Teaching Your Clients to Fish Starts by Leaving the Rod and Reel at Home

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“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”? (Maimonides) As a former classroom teacher, and now a teacher of advocates, I’ve always embraced the “teach a man to fish” concept. It’s part of my core. It’s in my DNA. It’s what I do with both my patient empowerment and my patient advocacy work. Many of you have been beneficiaries. And my great reward has been to watch you go off into the waters to successfully fish on your own as your practices grow and …

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Hidden Agendas and Being Used

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Years ago, in my salad days, I took a new marketing job after being interviewed by a gentleman who seemed as nice as anyone I had ever met in a workplace. It didn’t take me long to learn my new boss’s friendly smile, and the words that came out of his mouth, only masked a hidden agenda that he hoped naive-me would help him fulfill. The first clue that things were not as they seemed came when I was asked to sign off on some media invoices, in effect, giving Accounts Payable my approval to pay the agency that had …

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Veterans, Soldiers, the VA – What They Represent to Private Patient Advocates

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dads grave marker

A Memorial Day Tribute My husband is retired from the Air Force* after serving for 20 years during the Vietnam era. My father served in the Army Air Corps during World War II. These two veterans, the men I have loved the most, and who represent millions of other American soldiers, men and women, deserve all the respect Americans can possibly muster not only Memorial Day, but every other day of the year as well. I raise this point because like you, I’ve been hearing and reading about the problems veterans have had getting the care they need from the …

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Where Do Patient Advocates Get Their Education or Certification?

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My email inbox each week finds many questions that relate to health advocates’ education, or the availability of certification. There are three general questions I am asked: One of the most frequent questions I get comes from newbies – someone who is just thinking about becoming a patient advocate, maybe understands the basic concept of what the work might entail, and wants to know what sort of education they must look for to get started, and “to be certified” – to earn their patient advocacy certification. Then I hear from those who, six or eight months into their private practice …

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When Your Competition – Isn’t

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(Updated February 2017) Recently we relaunched one of our APHA networking benefits, Special Interest Groups (SIGs). They provide members with the opportunity to connect with like-minded professionals to discuss any topic relevant to their work. For example, all members who live in Idaho might want to connect with each other. Or those who offer mental health advocacy services can share ideas. Others with interest in working strictly with seniors, or all our physician members, or even a group of Stanford grads (yes we have a handful!) SIGs help us connect with those who share our interests and experiences. One group, …

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Oh, It Was Nothing, Really

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As advocates working for clients with grave medical problems, or clients who battle their insurance companies to get what they need for their care, or could lose their entire financial foundations due to overwhelming medical bills, our work results in lifesaving and quality-of-life saving outcomes every day. That’s what we do. And then, when someone thanks us, way too many of us deflect the compliment. “Oh, it was nothing, really.” Nothing? It’s as if we are embarrassed to have been thanked, even though we are – secretly – pleased. This disconnect in our response to being thanked and recognized came …

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Saving Your Clients from Jerks, Crooks and Malintents

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(Apologies for the lists that no longer work in this post. In early summer 2014, About.com deleted almost 1000 posts and articles I had written. The points below are still valid, but I wanted you to know why the links may not produce what you expect.) I’m angry. And I’m appalled, too. And I think that you, as advocates, can be effective gatekeepers, guarding your client-patients from these kinds of providers. I’ve just finished blogging at About.com about two situations that have come to light recently. A third belongs here, too – from the general news. The story of an …

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