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While I love the solidarity from men and women in support of the fight against harassment, I think we need to slow down just a minute and think through some things.
Where we go next with sexual harassment. A thread
1/x
Where we go next with sexual harassment. A thread
1/x
Many organizations can only take action with what they have/know. If someone is given leadership, an award, a position of any power, we need to look at who helped get them there. These organizations take recommendation. Who wrote letters? Who advocated for such people? 2/x
We need organizations to help drive change, but we cannot place all the responsibility for our current state on them. While many individuals are surprised to learn of what’s happened, few are truly shocked. Many heard rumors, stories, even know names. But let’s stop there. 3/x
What happened when we heard these rumors? Did we follow up on them? Did we seek out truth? Or did we blow it off as none of our business? Because for something to happen, this has to be EVERYONE’s business. 4/x
We can’t blow off a rumor, we have to sort it out. We have a duty to our colleagues & our trainees to find truth - for both the harasee and the possible harasser. We have to stop working with and collaborating with individuals who we know are harming others, or think may be. 5/x
This isn’t a problem with a single person, a single organization, or a single process. Sexual harassment in many forms is a societal problem to which the healthcare profession is not immune. To even begin to fix it, we need: 6/x
Large scale personal accountability - YOU have to do whatever YOU can. Don’t write that rec you don’t believe in. Drop that project. Create a safe space. Seek truth. This is a hard one to swallow. I look back and know I too could have done MORE. We ALL must do more. 7/x
National organizations to help further drive this change. These organizations do, in effect, choose for us our role models - and often times they’ve been spot on. These organizations advocate and advance our profession. We need to take next steps WITH them not AGAINST them. 8/x
While twitter feeds can blow up over night, good, sound organizational changes take time. Momentum is great but we must have sustainable, thoughtful action. I truly believe change is coming. We must be a little patient, but keep an unbreakable persistence. 9/x
Processes of power & promotion to expand evaluation of character. While all individuals & organizations should have some form of this, an accrediting body specifically MUST have procedures for how they guarantee the programs they accredit don’t permit these types of actions.10/x
A pathway for anonymous complaints must not be driven through local bodies alone. We need a fail-safe. If you are, quite literally, creating the standards of expectations for our trainees or healthcare, a hard, non-passive stance to harassment must be one of those standards. 11/x
I love the ongoing empowerment & I encourage it. But let’s make sure we aren’t focusing on theatrics, but instead on real movement. Let’s take authentic action. Let’s get to work. 12/12
@ACCP @ASHPOfficial @pharmacists @AACPharmacy @TIMESUPHC
@ACCP @ASHPOfficial @pharmacists @AACPharmacy @TIMESUPHC
