How to bring awareness to a small old fashioned community?

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I live in a very small town in the northern US. We very much look and run like a town right out of a movie portraying life in the 50's, lol. Needless to say awareness of any childhood condition is nil, and tolerance for those who are in anyway different is even less. Seriously people here have threatened to hang a person for the color of their skin. I heard/saw it happen in a little cafe, what's worse was seeing the support for the person doing the threatening. I am not expecting much support as far as spreading awareness to the general public and will be thinking on that for a while, but I see the immediate problem at hand for me to try to influence is within the medical community. I probably should not have been surprised but I really was taken aback by an experience I had the other day. Here is what happened: I am looking for a new primary care doctor and at my local clinic family practitioners and internal medicine doctors fill this need. I went online and viewed all available doctors, as was the advice I recieved when asking about how to find a new primary care doctor, and their strengths and specialties. None had AS listed. So I asked the lady at the information desk if any of these doctors had expeirence with AS patients. She told me that I was confused and that I am looking for a mental health doctor. I then reexplained that I need a primary physician and am looking for one familiar with AS as it poses its own set of physiological problems and behavioral issues. She proceeded to talk to me like a child and very nicely explained to me that AS is a mental disorder with no physiological symptoms and reasserted my need for a psychologist. I informed her my psychologist said I should ask her for the info I was seeking and that AS is a neurological problem. I understand that this is a common issue for us, the question I have is: What is the best way to appropriately address this issue and to spread awareness within my clinic?

You probably need to start with the doctors themselves. Just because the lady at the info desk doesn't know that AS comes with likely physiological issues, doesn't mean that none of the doctors are aware. It was inappropriate for the lady at the info desk to inform you about a subject in which she has no education/expertise.

You might ask whether you could have a brief word with the doctors in the clinic who do primary care. In theory, doctors are open to being briefly interviewed by prospective patients, but if few patients do this, and the docs are busy and pressed for time, you may hit some road blocks trying to just ask a few questions. Worth a try, though.

Additionally, you might ask your psychologist whether he/she would be willing to do a little networking with the docs at the clinic on your behalf. Who knows, perhaps one or more of them has more knowledge/experience with AS than the info desk lady is aware of. Doctors are not educated in out of the way communities, they are educated in teaching hospitals which tend to be in cities with diverse populations.

Good luck. I've changed GP's several times in the last few years. I had one really good doctor who has moved on to better things. The other useless doctors work in the budget clinics, and are foreigners trying to make it here.

I contacted our national autism office and they will not recommend doctors or lawyers. Which is a damn shame because, ASD friendly services would help my life so much.

It achievable, but may be more a luck thing finding a good doctor.

I have found having a good doctor to be less important for me, than say having a good herbalist, anyway.

Your best health insurance is being proactive regarding your own health awareness