What is Advocacy?
Patient Advocacy is an area of lay specialization in health care concerned with advocacy for patients, survivors and caretakers. The patient advocate may be an individual or an organization, often, though not always, concerned with one specific group of disorders.
What is Health Advocacy?
Health Advocacy encompasses direct service to the individual or family as well as activities that promote health and access to health care in communities and the larger public. Advocates support and promote the rights of the patients in the health care arena, help build capacity to improve community health and enhance health policy initiatives focused on available, safe and quality care.
HSC - 2016 South Carolina State Advocacy Outreach
- Access to Care and Treatment for Bleeding Disorders Online Survey
- Download the PDF Version and mail, fax, email it to the chapter
- RESULTS OF THE ACCESS TO CARE AND TREATMENT SURVEY
Helpful Links
- The National Hemophilia Foundation Advocacy Resources
- The Hemophilia Federation of America Advocacy Tool Kit
- Writing To Your Legislator
- Federal Legislation Tracking App (HFA)
Important Tools and Resources to Help you become your own Advocate
Advocacy is a key component of our mission at HSC. It is also important to those affected by bleeding disorders in assuring health care needs are being met especially when living with a rare and chronic, lifelong disorder. Advocating for you and your family will be key in your quality of care. Knowing how to advocate for yourself and your family takes practice and learning. On this page are some helpful links that will help enhance your advocacy skills, answer some of your questions about advocacy, and arm you with the materials that you’ll need when talking with policymakers and others about hemophilia and bleeding disorders.
HSC State Advocacy and Legislative Days At the State Capitol
State advocacy days are an important and major priority of chapter advocacy programs throughout the nation’s chapters. During advocacy days, NHF, HFA and PSI will team with local chapters, community members, and other organizations to help host a day at the state capitol. HSC’s capitol days consists of a training session for members of HSC the evening before the legislative day where talking points are reviewed, speakers provide input on advocacy issues and training is provided with role-playing activities. Teens are provided advocacy training separate from adults to assist them with advocacy tools and individual training. The followed day, advocates meet with their elected officials to educate them about hemophilia and related bleeding disorders. Constituents will visit their representatives for various reasons including to educate them on bleeding disorders, build relationships for support, thank them for taking the time to meet, and advocate for the needs of the community. Helping our elected officials to understand what matters most to those affected by bleeding disorders is important. Our elected officials are eager to learn and we are equally eager to tell our stories and ask for their support.