What are the most important patient advocacy trends for case managers to know?

1 Cultural competence

Cultural competence is the ability to understand, respect, and communicate effectively with people from diverse backgrounds, beliefs, and experiences. It is essential for patient advocacy, as it helps you build trust, rapport, and collaboration with your patients and their families. It also helps you avoid cultural misunderstandings, biases, and stereotypes that may affect your patients' health and well-being. To enhance your cultural competence, you should seek ongoing education, training, and feedback on how to work with different populations and address their specific needs and preferences.

2 Digital health

Digital health is the use of technology to deliver, monitor, and improve health care services and outcomes. It includes telehealth, mobile health, remote patient monitoring, electronic health records, and health information exchange. Digital health can offer many benefits for patient advocacy, such as increasing access, convenience, and affordability of care, enhancing patient engagement and empowerment, and improving care coordination and quality. However, it also poses some challenges, such as ensuring privacy, security, and consent of patient data, addressing digital literacy and equity gaps, and maintaining human connection and empathy. As a case manager, you should be familiar with the latest digital health tools and trends, and how to use them effectively and ethically to advocate for your patients.

3 Shared decision making

Shared decision making is a collaborative process between patients and health care providers, where they exchange information, weigh options, and agree on a plan of care that aligns with the patients' values and goals. It is a key component of patient advocacy, as it respects patients' autonomy, preferences, and rights, and encourages them to participate actively in their own care. It also leads to better outcomes, such as higher satisfaction, adherence, and quality of life. As a case manager, you should facilitate shared decision making by providing your patients with relevant, accurate, and balanced information, supporting them to express their views and concerns, and helping them negotiate and communicate with their providers.

4 Social determinants of health

Social determinants of health are the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age, and how they affect their health and well-being. They include factors such as income, education, employment, housing, transportation, food security, social support, and environmental quality. Social determinants of health can have a significant impact on your patients' access to care, health behaviors, health outcomes, and health disparities. As a case manager, you should assess and address the social determinants of health that affect your patients, and advocate for policies and programs that improve them. You should also collaborate with other professionals and community resources to provide holistic and comprehensive care for your patients.