical residency system was developed by someone who was so zonked on powder all the time that he became legendary for it, lmao sigh (healthcare needs reforms so badly in so many ways, oh my god)
The idea of the stripey brother being an alcoholic struggling medic also tracks; I feel a long post coming on, here we gooooo:
The Difficulty in Identifying Substance Abuse Problems in Healthcare Staff: Self-Reporting
It's been identified that because many alcoholic medical staff members tend to be high-functioning alcoholics (and because most statistics on substance abuse amongst healthcare workers rely on self-reporting, which most won't do out of fear of losing their medical licenses or other professional repercussions), it's notoriously hard to identify what the actual occurrence rate of alcoholism or substance abuse actually is within this cohort.
So most medical staff who struggle with alcoholism or other types of substance abuse are often never identified as such.
Which is obviously a huge problem in many ways, but when you ask healthcare staff to self-report on their own health problems, it's often the case that they won't.
"Studies report that at least 10 to 12 percent of healthcare professionals will develop a substance use disorder during their careers, including at least 1 in 10 physicians, and 1 in 5 nurses. These numbers are higher than the general population; however, they are likely even larger than this because medical professionals are notorious for underreporting substance abuse disorders." - Source - Alcohol Rehab Guide, USA (2022)
Part of this is because of ableism in healthcare, which affects staff members too.
Ableism in Healthcare and the Negative Impact on Staff: The Fear of Seeking Help
Especially when it comes to substance abuse and mental health concerns, medical staff are often scared to reach out for help out of fear of discrimination or losing their careers due to struggling with their own health, to the degree that there are specific resources and services made solely to encourage healthcare workers struggling with their health to reach out and access care.
And this applies to other health concerns as well; I do not disclose my disabilities until after I have been hired and have already been onboarded. I have done this for every job I've ever had, but this includes my healthcare jobs. My disabilities do not interfere with my roles and duties, and even if they did to some degree, certain accommodations are available to prevent those potential issues-- But discrimination is a concern throughout the hiring process and elsewhere.
The general fear of ableism is very real, because it persists within most healthcare systems as a major form of systemic discriminatory bias.
The fear among staff is that disabled staff or staff who may have health issues in general may be considered "incompetent" or inappropriate for the job (especially jobs working in healthcare), no matter how experienced or qualified, and irrespective of actual impact on their abilities to continue working in at least some capacity.
Among doctors/surgeons in particular, a big fear is that if they report their own health concerns, their career may be at risk because their local/national medical board may revoke their license to practice medicine (or equivalent, as certification systems can vary regionally) for at least some period of time while they seek treatment (typically until a second health assessment can be carried out at the very least, although requirements will vary), and it is often a lengthy, invasive, and difficult process to get that licensure/certification/etc. back.
This leads to a lot of healthcare staff hiding any health concerns they might have or might develop; A lot of people will never fully disclose at any point due to these fears, which is obviously less than ideal for everyone.
On the upside, this has already been identified as a major concern in many if not most healthcare systems, and while ableism remains a huge issue in healthcare in general, there are more and more targeted resources popping up in an effort to reach out to healthcare staff in particular, so that safe spaces can be provided for staff to seek help.
At the centre of the issue though, is ableism. And until the systemic ableism is addressed, then the issue of poor self-reporting and the underutilisation of health resources for healthcare staff will continue.
Providing resources for healthcare staff to seek help is great and very much needed, but is functionally only a bandage for the underlying problem of ableism; If staff remain afraid to raise their own health concerns, then that hesitation will still be there, even if resources are provided.
Specific Causes Contributing to Prevalence of Certain Health Concerns Among Medical Staff
There are lots of different factors involved when considering how certain health issues may develop in healthcare workers specifically, but it's known that moral injury and occupational distress are two factors that tend to impact healthcare workers more significantly than many other cohorts.
"44% of doctors binge-drank and 5% met the criteria for alcohol dependence; 24%–29% experienced negative emotions after overeating and 8% had a binge-eating disorder; 20%–61% had some type of sleep problem and 12% had severe/moderate insomnia; 69% had fatigue and 19%–29% experienced other types of ill health problems. The results show that occupational distress and job factors increase the odds of doctors using substances, having sleep problems, presenting with frequent symptoms of ill health and binge-eating." - Source - British Medical Journal, UK (2019)
So it's actually a pretty realistic idea to have a medic character struggling with substance abuse, and I like it specifically because we rarely see depictions of medical staff struggling with their own health issues-- Despite the fact that it's a common concern.
I'm sure that engex abuse (and potentially other substance abuse) may have presented itself as a major concern for Cybertronian medics, especially during and after the war, but even just in general.
(I touched on this as a theme in my fic "A Taste of His Own Medicine", in which Ratchet doses himself semi-regularly with anxiolytics and tries to hide it.)
It might be interesting to see the stripey brother struggle with his ability to objectively recognise his own substance abuse as a serious concern, while also having difficulty reaching out for help due to fear of being labelled a "failed medic". (But this is just me thinking out loud-- Feel free to ignore me!)
Anyway, I hope this information was interesting or useful, and obviously I love your OC concepts! :)
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