ABSTRACT
Healthcare has a painful history of discrimination and wrongful treatment, leading to changes in patients’ behaviors when interacting with the healthcare system of today. These behaviors include self-silencing through passing behaviors (talking and acting like a member of a majority group, such as a lesbian passing as a heterosexual person) and not following doctor/provider advice, or a silencing by the healthcare system through the prevention of diversity among providers, covert discrimination, and manifesting as health disparities. Unfortunately, this silencing process creates major barriers to holistic patient care because a complete understanding is concealed by the patient or is presumed by providers. There is an institutionalized silencing and self-silencing of women of color, lesbians, and women with mental health problems.
