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

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

Constituent Healthcare Advocate, Legislative Advocate, Patient Advisor, Caregiver Champion

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

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