What is self-advocacy?

Self-advocacy in healthcare is the act of promoting your rights, needs and interests as a patient within the healthcare system. It can involve actively communicating your expectations, asking questions about your diagnosis or treatment plan, or challenging a medical professional if you believe a mistake or error has occurred.

Advocacy plays a critical role in delivering the best possible outcomes for patients. It can help people to make informed decisions about their healthcare and can lead to higher patient satisfaction.

Despite this, however, our recent research found that nearly 1 in 2 people (44%) don’t feel confident in challenging their GP if they feel they’ve been misdiagnosed. This is in spite of the fact that almost a third (31%) believe they may have been misdiagnosed and a further 17% know they have been misdiagnosed by a medical professional.

Why is self-advocacy important?

Advocating for yourself in a healthcare setting is important for many reasons. By making sure your voice is heard, and your concerns are acknowledged, you can actively participate in your own healthcare decisions.

Self-advocacy also helps to promote open communication and understanding between patients and healthcare providers. By asking questions, seeking clarification, and sharing relevant information, you can contribute to more accurate diagnoses, appropriate treatments, and improved overall care. It can also help prevent medical errors and ensure the delivery of personalised and patient-centred care.

Some examples of self-advocacy include:

• Participating in treatment plan discussions
• Asking questions about medications and side effects
• Requesting referrals to a specialist
• Seeking support services

How can I practice self-advocacy in healthcare?

To become your own advocate in healthcare, it is important to educate yourself about your health condition. Doing so means you’ll have a better understanding of your doctor’s concerns and the treatments and care they can offer.

Take a look at some of the steps you can take to advocate for yourself in healthcare below.

1. Be informed

The first step to self-advocacy is ensuring you understand your health condition and symptoms, and the possible methods of treatment. Be careful how you approach this; researching conditions online can be a minefield, so be sure to source your information from reliable sources, such as the NHS website. Take note of things like treatment options that can enable you to make informed decisions and have meaningful conversations with medical professionals about your symptoms and the issues you face.

2. Ask your doctor or healthcare team questions

When you speak to a medical professional, it can be daunting to question their decisions; they are, after all, the expert. However, doing so is crucial to understanding what your treatment plan is, why it has been prescribed, and what the alternatives could be. Make sure to ask questions to ensure you fully understand your diagnosis, treatment options and what they mean for you.

3. Communicate clearly

If you have a preference for a particular treatment plan or are concerned about your diagnosis or treatment in any way, make sure to communicate this clearly. It’s important that your doctor or healthcare team know what you want and expect, so they can discuss the benefits or risks associated with any treatment they can provide and work with you to deliver the best outcome.

4. Ask for a second opinion

If ever you are concerned about a diagnosis or treatment plan and don’t believe your current doctor is listening, you have a right to ask for a second opinion. This can seem daunting, but it can help to provide clarity and reassurance if you are ever in doubt and ultimately lead to better outcomes and more positive relationships between medical practitioners and their patients.

5. Keep a record of your care

Take notes and keep a record of your appointments, as well as any questions you asked and what the answers were. If you asked for a second opinion, or multiple professionals were involved in your care, keep a note of their names and any specialisms. This can be crucial to help you remember important information later if your treatment, or even diagnosis, changes. Remember you can also ask for a loved one, such as a friend or family member to be present during your appointments if you wish. This can be very helpful as they may remember information you forget or feel more comfortable challenging decisions or asking questions.

6. When problems occur, make sure your voice is heard

In most cases, the medical professionals responsible for your healthcare will provide the best possible care and be happy to actively engage in discussions about your treatment and any concerns you have. However, there are exceptions, and when standards slip or you feel you aren’t being heard, you can download our advocacy support pack which contains template letters you can use to send to your healthcare provider highlighting and recording the poor quality of care you believe you have received.

How Slater and Gordon can help you advocate for yourself

Our aim is to foster a culture of self-advocacy. We believe that education and awareness are important in making sure individuals can make informed decisions about their health and wellbeing. By sharing accessible tools and knowledge, we want to empower individuals and ultimately improve health outcomes for everyone.

Part of this involves holding medical professionals to account. All medical practitioners – whether a GP, a dentist, a nurse, a midwife, or a surgeon – have a duty of care to their patients and when standards slip, patients suffer.

If you or someone you love has suffered an injury or illness due to the negligence of a medical practitioner, you could be eligible to make a claim for compensation. Not only can this provide crucial financial support if you need to take time out of work or access to treatment or rehabilitation, it can also help shine a light on issues in healthcare settings and help prevent similar negligence from happening again.

Our medical negligence team know the importance of supporting you and your family through this most difficult time and will be sensitive to your needs and challenges. Several of our solicitors are also ranked in independent legal bodies, like the Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners. We also have trained midwives and nurses on our team with the expert knowledge to help with your case.