What do you do if your patient advocacy contacts are slipping away?

In my experience, a root cause analysis is an excellent way to assess a challenge as described in this case study. Understanding the why is needed in order to make a change.

If you're losing touch with patient advocacy contacts, take action to re-engage. Identify the cause of the disengagement and develop a strategy. Maintain regular communication through emails, calls, or meetings to stay updated on their work and offer value. Share relevant resources, provide insights, and offer support to demonstrate your value. Be responsive and flexible to meet changing needs and priorities. Lastly, be patient and persistent in building and maintaining relationships.

If your patient advocacy contacts are slipping away regarding access gaps, it's essential to reassess your approach and communication strategy. Here are some steps you can take: Reach out: Schedule a meeting or call with your advocacy contacts to discuss the issue openly and express your concerns. Provide evidence: Present data or real-life examples illustrating the access gaps and their impact on patients. Highlight the importance: Remind your contacts why addressing access gaps is crucial for improving patient outcomes and healthcare equity. Collaborate: Explore potential solutions together and brainstorm ways to address the access gaps effectively. Collaboration can foster a sense of ownership and commitment among your contacts.

Assess the gaps includes self assessment. The gap could be that you have not diversified, you haven't changed to meet with current needs. The assessment needs to start with yourself and addressing your worth, checking your growth profile, where was your most sustainable engagement period and why was it sustainable and why had it changed. Some gaps need to be filled with new clients or groups as you may have "outgrown" the entities that are slipping. It is very important to realise that even a broken peer had mooring points and can still provide safety. Ensure that after your assessment that you ensure contact and a connection with past, present and future allies. Ensure redundancies are in place as part of the assessment

Generally APOPS connections do not slip away because those engaged in the pelvic organ prolapse space are deeply committed to addressing shortfalls, are in need of support, or they recognize that we need to tear down the silo walls to advance women's pelvic floor health.

Value is what you have assessed for in step one. Your commitment to keeping contact to past, present, and future entities can bring new networks to the table. Sometimes the value you need to add is not one that is financially beneficial but being a keystone of a bridge by introducing our marrying one entity to another. Seeing the benefit of ally 1 and 4 working together and then remember to follow up tactfully to always have your name that you planted as a seed, to give it water and allow it to grow, subtly remind them of what you have to offer at the end of a mail or chat. A recogniseable name will usually get the first attention.

As a volunteer patient advocate and cancer survivor, I look deep into the gaps of services not offered presently in my community. This past week I witnessed topics that haven't been addressed head on for LGBTQ+ Veterans Health and I have documentation with my therapist on my thought processes to get these services enacted in my local LGBTQ+ community by presenting my notes at a scheduled event to find other advocates who may be interested. The beauty of collaboration is to present notes and findings of my own personal challenges I face in the road of cancer recovery. To sweeten the presentation I had a talk with my Dad yesterday on his concerns as well navigating healthcare himself as a cancer survivor. As a family we are ALL IN.