A health advocate is “a family member, friend, trusted coworker or hired professional who can ask questions, write down information and speak up for you so you can better understand your illness and get the care and resources."* My phone buzzed in the early morning hours of July 30, 2020, as I started my daily ritual workout in the basement gym (or refuge) we created during the pandemic. While the caller ID revealed the healthcare facility where my father was a patient, I wasn’t immediately panicked. I had grown used to calls at all hours by this point. Yet the minute I was asked for by name, I knew he was gone, closing another devastating chapter of our family’s pandemic story. For the past month, my father had been in a long-term acute care facility (LTACH), supposedly recovering from the coronavirus (COVID-19). However, it was truly an unknown status as his last few weeks were spent back on a ventilator. Before that, he endured 87 days of hospitalization (mostly in the intensive care unit) with several stints on the ventilator, dialysis, delirium and more. Prior to that, he was quarantined in a rehabilitation center, where he was diagnosed with COVID-19. He passed away 80 days after my mom, his wife of 49 years, also died of the same virus.
our parents is an understatement. Daily phone calls, Sunday night dinners, birthdays, holidays, vacations, and weekends at their pool; we were fixtures in each other’s lives. My three daughters had developed a priceless closeness with their grandparents. My parents helped me for years while I worked. My dad carpooled from school pickup to ballet while my mom popped into our house to do loads of laundry and start dinner. Much to the chagrin of my contractor, my dad stopped over frequently to “project manage” our home renovation. Being involved in our lives was very much part of their love language and hobby. I look back on it with immeasurable sadness and love.
ADVOCATE 101 I worked in healthcare for 16 of the more than 20 years I've spent as a public relations professional. In my career, I developed messages that supported lobbying efforts on behalf of our healthcare profession membership in Congress, regulatory agencies and commercial payers.
“Advocate” was also a term in our PR arsenal to educate and encourage consumers to proactively act on their own behalf or as caregivers. I oversaw our efforts of creating consumer education content, which included writing, editing and MY FAMILY publishing simplified information about complex health conditions via tips pages, health guides, My sisters, Jenny and Maureen, and I were videos and podcasts. raised in Northern Virginia and we stayed in the area after college. To say we were close with In pre-pandemic times, the role of being an advocate didn’t really resonate with me on a 58 • VIP ALEXANDRIA MAGAZINE
