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Preventing Our Own Brexit, Saving Our Clients and Advocacy Practices

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The whole world was fascinated last month by Brexit: the vote in Britain to leave the European Union. Would they leave? Wouldn’t they? But to me, the most fascinating part was what happened the next day. Once the vote had taken place and the (bare) majority had voted to leave the EU, those who had voted to leave began to learn the real truth of what they had chosen, and realized they had been duped. Yes, duped. Because the leaders on the “leave” side immediately disclaimed the promises they made. Ooops! they said! No, we can’t really apply the billions […]

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Survey Says! The Results Are In

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We privately paid, independent, professional patient advocates “tend to be older, white, female, more highly educated, and have other medical training or past careers in related professions.” …. or at least that is one conclusion drawn by the surveyors — those who built, issued and analyzed the first National Health and Patient Advocate Survey.* Both private, self-employed advocates, and employed advocates (hospitals, insurers, employers), were surveyed. Whether or not you were one of the folks who took the survey, if you have any interest in patient or health advocacy as a profession, you’ll be interested in the results. They were

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Balance in All Things – We Create a World of Good

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Since moving last month, I now live not far from Orlando. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know the tragic and horrible events that have surrounded this city during the past ten days. From the killing of a promising young singer, to the mass murder of 49 young people, to a toddler’s death by alligator. I didn’t directly know anyone involved, but I can certainly speak to the pall that has been cast. The horror, followed by the myriad resulting emotions – sadness, dread, apprehension, and certainly the anger… Contrasted with those events, this week my inbox featured

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The YOMs Are Back! (And That’s Not a Good Thing)

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You may be aware that The Alliance of Professional Health Advocates maintains a list of mentors – people who have worked in private advocacy for long enough, and who have become successful enough, to be willing to, and able, to mentor advocate wannabes – those of you who want to become the best advocate you can be, but understand there are limitations to your knowledge that will get in the way of your success. Our listed mentors are professionals who are paid for their expertise, education, and advice by those who want to learn from them. Hold that thought. We

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When Clients Lie

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Years ago, I hosted a radio show where I had the opportunity to interview medical providers from many specialties about their work with patients. One of the recurring themes was that “Patients lie.” Now – you might wonder why that would become a theme, but the answer is quite simple. It was important to discuss it during the show because smart patients need to know that their providers assume they are lying as a part of the diagnoses or treatment they provide. (Good advice for smart advocates, too.) Here are some examples: An anesthesiologist told me that patients are always

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Patient Advocates and The Kindergarten Principles

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You may remember Robert Fulghum’s book, published in the 1980s, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten… The book is a group of essays focused on the wisdom that helps us lead a good life – basic tenets including sharing, being kind to one another, cleaning up after ourselves and living a balanced life. The book and its basics have come to mind so many times in recent months during exchanges with some of the patient advocates who have reached out to me. Their outreach, a mix of questions, complaints, reports and misinformation, leaves me scratching my

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Mixed Messages Are Just a Lawsuit Waiting to Happen

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A few weeks ago, I wrote Fool Me Once, Shame on You, But Fool Me Twice about the problems that can hurt patient-clients which also hurt our profession because they violate our ethical principles and best practices. Those problems range from advocates working beyond their own abilities to help clients because they may not have the experience or education to do so, to selling medical products on their websites, and others. Today we’re looking at the promised Example #2 of this problem in hopes of a hard stop. That problem: the danger of mixed messages. As stated in the Fool

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