Hi, I'm Elliot. New mod here: introduction, AMA, and a couple of possible peer offerings
Hey r/Disability,
I'm Elliot (they/them), and I was recently added to the mod team. I wanted to introduce myself properly!
Who I am
I'm disabled. I use queer crip for myself, and I mean both terms in the reclaimed, critical, political sense they were intended. I'm also a psychiatric survivor. I've been on the receiving end of the mental health system, including legally mandated inpatient after a psychotic break, years of resultant antipsychotic treatment to stay in remission, PTSD diagnosed due to childhood abuse and subsequent clinical psychedelic treatment, academic dropouts and more.
Those 5 years in and out of institutions radicalized me against ableist discrimination even more than I already was as a person with multiple chronic illnesses. I know what it's like to have to completely avoid the hike everyone else is going on because it's not accessible to my body, even though they promised it would be.
I'm interested in Mad Studies, disability justice, and amplifying the lived knowledge of people who are actually receiving care inside these spaces.
I'm not here as an expert on anyone's disability but my own, however I would say I'm a community member who happens to have picked up some useful skills along the way.
What I do
I'm a doctoral student in counseling psychology in Colorado, USA. My research interests include why rural and LGBTQ+ Americans die of despair (suicide, overdose, alcohol) and why the prevention efforts we've built keep missing the people at that intersection; the inherent tension between suicide prevention and Medical Aid in Dying and the concept of compulsory aliveness; culturally valid assessments for neurodivergence in Black women and girls; and affiliative intent in queer communities.
Before the PhD, my work was frontline:
- Peer support specialist on a Mobile Crisis Outreach Team. Responding to mental health crises in people's homes and in public, alongside a licensed clinician.
- Advanced psychiatric technician at the University of Utah's Huntsman Mental Health Institute. I designed and ran my own therapeutic groups on an inpatient unit.
- PTSD peer navigator. Currently co-facilitating skills groups in a trauma-focused telehealth program.
- Court Appointed Special Advocate. 250+ hours advocating for abused and neglected kids in foster care, including testifying in court.
- Medical scribe for four years. Otolaryngology, interventional cardiology, urologic oncology, primary care, and more.
I'm an AAS Certified Crisis Specialist and a Certified Crisis Worker in the state of Utah.
That scribe job is the one most relevant to what I want to offer below, so let me say more about it. I spent four years with my head completely inside medical charts; at that time, I had just finished my EMT program and wanted to go to medical school. At my most intense stretch I was editing, updating, cleaning up, summarizing, and analyzing charts for four interventional cardiologists across a large hospital system spanning Illinois and Wisconsin, as many as 90 charts in a single day (that was the WORST). Medical terminology is a second language to me at this point. There is very little you could put in front of me that I couldn't read.
I also came out of that job understanding the system's constraints from the inside, leading to why your doctor had eleven minutes to talk to you, why the note says something that doesn't match what you remember happening, why the referral vanished before you saw it in your portal, etc. My medical practice began sending robotic sounding messages that just repeated what I said back to me, so I did some digging and found out they switched to an AI messaging platform. More of the logistics/mechanics.
The non-CV version
- I grew up in rural Arkansas but just recently moved from Salt Lake City, Utah to Colorado for grad school and I'm still adjusting to the lack of rain showers out west, despite being here since 2021. I need to be out in an afternoon thunderstorm each day to feel something lol.
- I'm also a published photographer and prolific baker! Currently trying to master cheesecakes and improve my photo essays of artisans working on their craft
- I have an 8 year old maltipoo named Arlo that is my soul dog; we've been through so much together
- I'm one week out from my one-year wedding anniversary!! Navigating an inter-abled relationship has caused some turbulence for us that we've had to actively overcome.
- I'm also a transgender non-binary person who has medically, legally, and socially transitioned- with all the hoopla that comes with that in the uSA
Ask me things, if you'd like!
These topics are fair game, I'd say, within reason
- Anything about the work above: crisis response, peer support, inpatient units, group facilitation, CASA and foster care advocacy, scribing, what medical charts actually say about you
- Disability, chronic illness, and psych system navigation, both my own experience and what I've watched others go through
- What doctors are like as soon as they walk out of the room (I heard it ALL)
- Grad school as a disabled and Mad person, accommodations, whether any of it is worth it
- Mad Studies, disability justice, crip politics. I'll chat about theory happily.
What I won't do: diagnose you, tell you whether to take a medication, tell you what your scan means clinically, or replace anyone on your care team. I'm not a physician and I'm not a licensed psychologist, I'm a student which is entirely separate from my online presence.
Peer navigation sessions
If there's interest, I got permission from another mod to gauge interest for setting up a limited amount of sessions weekly so people can schedule time with me one on one for peer discussion and support. (Free.) Here's exactly what I was picturing that would be and, more importantly, what it would NOT be.
What it is:
- Sitting with you and your medical records and helping you understand what they actually say: the abbreviations, the structure, what a given note is communicating to the next provider
- Helping you figure out what questions to bring to your next appointment
- Talking through navigation options where you live: what kind of provider you might be looking for, how referrals tend to work, what the system is likely to do next
- Just talking to someone who's been on both sides of the clipboard and won't be shocked by anything you say
What it explicitly is not:
- Not medical advice. Not therapy. Not diagnosis. Not a clinical service of any kind.
- Not a second opinion on your treatment
- Not crisis services. If you're in crisis, please use crisis resources. A scheduled call isn't the right tool for that, and it would be unethical for me to hold or handle that situation without crisis services where you are.
- Not a substitute for a patient advocate, case manager, or attorney, though I can sometimes help you figure out that you need one
On confidentiality: this requires real trust and I take it seriously. What you tell me stays with me. I hold the confidentiality standards expected of me as a peer support specialist and as a doctoral student in a clinical training program, and tbh just as a person who thinks that's the baseline with my own medical information. I won't discuss your situation, download your records or store them, share your records, or reference you anywhere, including here. The ordinary limits apply: if someone is in immediate danger, this is NOT the support you should be seeking.
If that sounds useful to you, here's a link for interest and I'll keep a list of people to notify when the scheduling link is ready.
Looking ahead: an 8-week virtual Disability & Grief peer support group
I'm also developing a virtual 8-week disability peer support group, specifically centered around grief. Still in the building stage, so I don't have dates yet, but here's the rough gist of it:
- Peer support, not group therapy. I've designed and facilitated therapeutic groups on an inpatient unit and I co-facilitated up to 5 virtual emotional skills groups weekly, so this will be structured and actually run, not a free-for-all video call. But it is peer-led space, not clinical treatment.
- Eight weeks with the same people, so we can build it into something safe and predictable rather than restarting every session
- Disability-centered. Not "coping with your condition" framed around getting you back to productivity. Closer to the crip and Mad Studies orientation I described above.
- Virtual, so geography and energy levels aren't that much of a barrier above your normal baseline spoons
If that sounds useful to you, here's a link for interest and I'll keep a list of people to notify when it's ready. Feedback on what you'd want from a group like this is super welcome, especially from people who've been in groups that didn't work.
Mod stuff
I'm here to support this community by following the team's lead on moderation norms and existing rules. If I do something that doesn't sit right, feel free to just say so, publicly or in modmail.
Glad to be here!!
Elliot