Health

Self-Advocacy Is a Key Component of Complete Care: Here’s Why

I have heard it said on many occasions that the individual is his or her best advocate in a healthcare setting. I agree wholeheartedly – with a possible exception of a person who is incapacitated to the point of not being able to contribute to the decision-making process. Going one step further, I also firmly believe that self-advocacy is a key component of the complete care model.

 

Complete care is an approach to healthcare that seeks to treat patients on a holistic level. Complete care emphasizes treating the whole person in body, mind, and spirit. It embraces a wide variety of treatments and services all geared toward improving a patient’s wellbeing.

 

KindlyMD, a Utah healthcare organization that operates a number of clinics throughout the state, employs the complete care concept across multiple service areas including pain management, medication management, and plant-based medicine. One of the things that sets their clinics apart is their insistence that patients always remain in control of their healthcare.

 

It is Supposed to Be About the Patient

 

Although I am not a KindlyMD patient, I appreciate their position on patient control. Healthcare is supposed to be about the patient. Yet far too often, it is more about insurance companies and government regulations. This reduces patients to mere recipients of insurer-approved services and procedures. Most, if not all, control is ceded to the insurance carrier.

 

The net effect of the insurance-driven healthcare system is that patients feel as though they have very little input. They are rarely asked for their ideas when it comes to trying new treatments. They are simply dictated to by clinicians trying to move patients in and out as quickly as possible in order to satisfy insurance carrier quotas.

 

Why Self-Advocacy Is Necessary

 

In a perfect world, patients could rely on their healthcare providers to always look out for their best interests. But things rarely work out that way in the real world. Patients need to be their own advocates. They need to stand up for themselves and make it clear that they are in charge. Why? Consider the following:

 

  • Insider Knowledge – No one knows a patient as well as him or herself. Doctors may have medical training, but that training pales in comparison to the lived experiences of their patients. Patients know themselves better than anyone else.

 

  • Two-Way Communication – It has been said that communication is the key to any relationship. It is certainly key to the doctor-patient relationship. But if a patient does not advocate for him or herself, the conversation tends to be one-sided.

 

  • Individualized Care – One-size-fits-all medicine his bad practice. Each patient is a unique person requiring individualized care. The only way to get such care is to stand up and advocate for it.

 

  • Mistakes Are Made – Despite a general unwillingness to admit it, healthcare workers at all levels make mistakes. If nothing else, self-advocacy should reduce the frequency and severity of such mistakes by making patients more cautious and aware. That is good.

 

Wrapping everything up is the idea of informed decision making. Patients blindly accepting clinical recommendations without any input is bad form. When a patient advocates for him or herself, shared and informed decision making becomes the norm. That is the way it should be.

 

If you have never experienced the complete care model, perhaps it’s time to look for a doctor that practices it. Just be prepared that self-advocacy is one of the keys to its success. For complete care to work like it should, you need to be an active participant rather than just a service recipient.

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