About the Fat Friendly Health Professionals Lists
This is a list of some health professionals that some fat people have
deemed fat friendly or who declared themselves fat friendly, and some
other web sites listing fat friendly health professionals. The list is
arranged alphabetically by country, state, and city. One person has also
offered to give info by email.
If you know of (or are) a fat friendly medical professional, please send
the following to recommend@fatfriendlydocs.com. Use the subject line "FFP
submission".
- Full name and profession/specialty
- Address (you must include at least the city and state; if the city is part of a
greater metropolitan area, it would be helpful to know that)
- Phone number (optional)
- Description -- why you believe the professional is fat friendly.
(I may edit your comments for length.)
- Attribution -- how do you want to be attributed? (name, email
address, and/or web page). If you do not specify, I will not
attribute your comments.
- (Optional) Where did you hear about this list? I'm curious how
people are finding out about this list. This information won't be
published.
Note: It's probably polite to ask your doctor whether it's OK to
recommend him/her.
If you know of a medical professional who is NOT fat friendly, please
send the information above along with an explanation of your opinion. I
will not have a list of fat unfriendly professionals (I don't wanna be
sued!) but if someone has listed the same person as fat friendly, I will
include dissenting comments in his or her listing.
These recommendations are ideals. Some professionals and offices may
not follow them all, but their fat patients may still consider them
overall fat friendly. The bottom line is whether the professional
preaches weight loss if you have stated that is not an option for you.
A fat friendly professional does not necessarily avoid mentioning a
client's weight, but he or she avoids making an issue of it, avoids
lectures and humiliation, and respects the client's wishes with regard
to weight discussions.
If a client asks not to be weighed, the request is acknowledged without
complaint and taken into account automatically on future visits. (Note:
there are a few cases where weighing is necessary, for example, when
administering certain medications, chemotherapy, or anesthesia.)
If weight sometimes contributes to a problem, the professional may
mention this, but also considers other diagnoses and recommends tests to
determine the actual diagnosis if appropriate. If weight loss is a
recommended treatment for a problem, the fat friendly professional may
mention this, but at minimum will also recommend and prescribe other
treatments. A fat friendly professional accepts a client's wish not to
use weight loss as a treatment.
Ideally, the professional's office has available armless chairs, large
blood pressure cuffs, large examination gowns, and other equipment
suitable for fat people. If not, the office acknowledges the importance
of such items when told.
Some fat friendly professionals believe that fat is not unhealthy.
Others may believe that fat is unhealthy, but may acknowledge that
weight loss doesn't work or is dangerous and/or that the client has a
right to direct his or her own treatment.
-
"Larger Patients: In Search of Fewer Lectures, Better
Health Care"
- This edition of the newsletter The Prepared
Patient (Vol 1, Issue 9, July 2008) by the Center for the
Advancement of Health describes the difficulties large people have in
accessing care and gives some tips for overcoming what Hanne Blank calls
"fat distraction." It mentions this list.
- The
weight of obesity: Linking large people to care
-
This American Medical News
article interviews Mara Nesbitt, who contributed an article
to this web site about how to choose a fat-friendly
doctor. It also
mentions this site.
Back to the Fat Friendly Health Professionals page
Last updated:
June 2011
Created by:
Stef
No unsolicited commercial email.
Copyright 1997-2011 Stef Jones