From Patients to Policy: 5 Ways Healthcare Professionals Can Put Health Advocacy Into Action

About 20 years ago, Dr. Katherine Kennedy found out that an energy company planned to run a natural gas pipeline across Long Island Sound. Federal regulators had already approved it.

People told her she had "a snowball's chance in hell" of stopping it. She organized a statewide grassroots campaign anyway.

She wrote a newspaper column, met with legislators, and worked with the state until Connecticut's Attorney General won the case in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. The pipeline company took it to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to hear it. The ruling stood, and the pipeline was never built.

Even if you're told you can't do it, when you all get together, you actually can.

Dr. Katherine KennedyClinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine

Dr. Kennedy is now a clinical professor of psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine, where she directs the Yale Legislative Advocacy Program. In a recent Recovery.com CE webinar, she explained how therapists, physicians, counselors, and other behavioral health professionals can take what they already do for individual patients and apply it to policy. Her main point is that most healthcare workers are already advocates. They just need a few more tools.

Here are the five biggest questions the session answered, plus responses to audience polling from Dr. Kennedy’s live CE webinar, which you can also watch here and earn a free CE credit.

1. What Is Health Advocacy, and Are You Already Doing It?

If you've fought for a patient, you're already an advocate.

Dr. Kennedy defines health advocacy as working outside direct medical care to improve the health of individuals or communities. That can mean speaking publicly in support of policies that help patients, or working to change the systems they have to navigate. Most clinicians do this already. For example, she says,

You are an advocate if you've ever voted, if you've ever posted or reposted about an issue to raise the public's awareness. If you've ever clicked on a link and sent an email to your legislator, or just signed a petition, you are already an advocate.

Dr. Katherine Kennedy, MDClinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine

One thing health advocacy is not: a platform for personal political opinions. If an action doesn't benefit patients, communities, or populations, Dr. Kennedy says it isn’t health advocacy.

Do Healthcare Professionals Have a Duty to Advocate?

For many professions, yes.

In 2001, the American Medical Association stated that physicians should "advocate for the social, economic, educational, and political changes that ameliorate suffering and contribute to human well-being." Psychologists, pharmacists, PAs, and many other professions have similar ethical commitments, though each defines the scope a little differently.

The reason is simple. Patients come from different zip codes, have different insurance, get care in different systems, and live under different state laws. All of that affects their access to care and their health outcomes. Advocacy is how clinicians reach those upstream factors.

What's the Difference Between Advocacy and Activism?

Advocacy works within institutions using approved tools to change minds, laws, and culture. Activism works both inside and outside institutions, using approved and unapproved tools. The two sometimes overlap, but knowing the difference helps if someone ever questions what you're doing.

Advocacy also happens at different levels, from self-advocacy (taking care of your own well-being first) to patient, institutional, community, state, federal, and global advocacy.

2. What Stops Healthcare Professionals From Advocating?

The most common barrier Dr. Kennedy hears about is time. Clinicians are busy, and advocacy can feel like one more thing on the list.

A newer concern has become one of the biggest: fear of retaliation.

Ten years ago, when I first started teaching, that was sometimes not even mentioned. And now it's one of the top concerns.

Dr. Katherine Kennedy, MDClinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine

Other barriers include not knowing where to start, burnout, vague goals, imposter syndrome, and a lack of academic credit for advocacy work.

Her advice is to acknowledge these obstacles instead of blaming yourself. If you meant to sign a petition and forgot, don't beat yourself up. Do what you can.

What Skills Does Health Advocacy Require?

Dr. Kennedy breaks advocacy into three skills: collaboration, negotiation, and communication.

Clinicians use all three every day. You collaborate with care teams, negotiate with patients about medications and behavior changes, and communicate with patients, families, and colleagues constantly.

Healthcare professionals also have two big advantages with policymakers. They have clinical stories that are memorable and persuasive, and they're comfortable with evidence. That combination makes them credible voices on health policy.

3. What's the Simplest Way to Start Advocating?

Vote, and help others make a plan to vote.

Dr. Kennedy calls voting "probably the number one advocacy action you can take."

Even in big election years, a large share of eligible voters don't turn out. In off-cycle years, like this November, turnout drops further.

The way you encourage others matters too. Asking someone "Are you voting?" doesn't do much, according to research she cited. Asking "What's your plan to vote?" works better because it gets people to picture the specifics. Will they go before work? After picking up the kids? With a plan in place, following through becomes easier.

4. How Should You Respond to Health Misinformation?

Many webinar attendees said their patients are running into false health information. Claims like "antidepressants are dangerous" or "the keto diet can cure schizophrenia" spread fast, and Dr. Kennedy believes vague or restricted language in public health communication makes it worse.

Health misinformation isn't new. She points to the eugenics movement, doctors appearing in cigarette ads before the 1964 Surgeon General's report, the Laetrile cancer cure myth, HIV/AIDS myths in the '80s and '90s, and today's false claim that vaccines cause autism.

As poll respondents noted in Dr. Kennedy’s live session, misinformation is both prevalent and impactful, so it’s vital to both challenge and correct.

What's the Difference Between Misinformation and Disinformation?

Misinformation is false information shared without intent to deceive. Disinformation is spread on purpose for money, attention, or a political goal.

With a patient, friend, or family member who believes something false, you're usually dealing with misinformation. Dr. Kennedy advises not to react with anger, and not to ignore it. Both let the false belief keep spreading. Instead, try something like: "Your perspective is this. Let me tell you how I see it."

Use the same skills you use with patients. Listen closely, don't interrupt, and try to understand the values and fears behind the belief. Ask questions that invite reflection. And don't keep re-explaining, because "people's eyes will glaze over."

The goal isn't to win in one conversation. If the person says, "Huh, I've never thought of it that way," you've made progress.

5. How Do You Get Lawmakers and the Public to Listen?

Build relationships, keep your message short, and don't go it alone.

How Do You Build a Relationship With Your Legislator?

Legislators are far more likely to take your input seriously if they already know who you are. Start by searching "who are my legislators" with your home address, since that determines who represents you. Most people have two state legislators (except in Nebraska, which has a one-chamber legislature), plus local officials.

Look up their committees and interests. You might share an alma mater or a hobby. Sign up for their newsletter and follow them on social media. This fall, many will hold community events before the November election, often with few people attending. It's a good chance to introduce yourself as a healthcare professional and offer to help on health issues.

If you can't meet in person, send a short email: thank them for their work, say you're a constituent, explain you're a healthcare professional, and offer to help. Being a constituent is key. Contacting a powerful committee chair who doesn't represent you is, in Dr. Kennedy’s words, "wasting your breath."

Dr. Kennedy describes three levels of relationship:

1. Responsible constituent (following and subscribing)
2. Engaged constituent (meeting informally)
3. Active constituent (meeting on an issue or serving as a health consultant)

Pick your current level and aim for the next one over the coming year or two.

Dr. Kennedy’s residents showed how this pays off. Their patients were refusing to carry fentanyl test strips because the strips were classified as drug paraphernalia. The residents met with their state legislator, who added decriminalization to a larger bill. It passed and became state law.

How Do You Communicate So People Actually Remember?

Whether you're writing an op-ed, testifying, or posting online, avoid what Dr. Kennedy calls "the kitchen sink approach." Know your audience, use no more than three pieces of data, and choose stories over statistics. Patient stories (with privacy protected) are where clinicians have a real edge.

Always end with a clear ask. Too many op-eds build the reader up and then leave them with nothing to do. Include a petition link, a legislator's phone number, or another concrete next step.

Word choice matters too. "Eighty percent fat free" sells better than "20% fat," even though they mean the same thing.

Why Join an Advocacy Organization?

Community groups and professional organizations are already working on most issues you care about. Open their emails, go to meetings, and learn from colleagues. When Connecticut advocates asked Dr. Kennedy to wear a white coat to a rally at the state capitol, she didn't own one, so she bought one on Amazon. Following the lead of community organizations is part of the job.

Advocacy is a team sport. Whatever issue you have, I guaranatee there is something in your community, a way to get involved, or with your professional organization.

Dr. Katherine Kennedy, MDClinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine

The Bottom Line

Health advocacy doesn't require a law degree or unlimited free time. It builds on skills healthcare professionals already use every day. Dr. Kennedy's five actions are to vote, address misinformation, get to know your legislators, educate the public, and join an advocacy organization.

Start with one. As her pipeline fight showed, small groups of committed people can win even when they're told they can't.

Find more free live and on-demand CEs featuring industry experts here.

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