Personal Diversity Support Group

For my personal diversity project I chose to participate in an “informal” kidney dialysis support group. There are formal support groups with set times and locations, they usually serve either the patient or the caregiver of the patient. None of the support groups meet in the treatment room while the patient is having dialysis. The environment of the treatment room and the restriction placed on the patient, make the patients vulnerable, physically, mentally and emotionally. Most often, the formal support groups are organized around Western cultural ideas and values. However, many ethnic and minority populations, reflecting their own unique and long-standing cultural beliefs, practices, and support systems, do not define or address disability
The patients range in age, religion, race, language, and beliefs. My understanding of culture is that it is a unified system of characteristics and knowledge of a particular group of people. The dialysis group, notwithstanding their differences, shared more characteristics than I imagined. The most obvious is the realization they all require external measures to sustain their life. The dialysis machine is “friend and foe”. It is a friend that protects their heart and lungs when the kidneys no longer function. It is foe when the sessions are painful and inconvenient. They share medical and technical language and a particular way of life that is consistent, identifiable, and distinguishable from others. The share a disability that affects everything they do
There was a young autistic woman who had been on dialysis since early childhood. She didn’t talk and was known for carrying an empty purse. Her caregiver was a young African American woman, probably the same age as the autistic woman, but acted more like her mother. One group member worked as a nurse in a local hospital. She worked 10 hours after her dialysis treatment because she need the healthcare her employer provided. The group also consisted of a few “boyfriends” and “girlfriends”, older, lonely people, who claimed a relationship for 3 hours of the day. Most of the patients were older, perhaps in their 60s to 80s years old. Observing the group if would seem that kidney disease equally affects men and women, of all ages, but perhaps not economic levels. It appeared that the income levels were from low to middle class. However, I imagine all have some type of insurance coverage because treatment cost are very expensive, even with Medicare it can be $750 per