If he had to see a doctor dressed as a Jesuit priest he would probably suffer flashbacks of his abuse and maybe have a panic attack. Uniforms act as cues in posttraumatic stress disorder. Panic attacks have been linked with sudden death from myocardial infarction.
Unfortunately, Department of Health in UK has refused to change their policy on work wear in psychiatry in such a way as to be clear about religious uniforms despite all the evidence I provided to them. They wrote to me today saying if I write to them again they would not reply to me but they would log my letter. As if they did not know that persistence is key the to success.
Once again we are tempted to hope that European Court would be able to decide in favour of patients rather than religious institutions in keeping with true spirit of Human Rights Act: Article 9
http://www.hri.org/docs/ECHR50.html#C.Art11
Although, PM was right when he said health comes before religion, I wonder if some policy makers have heard him.
How many more lawyers would have to talk about their abuse before Department of Health understands the law and applies it. Health and Safety issues do apply to psychiatry too.
In USA over $436 million was paid in compensation by Catholic Church to victims of sexual abuse last year. Meanwhile in UK it all seemed rather hushed up, but of course, we did have a Catholic PM for a number of years.
Pope met with a small group of victims of sexual abuse in USA and prayed with them (? in hope they'll donate the money back to Catholic Church):http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/17/catholicism.usa1
This year Pope will visit UK. I wonder what will be on his agenda.
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