Linda Mona: Disability Is 'Diverse Experience in Life'

This article was reported and written by contributor Katharine Blossom Lowrie.

Dr. Linda Mona likes to defy the odds. Since she has lived with an autoimmune condition since the age of 6 and has confronted negative societal attitudes throughout her life, Mona strives to change people’s perceptions about those with disabilities.

Growing up in Redondo Beach, for example, facing people’s indifference was almost as difficult for her as navigating the school grounds in a wheelchair. Few saw her potential or offered encouragement as to higher learning or a career. No one expected her to marry or have children, much less possess the wherewithal to care for them. She went through seven OBGYN physicians, in fact, before finding one that supported her choice to have biological children.

Today, Mona and her husband, Harold Hunter, an account director for Williams Lea, a business process outsourcing company, have two sons, Kyle, 9, and Ryan, 7. They live in Rancho Palos Verdes.

The same lack of expectation colored her university life. Deciding she wanted to go into the field of psychology to work with people with disabilities, she overcame environmental and attitudinal barriers and earned her BA in psychology at UCLA and her masters and doctoral degrees at Georgia State University. She now counsels people with disabilities on ways to bring dating, romance and sexuality into their lives.

Along with educating health-care providers on issues of sexuality and disability, she is a full-time clinical psychologist at the Veterans Affairs Long Beach Healthcare System. She conducts intimacy clinics for veterans with spinal cord injuries and provides therapy to those who have amputations or acquired cognitive conditions. A popular speaker at disability related conferences, she has published over 50 articles on the subject and won numerous awards, including Working Mother Media’s 2009 Working Mother of the Year; and, in 2010, she was named Southern California Daily Breeze Women of Distinction Health Provider of the Year.

Her views sometimes ring startlingly new to the ear, such as when she classifies disability as “a diverse life experience” similar to gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation, a precept that guides her consulting practice. But as important to Mona as her passionate advocacy on behalf of the disabled is her devotion to her husband and children. Mona readily admits it takes a village to cope with two lively sons while working full time. She manages it by utilizing assistance from care providers, childcare workers, relatives and friends but also by radiating optimism. It percolates in her lively personality, heady laughter, and the way she talks to her children about why she works and why “women have very meaningful roles” outside the family.

Here, Mona shares the challenges that have been the most difficult.

Patch: What’s the biggest challenge you’ve taken on?

Mona: My biggest goal at the present time is to focus on establishing culturally competent care for people with disabilities within healthcare systems. Some of the biggest challenges in both my professional and personal life have been based in tolerating, embracing, and making efforts to change negative and incorrect attitudes about disability. Battling preconceived notions of my own life and that of my patients is a daily struggle. Given that many people with chronic health issues/disabilities access healthcare regularly, I would like to make efforts to make sure that their comprehensive healthcare experience is one that addresses the specific health issue in a context that is respectful and patient centered. By focusing on patient centered care for people with disabilities, the whole person is treated. The person’s condition is treated as a part of who they are but does not define their whole being. And, all aspects of quality of life are considered including physical, mental, and sexual health.

Patch: How do you plan to achieve this goal?

Mona: I plan to achieve this goal by continuing to consult and train healthcare administrators and providers on how to work with people with disabilities in a comprehensive responsible manner. Through education and training, my hope is that attitudinal change will facilitate policy change.

Patch: Did you succeed?

Mona: I have had success with this goal in that some healthcare policy is now reflective of disability as a diverse experience in life. I spend much time mentoring early career rehabilitation psychologists with disabilities and have seen an increase in the pool of people advocating for change. I will know that I am succeeding with this goal when I enter into a healthcare setting and the fact that I have a Ph.D. and work full time, donate many hours of professional service to my community, and am a wife and mother, is not an anomaly and instead a typical story to my healthcare provider.