"The Doctor's Art" is a weekly podcast that explores what makes medicine meaningful, featuring profiles and stories from clinicians, patients, educators, leaders, and others working in healthcare. Listen and subscribe on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, Google, Stitcher, and Podchaser.
Approximately one in 700 babies in the U.S. is born with Down syndrome. Despite how common this condition is, we don't often have the chance to hear their stories.
In this episode, Henry Bair and Tyler Johnson, MD, are joined by Dashiell Meier, a young aspiring filmmaker and disability advocate who has Down syndrome. Over the course of the conversation, they explore how Meier sees the world as he reflects upon the stereotypes that society holds against people with disabilities, discusses what makes his favorite doctors stand out, shares his passion for storytelling, and offers advice to clinicians on how to better connect with patients who have disabilities.
In this episode, you will hear about:
- 1:47 How Meier currently helps Stanford University medical students learn to communicate with patients with disabilities
- 3:22 Meier's academic interests and career aspirations in the entertainment world
- 5:22 Meier's interactions with doctors and what makes his favorites stand out
- 7:42 A discussion of the stereotypes that people with Down syndrome face
- 11:00 What Meier wishes people knew about Down syndrome
- 19:10 The movement for people with disabilities that Meier is spearheading, and what he hopes to achieve through it
- 27:00 Advice on building good relationships with people who have disabilities
- 32:04 The projects Meier intends to create as a filmmaker
- 34:46 How to develop greater empathy for people with disabilities
- 37:10 Advice to new clinicians and trainees on how best to interact with patients with disabilities
The following is a partial transcript (note errors are possible):
Johnson: So, you know, Dashiell, one of the reasons that you were there the other day is because the people who run this medical school class were hoping that you could help the students learn how to be better doctors. And so I was hoping that, first off, you could talk to us a little bit about what have been some of your experiences with doctors, some of your experiences with doctors over your life? Like, why have you seen doctors and what have those ... some of those visits been like?
Meier: Overall, all my doctor experience is actually pretty good. Like they treat me with respect for someone with Down syndrome. They actually respect me. They don't care about the stereotypes about Down syndrome. And they're great people to talk to when I have a medical issue and it's really fun, fun to chat with, I mean, they're great people just like you. Yeah.
Johnson: Thank you.
Meier: And mainly my experience has been pretty uplifting, I would say.
Johnson: I'm really glad to hear that. Can you talk to us a little bit about, maybe tell us about all of the doctors that you've seen over your life, who's one of your favorite doctors and what was it that made that doctor stand out to you?
Meier: I have many doctors. I would say one of my doctors, he always welcomes me with a big smile and he treats me the age I am. And he would talk to me directly instead of my mom. And when he does talk to my mom, he asks for my permission beforehand.
Johnson: Yeah.
Meier: Which is great. And that's one of the main things of what I like in a good doctor.
Johnson: Yeah, there were a couple of things that you said actually in that answer that I wanted to dig down a little bit more on. So the first is you mentioned that he talks to you in a way that's appropriate for your age. Why does that stick out to you, or why has that become something that's important to you?
Meier: Because of the stereotypes with people with Down syndrome, there's a stereotype that people, with doctors, that they don't see the person as a person, they see them as their disability, which is not good in society. Yeah. Because of other stereotypes of Down syndrome, for most of our lives, we've been treated like animals.
For the full transcript, visit The Doctor's Art.
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