Spend a few minutes learning about Rachel and her advocacy work.
Then send her a greeting, or ask a question, below!
I look forward to International collaboration to improve access to patient advocates for any patient who needs it across the world.
Return to Patient Advocacy Around the World
Dr. Cameron,
Thank you for sharing your work with the ICOPA site and talking a bit about how you are practicing advocacy in Melbourne. From your brief talk, it sounds as though you face some of the same challenges that we face here in the U.S. where many people are not familiar with who patient advocates are and what we do. In fact not so long ago I was speaking with a physician from Johns Hopkins University who himself had just recently encountered a patient advocate and reached out to us at the Patient Advocate Certification Board to see if there was a way to do some collaboration. He had just discovered for the first time someone who was working as a patient advocate and was so excited that this kind of professional was out there doing the kind of work that we do. Making ourselves and the service we offer known to the public is a challenge that we seem to face around the world, but I hope that we will continue to see patient advocates grow in popularity and that both patients and the medical field will continue to recognize the value that we bring to patients, their families and to the practitioners that serve them. Thanks for the work your are doing in Australia!
I enjoyed your presentation.
Are Patient Advocacy services reimbursed by the National Health Service in Australia? If not, how can patients who cannot afford private health care, for example, afford to pay for your services?
Thanks.
Hello Dr Rachel, so nice to hear about the good work you are doing to bring independent health advocates to the forefront. Congratulations on starting your business, you bring a wealth of experience to the cancer patient. As you mentioned getting the word out about our service is a huge challenge. A recent survey in the US showed that more than 80% of the public did not know about independent advocacy. Much work needs to be done and I’m delighted to know there is someone down-under to join us in the journey to let the public know we are here to help them. .