The Art of Advocacy

Advocate. noun ad·vo·cate \ˈad-və-kət, -ˌkāt\: a person who upholds or defends a cause; a person who intercedes on behalf of another.  

As a Health and Benefits Advocate at Abbottsford-Falls Family Practice and Counseling, advocacy defines my service experience. Each day I, along with another AmeriCorps member and numerous health professionals at the health center, advocate for the health and wellbeing of our patients and clients, promoting healthier communities.

Abbottsford-Falls is located in Northwest Philadelphia. The Health Center, which began as a small health clinic in the Abbottsford Homes public housing development, now serves much of greater Northwest Philadelphia. This community is comprised of one of the most vulnerable populations in the city as 65% of residents live below 200% of the federal poverty line[1]. In addition, the community is federally designated Medically Underserved Area since it continues to struggle with high infant mortality rates and other negative health outcomes [2].

Towards the beginning of my AmeriCorps service term, faced with such profound structural barriers, I found myself doubting the possibility of having a positive impact on the health of the community. However, our National Health Corps member training session on “strength-based perspectives,” shed light on how I could have a meaningful impact and on what it means to be an advocate. A “strength-based perspective” of engaging with communities acknowledges the challenges that a community faces (such as high rates of obesity, diabetes, and hypertension), but more importantly identifies the strengths of a community and utilizes those strengths to highlight solutions. As our program director Sara Grainger explained, this perspective focuses on an individual’s potential, rather than their risk factors. In addition, it also calls for advocates to partner with community members in order to effectively advocate for the community.

I challenged myself to integrate this perspective into my service at Abbottsford Falls. One of the ways I advocate for the health of community members is by helping clients apply for and navigate health insurance. Key to this process is building rapport with my clients and regarding them as individuals, not solely as the negative health outcomes and rates of their communities.
I’ve found that you cannot advocate for someone without understanding their immediate needs and long term goals. This is especially evident when completing Marketplace applications as I help clients find insurance plans that fit their individualized needs. Building formative partnerships with my clients is also important. In many ways, completing Medical Assistance (Medicaid) applications requires teamwork: I am responsible for helping clients navigate the application, clients are responsible for providing me with necessary documents and I am then charged with sending and ensuring that those documents are received by the County Assistance Office. It is partnership that relies on both the client and myself to be successful.

Being an advocate entails a host of skills and activities which ultimately seek to empower individuals and entire communities. By advocating for community members through a strength-based perspective, and ensuring clients get insured, my health center and I are helping to promote healthier and more empowered communities.

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[1] http://www.nationalhealthcorps.org/philadelphia/health-benefits-advocate-4
[2] http://www.hrsa.gov/shortage/mua/
 

This blog post was written by NHC Philadelphia member Dianne Uwayo.
Dianne serves as a Health and Benefits Advocate at Family Practice & Counseling Network: Abbottsford Falls