How You Can Be An Advocate
What Is Advocacy?
Advocacy is the act or process of advocating or supporting a cause or proposal. Through both direct aid to families and broader-based policy work, the goal of patient advocacy is to foster the self-empowerment of families by educating them about their rights and benefits for which they are eligible.
General Advocacy Tips to Help Patients
- Empower patients by providing access to information about their rights and offering assistance with government benefits application process.
- Encourage patients to apply for government benefits such as food stamps, welfare, Home Energy Assistance (HEAP) and Social Security disability.
- Encourage patients to reapply for government assistance or file timely appeals if their government benefits are denied. Because appeals are time-sensitive, encourage patients to appeal first and then search for an attorney.
- Encourage patients and their families to consider alternative sources of income (e.g., food stamps, fuel subsidies, child care vouchers, etc.).
- Document each patient's needs for services on charts.
- Contact each patient's landlord or agency case worker to address housing/family problems. Request an action to be taken.