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Twisted Words Put Me Off

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Recently, I had one phone conversation and one email, with two different people who are hoping to, and working to become advocates, both exchanges which resulted in very negative takeaways on my part. And then I wondered – how many of us leave the same impression, even if we never intend to come across the way we do? And if we do so, no matter how unintentionally, does it give patient advocacy a bad name, or a black eye? Those twisted words are actually responses most of us run into every day. All that is required to fix them is […]

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It’s a Thing!

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One of my favorite activities as the director of the Alliance of Professional Health Advocates is conducting the APHA workshops in business and marketing that we offer a few times each year. One reason I enjoy them so much is because I meet our APHA members – passionate people who plan to improve their business and marketing knowledge in order to strengthen their practices. It is TRULY and ALWAYS a pleasure – and fun. My absolute favorite workshops are those where I learn as much from attendees as I teach to them. And so it was recently in Phoenix, Arizona

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And They Called it Puppy L-o-o-ve

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…. Remember when you were a teenager in puppy love> Oh! You couldn’t stand to be away from the new person in your life! You knew you would love each other forever – but the rest of the world that was getting in the way of that love. THEY thought you were too young, but you knew better! …. And they called it puppy love Oh I guess they’ll never know How a young heart really feels And why I love her so It was the highest of highs, finding love for the first time! Like no other, you couldn’t

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Gallimaufry: Your Questions, Some Answers, Media and Just Stuff

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Last summer I came upon this great word – a word I had never heard before, but which can be used in so many aspects of conversation and life! The word is “gallimaufry.”? It means a hodgepodge, a jumble, or confused medley of things – items, ideas, anything at all. It’s a great word for an advocacy entrepreneur! It describes the many ideas that come together to define challenges and create solutions, or the many activities it takes to achieve success, or even the creative approaches it takes to help our clients, or help each other. I’ve even adopted the

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Mentors and SIGs – Our Best Resources Yet

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Updated March 2017 When APHA and AdvoConnection were launched in 2009, the resources that existed for starting and growing a private, independent advocacy practice were few and far between. There weren’t many advocacy experts, because with only a few exceptions, there just weren’t many people with the track record to call themselves experts. Certainly there were experts in different useful topics; for example lawyers or insurance people who could take what they knew and apply it to advocacy. So we took advantage of those experts’ good graces to build the first foundations for practices going forward. We still rely on

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Turning Adversity into Proactive Survivorship

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It’s been a tough week. From the initial blow, I’ve been a poster child for Kubler Ross’s five stages of grief. At this point I’m probably mid-way between depression and acceptance. If you are a subscriber to my patient empowerment newsletter (not our APHA Monday Mail, rather, my Every Patient’s Advocate one) – then you have already heard my news – I sent out a heads up last Thursday just before my About.com newsletter went out. (If you aren’t a subscriber, why not? 😉 Here’s a link. ) The news is that after almost 7 years and 2000+ articles, out

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Where Do Patient Advocates Get Their Education or Certification?

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My email inbox each week finds many questions that relate to health advocates’ education, or the availability of certification. There are three general questions I am asked: One of the most frequent questions I get comes from newbies – someone who is just thinking about becoming a patient advocate, maybe understands the basic concept of what the work might entail, and wants to know what sort of education they must look for to get started, and “to be certified” – to earn their patient advocacy certification. Then I hear from those who, six or eight months into their private practice

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