If you consider a bacon-and-egg breakfast, what is the difference between the chicken and the pig? It’s a question that determines commitment. While the chicken can produce many eggs over a lifetime, the pig can produce bacon only once. The chicken may be involved in the breakfast, but the pig is totally committed. So what does that have to do with independent advocacy?
Most advocates and care managers I know have huge hearts. They want to help everyone who needs help! They truly dislike having to charge money for their services (because many have done this work for free for friends and loved ones for a lifetime). Further, in many cases, they don’t give themselves credit for being as capable as they are. So they struggle. They ask themselves how on earth they are going to ask for money from these (possibly desperate) people who contact them, especially when: They are new, and haven’t worked in private practice for very long (if at …
Charging on a Sliding Scale Just Creates a Can of Worms Continue Reading
“My directory listing doesn’t attract enough clients. What am I doing wrong?” “I get calls, but we hang up the phone without a contract! What am I doing wrong?” “I finished working with my client and don’t have anyone else to help. Now what?” These are questions I am asked frequently and repeatedly. Maybe you have the same ones! The answer to each one relates to marketing.
Common scenario: You have dreamed about becoming a private health /patient advocate or care manager for a while. You know you can do it, you know you are a good advocate, your heart really WANTS to change careers to advocacy, you know people need help with their medical system challenges… Plus everyone you know thinks it’s a great idea! They all tell you “OMG! There is such a huge need!” Maybe you have helped friends and family members over the years, or you have been a doctor or nurse for decades. (I often hear, I’ve been an advocate all my …
Get Unstuck – Learn to Overcome the Paralysis of Analysis Continue Reading
… there is nothing like a shared experience to improve our worlds: personal and professional. Just WOW!
I’m a political being and a news junkie. Can’t help it. It’s in my blood – literally – because both my father and grandfather (Dad’s father) were journalists, both avidly interested in politics. In fact, Grampa’s beat was Congress for Gannett Press in Washington, DC. (Reginald F. Torrey) See? I come by it naturally. Which is why the news of last week, the impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump’s actions, is painful to me. Now – do NOT get me wrong. It’s not painful because I do, or do not, disagree with it! That’s not it at all.
“Only rich people can afford an advocate.” Or: “Doesn’t providing private patient advocacy services only to those who can afford them, just create one more division between the “haves” and the “have nots?” Or: “Not everyone can afford an independent patient advocate. It’s unfair some people can’t be helped.” Anyone who has worked in advocacy or care management has heard one or more of these statements, or at least one from the same playbook. It’s an objection meant to put us on the defensive, as if, since private advocacy can’t be provided to everyone, then we shouldn’t provide it to …
Going on Offense: Who Deserves an Advocate’s Help? Continue Reading
