Health Advocacy: Health Mentors co-facilitate a workshop for Occupational Therapy Students

On September 28th, Health Mentors, Mandy Young and Darren Lauscher, helped facilitate a workshop on health advocacy for over 70 second year occupational therapy students. It was the 5th year in a row the workshop has been delivered as part of the OT professional practice course (OSOT 549). For the first time, 15 OT students from the northern program in Prince George participated.

The heart of the workshop is the real-life story of a child with a rare condition whose case has many opportunities for professional and patient-led advocacy. The workshop promotes a shift from ‘advocacy for‘ to ‘advocacy with‘ patients, communities and other health professionals to achieve systems change.

This year’s workshop was highly rated, scoring 4 out 5, and students described how it changed the way they think about advocacy.

“Instead of thinking health advocacy has to be ‘big wins’, I see that advocating for ‘small wins’ is still really meaningful for clients and their families,” said one student.

Another said, “The framework was helpful to identify different domains of advocacy work and emphasize using collaborative approaches rather than assuming a position of power.”

Initially developed for medical residents with funding from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, the workshop has been adapted and delivered to over 1,000 students in 5 health disciplines including dietetics, medicine, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and pharmacy.