Why It Is So Important to be a Patient Advocate for Your Loved One

By: Carol Kalat

hen a loved one is ill, you can play a critical role by being their patient advocate. This means working with the medical team to help ensure all goes well

Photo Source: iStock Photos

Seeing a loved one suffer from a medical condition is so very difficult. This is especially true if there isn’t much in your control that you can do to alleviate their pain. It is important to remember, however, that although you may not be able to cure their disease or take away their pain, you can become their patient advocate.

Six things you can do as a patient advocate to ensure that your loved one is receiving the best possible care

1. Educate and organize

Depending on the condition of the patient, many times they are solely dependent on the care of others. This is where your job as a patient advocate comes in to play.

Although the medical advancements and healthcare technology of today continues to boggle the human mind in its sheer brilliance and complexity, they still do not and cannot take the place of a human helper.

Here are some tasks you may find yourself doing as a patient…