This post has been shared by the APHA Mentor’s Blog. It was written to help you start and grow an advocacy practice.
It is provided so you can find it in a search here at myAPHA.org, but you’ll need to link to the original post to read it in its entirety. Find the link to that post at the end of the excerpt.
Link to the original full length post.
The Challenge of Assessing the Merit of a Client
This post was contributed by Lisa Berry Blackstock, Soul Sherpa® a mentor for those who are building an advocacy practice. Most patient advocates are hungry for business, and for good reason. More customers mean better business revenues. It’s one of the major reasons people enter into business, regardless of the profession. Patient advocacy isn’t any different. What is different about our profession, though, is a knee-jerk tendency to assume every potential client is a client worth taking. What patient advocate doesn’t want to help a person in need? We most definitely want to help people, especially those who find themselves vulnerable in the midst of a healthcare system where navigation can become overwhelming. When I began my patient advocacy practice, I assumed every tale of woe I heard from a potential client was accurate and worthy of my advocacy services. Over time, however, I began to identify a pattern that has become part of my screening process for new clients. It turns out that every situation is not as it appears and sometimes very different than how it is described. Every patient advocate’s goal is to perform a good and valuable service, and be compensated accordingly. However, deciding which…