10. Patient Advocacy & Behavior Change - Barb Forss (LadyBugs Foundation) at Models for Change '11

PATIENT ADVOCACY
Barb Forss took on patient advocacy after struggling to find a voice in her own long-term patient care. "I was born with a rare hereditary bleeding disorder," confided Forss, "but wasn't diagnosed until my late 40's." Years of pain, incapacitation, and misdiagnoses were confounded by the emotional toll of being dismissed by physicians because they weren't able to determine what was at cause. "I grew up in the 50's," said Forss, "and nobody ever challenged a doctor." Finally, encouraged by her doctor to share her unique story, she learned how to talk and educate others, the most difficult of which were the care providers themselves. But for Forss, "learning those things helped me to speak to my providers in a way they understood and they also engaged with me as partners, equal partners." When she realized there was no support group for women with similar illness, she started one. She credits gaining self-confidence also through the connections and story sharing she did with fellow patients. These experiences, not only helped Forss, but compelled her, as she expressed, "to go out and help others learn to have a voice and find out that, through education and empowerment, you can get actually get what you want."


Forss' talk was given at Consumer-Centric Health: MODELS FOR CHANGE '11, a conference that featured more than 20 presentations on all facets of health behavior change. The presenters represented diverse fields of medicine, employer health, mobile technology, health insurance, gaming, public health, research, and anthropology. The 1½ day conference, held at Seattle University in Seattle, Washington, began with an opening keynote on Oct 12, with the main sessions on Oct 13, divided into three sections (1) WHAT'S WORKING IN BEHAVIOR CHANGE; (2) HOW TO SCALE BEHAVIOR CHANGE; and (3) WHAT ELSE IS NEEDED TO MAKE BEHAVIOR CHANGE MORE EFFECTIVE AND SUSTAINABLE.

Models for Change '11 was convened by Health Innoventions with support from Bastyr University's Center for Health Policy & Leadership and Seattle University's Organization Systems Renewal Program.

Health Innoventions (http://www.healthinnoventions.org) is a non profit that serves the public good by promoting the translation and dissemination of actionable consumer-centric information to support health-enhancing programs, technology and policy.

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[Museofmanysongs]

This is a wonderful presentation. Is there a written transcript?