Is it time to finally empower Patients?

22 December 2023 Is it time to finally empower Patients? Chronically The Patient Empowerment Newsletter We’ve all seen it - the patient sitting s

22 December 2023 Is it time to finally empower Patients? Chronically The Patient Empowerment Newsletter

We’ve all seen it - the patient sitting silent in the exam room, passively receiving instructions without understanding or engagement. Care happens to patients, not with them. But what if it didn’t have to be this way?

Patient empowerment is gaining steam through patient-centered care models, shared decision making, health literacy efforts, and peer support programs. But system-wide change remains gradual. How can we accelerate culture shifts to reframe patients as active partners instead of clueless recipients of care?

Empowerment requires restructuring relationships and redistributing power. This threatens historically paternalistic systems, so change won’t come easily. But evidence shows empowered patients have better outcomes and lower costs. This should spur us to dismantle barriers.

For patients, empowerment means acquiring knowledge to make informed choices, voicing needs and preferences, developing self-care skills, shaping health decisions collaboratively with providers, and cultivating motivation and self-efficacy. Care teams can nurture empowerment through tools like teach-back, motivational interviewing, goal setting, peer mentoring and health coaching.

Of course, true empowerment is impossible without addressing access issues. We must provide transportation, interpreter services, financial assistance and care navigation. And we need more positive depictions of empowered patients in popular culture - let’s swap the stereotype of the helpless, dependent patient for one of the engaged change agent.

Examples like shared decision-making around breast cancer treatment, peer health educator programs for diabetes management, and community health workers addressing social needs showcase empowerment improving care experiences and outcomes. But these remain isolated models - empowerment is far from the norm.

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