[JS-1] Advocacy for Public Health
Health systems around the world are continually evolving. This creates both opportunities and challenges for health professionals. As physiotherapists we must identify and exploit opportunities to promote the critical role that we can play in helping to shape these health systems. The ability to advocate strongly on behalf of our patients, our services and our colleagues is critical to the continued advancement of the physiotherapy profession.
To do this we must develop our advocacy skills. Advocacy is a combination of individual and collective actions designed to gain political commitment, policy support, social acceptance and systems support for a particular goal or program. Advocacy might be targeted at increasing staffing for a service, it might be aimed at changing the law that governs our practice, or it might be aimed at securing better remuneration for our services.
However, the skills required for these advocacy activities have not routinely been taught as part of our training. For the majority of physiotherapists, the key skills and knowledge associated with undertaking advocacy are not included as part of entry-to-practice education, or acquired as part of latter career professional development. Therefore, for both individual physiotherapists and many small to medium sized WCPT member organisations this activity may not be optimal. This is because they lack of knowledge about how to systematically develop and implement an aligned advocacy strategy.
The purpose of this lecture is to help outline the practical steps involved in developing an effective advocacy strategy for physiotherapists. I will provide a simple model that will give attendees the tool to plan simple advocacy activities and give international examples of advocating for policy change that delivers better public health outcomes for physiotherapy clients.
To do this we must develop our advocacy skills. Advocacy is a combination of individual and collective actions designed to gain political commitment, policy support, social acceptance and systems support for a particular goal or program. Advocacy might be targeted at increasing staffing for a service, it might be aimed at changing the law that governs our practice, or it might be aimed at securing better remuneration for our services.
However, the skills required for these advocacy activities have not routinely been taught as part of our training. For the majority of physiotherapists, the key skills and knowledge associated with undertaking advocacy are not included as part of entry-to-practice education, or acquired as part of latter career professional development. Therefore, for both individual physiotherapists and many small to medium sized WCPT member organisations this activity may not be optimal. This is because they lack of knowledge about how to systematically develop and implement an aligned advocacy strategy.
The purpose of this lecture is to help outline the practical steps involved in developing an effective advocacy strategy for physiotherapists. I will provide a simple model that will give attendees the tool to plan simple advocacy activities and give international examples of advocating for policy change that delivers better public health outcomes for physiotherapy clients.