Together Patient Advocates Blog

In this first of a two-part series on dementia, I’ll give you an overview, including what dementia is, other diseases with similar symptoms, and what to expect from your evaluation. Part two will focus on what to do after a diagnosis.

Receiving a cancer diagnosis can be frightening. It’s hard to know what to do next.

You’ve been so focused on your chronic conditions that you've neglected your routine preventive health. Even in a pandemic, don’t overlook routine screenings. In most cases, early detection of disease allows for early treatment and improved outcomes. 

You have the ability to improve your health by regularly monitoring your chronic condition, knowing when to talk to your doctor, and making some lifestyle changes. Let’s look at some ways you can do that for three common illnesses:

On April 5, 2021 the federal government is expected to mandate immediate patient access to their electronic clinical notes. Many medical systems are already releasing these notes to your electronic healthcare portal in preparation for this mandate. As a result, at no cost, you will have access to these records:

Given the COVID-19 pandemic and surge in hospitalizations,  patients having surgery are largely not permitted to have anyone accompany them. This means that your personal (family member, friend) or professional advocate won’t be able to be with you in person. But the good news is that she can still advocate for you if you bring her into the room by phone or video. For ideas on how to virtually connect with your advocate, see my post, How to Create Long-Distance Advocate Partnerships.

You would like to hire an advocate. You’ve followed my tips on How to Choose an Advocate, but the advocate you want to hire isn’t in your area. Do you need to keep searching? Not necessarily.

You need a patient advocate, but you’re not sure how to find the one that’s right for you. Here are four tips to help you through the search and selection process.

When you decide to see a doctor, you have a good idea of what they will do for you. But what if someone suggests you hire a patient advocate? Would you know what that person could do? Or for that matter, how you’d even go about finding one?