Being a patient advocate comes in many forms, and not all of them require you to get out of bed to storm the halls of Washington.
BY SARAH DEBORD
PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 14, 2018
Sarah DeBord was diagnosed with metastatic colon cancer at age 34. In the years since, she has turned her diagnosis into a calling, and become an advocate for other young adults diagnosed with colorectal cancer and parents with young families facing cancer. She works as a communications and program manager for the Minneapolis-based Colon Cancer Coalition , volunteers her time with the online patient-led support community COLONTOWN , and blogs about her often adventurous experiences of living with chronic cancer at ColonCancerChick.com.
Perhaps you've heard of a patient advocate but weren’t sure what exactly it was and if you could ever become one. An image of someone storming the Capitol steps may come to mind, and that alone may make you crawl back under the covers and think it's not for you. But what if I told you being an advocate is something you could do without even getting out of bed?
Patient advocacy covers a broad range in the health care world, and as a patient advocate you can focus on as little or as much of it as you want. You can be a patient that advocates for other patients, you can be a caregiver that advocates for just your patient or you can be a care provider that wants to speak up and help represent the voices that are so often silenced by this disease.
Patient advocacy covers a broad range in the health care world, and as a patient advocate you can focus on as little or as much of it as you want. You can be a patient that advocates for other patients, you can be a caregiver that advocates for just your patient or you can be a care provider that wants to speak up and help represent the voices that are so often silenced by this disease.
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