Rethinking the Consultation (both sides of the coin): Neurodiversity and Rheumatology Care

So there's gonna be three areas that we're gonna sort of think about whilst we're chatting.

The first one, which you've both alluded to, is the implications of the traditional rheumatology consultation for somebody who's neurodiverse.

Then we're gonna think a bit about how can we tailor our communication to make it better for neurodiverse individuals.

And then following on from that, we're going to then think a bit about how can we make changes to our practice day-to-day to be more inclusive? So as we're sort of setting the scene, Yeliz, can you explain to us and help us understand a bit about what do we mean when we say neurodiversity?

Yes, of course.

So when we talk about neurodiversity, uh, we are recognizing that people, uh, naturally think, communicate, process information, and respond to sensory inputs in different ways.

Conditions, if you like to call them as conditions or, um, like autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, and others, uh, sit under the neurodivergent umbrella.

Uh, but the core idea is that these differences aren't deficits.

They are variation on, uh, in how our brains are wired.

So in rheumatology this matters because our systems are built around typical communication styles.

You know, we expect eye contact, fast verbal processing, open-ended questions, abstract reasoning, uh, mostly.

For many n- neurodivergent people, those aren't comfortable or it doesn't come naturally.

It's not intuitive.

So neurodiversity is really a reminder, uh, I guess, that we need flexibility built into our consultations as to how we communicate and how we arrange our environments, uh, to be more inclusive, I would say.