Taniya Jones: Hi, my name is Taniya. I am 19. I live in Dunbar, West Virginia. I was a foster kid for 5, 5-ish years, around 5-ish years, and I personally have never received the help that I've needed. I do not have health Insurance or coverage or anything. I've tried multiple times to apply for the programs for the things that are supposed to be given medically to help foster kids, and 9 times out of 10, it has just been, well, call this place, call this place, and nothing ever gets done, and then I usually end up having to restart my entire process. I currently do not have Medicaid or have any health coverage. It has been a struggle. Trying to get that, even though it is already supposed to be supplied. It has been pretty difficult to get me into a doctor's office. A lot of times I am told I cannot be seen for months, and I don't have months to wait, and so it usually just ends up being blown away and blown off until The next time there's also been times where doctors listened to me, but they haven't heard. I would tell them what was going on and then it was like, oh, OK, OK, do this, even though it had nothing to do with what was wrong. When I was 14 years old, I was diagnosed with something called "Functional Neurological Disorder." I had my first episode when I was I was 14 and I was in the hospital for 3 months. I wasn't able to walk for about a month and doctors could not figure out what was wrong, so I was a little bit hopeless until they finally came back with the labs. They diagnosed me with Functional Neurological Disorder. I still get episodes, but I've gotten to the point where I was able to figure out what I needed to do to move forward. The one thing I would probably tell lawmakers would probably be to listen. Especially when it comes to a woman speaking about their body and what is wrong, because 9 times out of 10, women are often not wrong, and it's usually the doctors, and that's because we're being listened to, but we're not being heard. I actually lost my mom when I was 10. The doctors did not do anything to help her, they just let my mom sit there. I would be more optimistic when it comes to women. Opening up about what they want. I feel like a lot of doctors are judgmental of that. And it makes women feel more insecure because now the person that they're supposed to go to for the health and the health of their bodies is now judging. I feel like being more optimistic with women and their bodies and their needs and just listening in general would take everything and make it 10 times better.
