“Walk in My Shoes” Was a Success!

On November 2nd staff at North Shore Medical Center were invited to participate in "Walk in My Shoes" - a simulation and workshop aimed at highlighting the barriers to  accessing decent health care.  It was a great success.

Thank you to all who volunteered on November 2nd to staff the different stations at the "Walk In My Shoes" held at Salem's campus of North Shore Medical Center.  We had a good turn out. Your time and energy was well spent.  The event was successful largely because you were there and played your role very well.

What is it like to try to get health care for your family when you are uninsured? Or maybe you have Medicaid, or don’t speak English? 

About 50 NSMC administrative and clinical staff spent the morning of finding out what it feels like to be consistently denied services; to spend 'weeks' just trying to get an appointment, never mind finding the money to pay for prescriptions.  While the simulation lasted only an hour, with time for reflection and discussion afterwards, the emotions among the participant 'consumers' were intense by the end of this hour.  They were given a glimpse of what so many experience in real life, every day. 

For those of you who are not familiar with this event, Walk In My Shoes is a powerful group activity that helps participants understand what it’s really like to be an “outsider” in the U.S. health care system. Each participant is assigned a character role, either a person trying to obtain health care, or a health care administrator serving as a “gatekeeper.” For the next hour the participants become their character, and they experience all of the barriers and frustrations that some people face every day in dealing with the health care system. At the end of the hour, there is a facilitated discussion in which participants talk about what happened to their character, and how they felt about it. Often the conversation shifts to a discussion about what can be done to eliminate the obstacles so many people face.

Walk In My Shoes has been used by a variety of groups – community organizations, foundations, providers, medical schools, and public officials, to name a few -- for a variety of purposes. It is an effective tool for educating people about specific health access problems in their own communities, building empathy for those who regularly face barriers when seeking health care, and motivating people to support efforts aimed at eliminating those barriers. Walk in My Shoes is a Community Catalyst Initiative. To learn more go to www.communitycatalyst.org.