Healthcare and PDA: From Avoidance to Access

About this episode

The episode discusses the challenges PDAers face in accessing healthcare and the importance of understanding their unique experiences.

In this episode, Rachel from the PDA Society is joined by Julia Daunt, a PDA adult and trainer with the PDA Society, to explore the realities of accessing healthcare for PDAers. Julia shares her lived experience of navigating medical environments, highlighting how appointments, procedures and interactions with professionals can often feel overwhelming, unpredictable and highly demanding. The conversation explores why healthcare settings can trigger anxiety for PDAers, including loss of control, sensory challenges, unfamiliar environments and the expectation to comply quickly with instructions. Rachel and Julia discuss how these experiences can lead to avoidance, delayed care or heightened distress, even when support is urgently needed. Julia reflects on the importance of understanding how demand sensitivity shows up in medical contexts, and why what might appear as resistance is often a response to feeling unsafe or overwhelmed. Part 1 focuses on building understanding, offering insight into what healthcare feels like from a PDA perspective, and why compassionate, flexible approaches are essential for supporting access. Key Themes * The challenges PDAers face when accessing…

People in this episode

Host: Rachel

Guest: Julia Daunt

Topics covered

• accessing healthcare
• PDA experiences
• anxiety in medical settings
• demand sensitivity
• compassionate approaches

Keywords

• PDA
• healthcare
• anxiety
• medical environments
• demand sensitivity
• avoidance
• support
• compassionate care

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: PDA Society

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