Powerful, Useful, and Beneficial — From HBO’s Vice Media: Patient Advocates Can Save Your Money and Your Life

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Powerful, Useful, and Beneficial — From HBO’s Vice Media: Patient Advocates Can Save Your Money and Your Life

In April of this year, patient advocates convened in San Diego for the APHA Summits to mix and mingle, learn, and talk shop…

Joining us was the video crew from HBO’s Vice News, led by producer Amanda Pisetzner – a delightful group of young people, with so much talent and enthusiasm, asking great questions…

They worked in the background during our networking event, and separately they met with two of our advocates, AnnMarie McIlwain, and Karen Vogel, as they conducted their important work. The crew even met with client-patients who AnnMarie and Karen found were willing to discuss their own situations and results…

Bottom line – the most powerful public video we’ve seen, creating a very clear picture of the benefits of independent advocacy and why everyone needs an advocate.

We have arrived! (Note: if you attended the San Diego Summits – you might be in the video!)

I invite you to watch it – and then I’ll share a few steps you can take, too, not just to help boost your own practice, but perhaps to find yourself the featured advocate in a future media activity.

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15
JUL
0

advocacy business, advocacy ethics, advocate marketing, advocate marketing tools, AdvoConnection Directory, client services, decision making, health advocates and navigators, media, patient advocacy

The Sinkhole

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The Sinkhole

Regular readers of this blog know a couple of things about me.

For one thing, they know I live in Florida, having moved here from Upstate NY two years ago, no longer willing to freeze my cabungus off during the winter. (Or, as my husband phrases it, “you don’t have to shovel 90 degrees!”)

They also know many of my blog posts are metaphorical, based on inspiration I get from my daily life which at times is well, yes, pretty darn metaphorical!

And thus we set the stage for today’s post – The Sinkhole. Pure Florida. Pure Metaphor. See what you think.

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18
JUN
1

advocacy business, advocacy certification, advocate best practices, advocate finances, common sense, decision making, money, patient advocacy

B*tching and Moaning – Therapeutic and Educational

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B*tching and Moaning – Therapeutic and Educational

It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, it’s always an eyeopener and usually quite unsettling.

When done well, and handled well, it can turn out to be therapeutic, and has the potential for great opportunity.

I’m talking about moaning, groaning, complaining and yes – b*tching. Whether it’s a client complaining about an advocate, or the other way around, sometimes it’s fair and understandable, sometimes not. Sometimes it can escalate. Other times it can be diffused.

In all cases we can learn from complaints. So let’s take a look.

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11
JUN
1

advocacy business, advocacy ethics, advocate best practices, advocate education, client services, common sense, decision making, health advocates and navigators, patient advocacy, patients

The Rest of the Story X 4

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The Rest of the Story X 4

Channeling Paul Harvey today….

(Don’t know who Paul Harvey is?  Maybe you’re too young, or you never spent much time listening to Talk Radio… Paul Harvey was famous for his radio broadcasts called “The Rest of the Story.” His stories always featured a twist or turn, or something unexpected.)

Over the past few months, I’ve blogged about points, lessons, or stories, some of which have interesting follow-up or twists to them. So I’ve put them into one post for you – and thus we’re channeling Paul Harvey.

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4
JUN
1

advocacy business, advocacy certification, advocacy ethics, advocate bad practices, advocate education, advocate marketing, AdvoConnection Directory, client services, common sense, decision making, patient advocacy

Polishing Our Advocacy Rocks

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Polishing Our Advocacy Rocks

I’ve just returned from Newark where we held the second of our 2018 APHA Summits Networking Events. About 30 advocates attended, with backgrounds ranging from leaders (long-time advocates who have built successful advocacy businesses) through a handful of folks who are just getting started and who arrived as sponges intending to absorb everything they could.

The experience was, in a word, magical. The energy in the room was electric.There was a constant buzz and hum of shared ideas and experiences. There were the usual words of advice that everyone has read or heard in the past, mixed with some surprises when the leaders were asked, “What do you wish you had known when you started your new practice that you didn’t know then?”

There was laughter, there were stories, there was joy, there were “on no!” moments, and there were “aha!” moments, and there was, as attendees departed, a sense of companionship, collaboration, and growing confidence, as in “I got this.”

I came away from this experience as I did from the networking experience in San Diego last month, with a stronger belief than before that private, independent advocacy is maturing, and that the phrase “paying it forward” is alive and well.

This is a change, by the way. A huge one, worth noting here, because I haven’t always been confident in that notion.

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21
MAY
4

advocacy business, advocate education, common sense, decision making, health advocates and navigators, patient advocacy, professional standards

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