Within your advocacy, what term(s) resonate with you most?

Early treatment, partnership, informed, decision making, health literacy, health equity

Honestly, it depends on which space I am advocating for. Whenever I am engaging in legislative advocacy in those instances, through advocacy and networking, I introduced myself as a legislative advocate. If I am supporting a fellow patient, especially during a medical appointment or if they’re in the hospital or ER, and that instance I would call myself a patient advocate. Anything I do that is veteran specific advocacy, I refer to myself in that instance as a veteran advocate. And when it comes to healthcare policy advocacy, in that situation, I would refer to myself as a healthcare advocate.

One thing about advocacy is the majority of us are advocating in different spaces so using a particular subtype name of advocacy we engage in, it doesn’t always translate into the other forms of advocacy we do.

For general purposes, when I am speaking with a person or group or even speaking at a conference to individuals who are not in advocacy space, and those situations I will often defer to myself or the advocacy work I do by stating “ I advocate on behalf of the veteran community, focusing on access to healthcare, veteran patient rights and veteran legislation. if I am presenting specifically about fibromyalgia, I will defer to myself in that situation as “ I advocate on behalf of the fibromyalgia community”

That being said, I’ve been referred to as an influencer such as a healthcare influencer, wellness influencer, social media influencer, patient influencer, etc. to be honest, I absolutely do not like being referred to as an influencer.

There are also times I just simply say “I am an advocate” and leave it at that. lAs, patients, caregivers, providers, and advocates, I believe the majority of us wear different advocacy hats for the variety of advocacy initiatives we are involved in

Chronic Pain, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Human Centered Care, Problem Solver, Design Thinking, Human, Hiker, Photographer, Resilient

Powerful, overcoming, feelings, loss of independence