The Psychiatric Advanced Directive (PAD) is a legal tool that allows a person with mental illness to state their preferences for treatment in advance of a crisis. They can serve as a way to protect a person’s autonomy and ability to self-direct care. They are similar to living wills and other medical advance planning documents used in palliative care.
Informed consent upholds the patient’s right to self-determination and making decisions about their own treatment, which is essential to their autonomy as a human being. When self-advocating for your patient rights or when representing a patient as a patient advocate, it’s important to understand informed consent. You cannot consent if you have not been informed….
Be aware of what your end-goal is, and focus on achieving it, rather than “winning” and argument or proving others wrong. Emotions can get in the way when advocating for your needs, but remember your end-goal: To get the care you need.
Amanda Faye founded Beyond Medicine-Patient Advocacy after her own struggles navigating the mental health care system and a case of medical malpractice arising from a lack of patient advocacy resulted in her permanent disability. Amanda openly shares about her ongoing struggles with mental illness with the hope that her openness helps to fight stigma and…
I launched Beyond Medicine-Patient Advocacy a year ago. My goal was to create an organization that could fight the injustices facing psychiatric patients. I took a year to put myself through a patient advocacy training program at UCLA Extension, and I earned a Certificate in Patient Advocacy. Receiving more formal education on direct patient advocacy…
