Why I Became an Advocate

I became a professional patient advocate for the reason many others do, negative experiences within the healthcare system.
 

I helped my grandmother navigate the healthcare system from her age of 84 until her death at age 98. During those 14 years of medical appointments and hospitalizations where I rarely left her side, I saw communication gaps, mistreatment, and errors that convinced me no one should navigate their healthcare alone.
 

I also helped a loved one with the serious mental illness, schizophrenia, struggle to get appropriate help and stay alive within the healthcare system. Talk to any family member of a person with serious mental illness, and they will likely mention the trauma both they and their loved one experienced while trying to get help. I went through this for 15 years with my mom, including her 10 years in nursing homes, until a tragic series of events -- medical misjudgment, errors, negligence, and staffing shortages -- resulted in her death. She had been unconscious for almost three days before any staff told me she was; by then, I couldn't get to her in time. I was deprived of the opportunity to be by her side when she died, and to say goodbye.
 

In my experience, effective communication in healthcare is vital to patient safety and health outcomes. I work to optimize the quality and clarity of healthcare communications between patients and providers; to help clients strive for the best care outcomes and quality of life; and to support terminally ill clients on hospice to have peaceful, pain-free deaths with dignity.