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It’s the #1 Reason: YDKWYDK

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They’re getting worse. Or at least it feels that way. I’ve just spent a week away, traveling across the country for both business and pleasure. While on the road, I’ve talked to dozens of people I’ve never met before. When the subject turned to the “what do you do for a living?” question, and I answered, almost every one of them regaled me with a story, one story more surprising, frightening or tragic than the next. Either they or a loved one have been caught short by the medical care system, leading to inconvenience at the least, or debilitation, a […]

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Surprising Wisdom from Chipotle Will Make Your Day

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About once every five or six weeks I splurge on Chipotle for lunch. Love it – guacamole and all (Have you tried their corn salsa? Yum.) On my most recent visit, I did something I had never taken the time to do. I read the take-out bag. That’s right. If you have never purchased take-out at Chipotle, you may not know that there is a great deal of what looks like plain old text on the bag. I had never paused to read it, assuming (uh-huh) that all that text was just promotional in nature – and who has time

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Celebrating the 5th Annual Private Professional Patient Advocates Week

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Our Fifth Annual Private Professional Patient Advocates Week is this week – March 16 to 22 -and I’m here to share tales of the growth of our profession. Can it be that patient advocacy as a profession is now so “old” ? Granted, there were a handful of advocates practicing long before we began to quantify and qualify the profession. The year 2009, with the launch of NAHAC and APHA / AdvoConnection, marked the beginning of the growth that would make us a recognized profession across North America. Some background: From the 30-ish people who joined AdvoConnection in 2009 – for

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Cruel to Be Kind and Kind to be Cruel

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I received an email from a woman named Irma. She wants to become a health advocate, to assist people in her community who have Alzheimers. (Bless her for that.) But she was laid off from her job, and doesn’t have any money. She asked me if I would let her join Alliance of Professional Health Advocates for free so she could “learn how to do it.” Irma’s request was not the first I’ve received over the years. I am also asked to give people free copies of my books, and even loan or donate money to help them get started

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Babbling Will Get You Nowhere

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Margaret needs help for her aging father who lives 600 miles away from her. She wants to find someone to accompany him to doctors appointments, someone who can review and organize his medical bills as they arrive, and someone who can discuss his medical needs on a three-way phone call (Dad, Margaret and an advocate) once each week. Dad is happy with the idea and is willing to pay for the service. The “perfect” client, right? Here’s how I know Margaret’s story: She sent an email to our “info” email address at AdvoConnection, asking for the best way to find

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Asking WTWTTCH Helps to Overcome the Paralysis of Analysis

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Having just returned from the APHA Business and Marketing workshops in Tampa, and in reviewing my notes and questions from attendees, I’ve come to a new conclusion about why many people have so much trouble pulling the trigger to actually SAY they are in practice – the formal hanging of their shingle, as it were…. Regular readers know I call this the “paralysis of analysis” – that inability to take the last steps. I’ve written about it here, and I’ve made recommendations here, and in both those cases, I’ve made a pretty thorough case for why advocates should not be

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A Surefire Way to Drive Older Clients Away

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OK – so I confess. I talk baby talk to my dog. He’s little, and snuggly, and adorable – and it’s just so easy to call him cutesy names and fall into that simplification of short sentences that we do with babies, too. Just what is it about babies and puppy dogs that begs us to speak baby talk to them. I think that it’s that aura of vulnerability that surrounds them. Vulnerability that begs us to be reassuring or coddling or just drippy-sweet. They clearly need caretaking or caregiving, and we, as their protectors, want to make them feel

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