227: Diversity and Inclusivity in Healthcare with Lesley Williams, MD

Everyone deserves access to healthcare and respect from healthcare providers - regardless of shape, body size, or skin color. Unfortunately, that's not always the case. According to BMC Medicine, weight stigma is particularly prevalent and detrimental in healthcare settings, with documented high levels of 'anti-fat' bias in healthcare providers, patients with obesity receiving poorer care and having worse outcomes

Today's guest, Dr. Lesley Williams, is trying to change the narrative. Dr. Williams is a board certified family medicine physician and a certified eating disorder specialist. Her years working in the mental health field led her to become an advocate for body positivity and size diversity. Dr. Williams is also a passionate advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion in healthcare.

In this episode, Dr. Williams explains the importance of weight independent healthcare, including the BMI and it's racial implications. She discusses racism's effect on health, her own personal experiences with racism, and how important it is to embrace curiosity in healthcare.

Dr. Williams touches briefly on the importance of health equity and her adoption of the HAES model in healthcare. She discusses her children's book Free to Be Me: Self Love for All Sizes and why she wrote it. Lastly, she leaves listeners with a tangible tip to combat weight stigma culture.

This podcast episode is brought to you by Resilience Reboot for Leaders.

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First group starts Feb. 16th – each employee is $125 with discounts for 2 or more employees.

For links mentioned in today's episode visit: http://bit.ly/Redesignpod