Engaging in advocacy is an ethical responsibility for behavioral health professionals, as reflected in professional competencies across disciplines and in personal accounts of wanting to affect change at various levels of patients'/clients' and communities' ecologies. However, the literature is replete with examples of barriers to routine advocacy engagement, including lack of an organized structure into which efforts can be embedded. There exists the desire among behavioral health professionals to engage in more advocacy work, yet a shared sense of not knowing how to incorporate this work into existing professional roles. One way to address these barriers is to establish more collaborative advocacy work environments within the public sector settings that employ behavioral health professionals. This article offers the first descriptive account of developing, implementing, and maintaining such a collaborative interprofessional advocacy workgroup. To that end, this case study is one example of such a group, the Atlanta Behavioral Health Advocates, based within the Emory University School of Medicine in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and situated also within Grady Health System, a public health care system. This paper details our experiences forming and engaging in this group, which we believe can serve as a model for others developing similar advocacy workgroups in public sector settings.
Palliative care is recognised by the WHO as an essential component of care for the seriously ill. Geographically isolated and historically underserved communities, particularly from ethnic minority groups, face obstacles in obtaining adequate palliative care. This case involves the care of a 26-year-old Druze man suffering from a terminal cancer in his Golan Heights village. Local physicians were able to train the patient's father in a palliative care capacity. In the effort of capacity building, the physician and palliative care team also aided the aggrieved family in the process of coping. Robust support networks, both at state and community levels, facilitated the care provided. In showcasing the role of the national and local safety net in activating and building community resources to address a dearth of palliative care services in disadvantaged regions, this case models a potentially effective community-based approach to palliative care for patients from underserved populations.
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