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ICOPA 2019 Proved, Once Again, That….

… there is nothing like a shared experience to improve our worlds: personal and professional.

Just WOW!

<center>L to R Trisha Torrey Anne Llewellyn Teri Dreher ICOPA 2019 Organizers<center>

The inaugural ICOPA is in the books and it was ALL THAT. ICOPA = International Conference on Patient Advocacy, held October 3 to 5, with just short of 200 attendees and great pizzazz!

We were reminded of how our collective conscience, our passion, our dedication, and our skills and knowledge, collide with our disturbing healthcare environment, to create life improving, life extending experiences for our patient-clients.

We were reminded of how working together – in collaboration with all flavors of advocates from private / independent, to hospital advocates, to non-profit (disease-related) organizations, to providers and others can reap benefits for patients who need the help, and the advocates who find their own loads lightened by working with other professionals.

conference bookWe learned about topics from Medicare (watch out for 2020!) to working with LGBTQ clients, to “a day in the life”, to including guardianship in one’s practice, to the future of advocate certification, and many more.

We networked our feet off, mixing, mingling, and and meeting others who share our experiences, plus – importantly – wonderfully supportive sponsors – companies that support our missions, visions, and goals.

We learned that, YES, in fact, the rising tide (and OHHHH yes! make no mistake – the advocacy tide is RISING!) does float all boats!

We met new folks who want to become advocates. We met long-time advocates who shared their hard-earned and well-learned, invaluable knowledge. We met American advocates and Canadian advocates. We invited those with interest to step up to leadership.

We learned there is plenty of room in our tent for many, many more passionate and skilled people who want to be advocates and care managers. And we showed the world that we, as a profession, are here to stay!

If you attended this year’s ICOPA: please share your thoughts below !

And if you didn’t… well… we hope to see you in 2020! Don’t miss it!

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