“Here’s your medicine, honey,” the nurse said as she handed Mrs. Smith her morning medicine. Mrs. Smith politely took the medicine and then turned to me and commented, “I’ve been taking that medicine for longer than she’s been alive.” Focused on grey hair and a diminutive frame the nurse did not allow for a capable and intelligent 84-year-old woman in the bed.
No one should face aging and illness alone. Too often older adults find themselves without an ally or advocate when they are most vulnerable. It is not uncommon for an ill or hospitalized older adult to appear more confused, frail, and incapable than they actually are. Family members may accede to the advice or pronouncements of professionals without questioning assumptions made with limited information. Illness and infirmity can diminish the best of us. This diminishment is more dramatic for older adults.
Advocacy plays an important role in ensuring the needs, desires and values of a disabled or older adult are recognized, respected and protected. It can be easy and expedient to make assumptions or assign a label to an older adult. Too often deficits are the focus with little acknowledgment of individual strengths and capabilities. Likewise a deficit in one area does not translate to deficiencies in other domains. An older adult who does not know the date may be well able to express wishes regarding treatment.
Effective advocacy demands discernment. Many of us, no matter our age, choose unhealthy or unwise practices. One can be foolish without being incompetent. Likewise, professionals and institutions — hospitals, nursing homes and housing facilities — may have interest or values that are at odds with the interest and values of the older individual.
When an individual is voiceless and/or seen with a limited perspective, the advocate gives a voice and a full sense of the person on their behalf.
Effective advocacy involves:
- Willingness to listen to and learn about the individual.
- Willingness and ability to intelligently investigate and even unearth options, ask questions and, when needed, challenge assumptions and conclusions.
- Being an active participant in decisions and bring the individual into the discussion to the full ex-tent possible.
Health care advocacy requires both fearlessness — identifying and confronting conclusions that are at odds with the best interest of the individual — and humility … openness to ongoing learning about the person and how to best discern and advance his/her needs. Health care advocacy is not for the faint-hearted. It involves an effort to acquire the required skills and the sensibilities to ensure that vulnerable individual are well served. That, in the end, is a service to us all.
Updated from an original post in 2011.
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