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.
To Thine Own Self Be True (with apologies to William Shakespeare)
This post was contributed by Cindi Gatton, Pathfinder Patient Advocacy Group a mentor for those who are building an advocacy practice. Find Cindi’s Mentor Listing. As professional patient advocates we come to our discipline with a deep desire to help people through the vagaries of our healthcare system, a system that can swallow up even the most informed consumer. Our clients trust us to be able to step back from the situations that are upsetting and unfathomable to them to help them make truly personalized, informed decisions. This is not work for the weak of heart. In so doing we pledge to amplify our client’s voices, but not become it. This would seem to be easy, but in effect, it can be harder than we might think. Every individual has a filter through which they process their healthcare values. Perhaps one of the most important things we have to do as advocates is to become conscious about these filters, first our own, and then our clients. To facilitate that, I’ve used a tool that comes from the book by Jerome Groopman and Pamela Hartzband, Your Medical Mind. How to Decide What is Right for You. New York : Penguin…