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Chronic illness advocacy is something I never expected to be a part of. But after years of living with multiple chronic illnesses which include fibromyalgia, autoimmune arthritis, and endometriosis, I have quite a bit to share.
You may have heard of and used a hospital patient advocate, but did you know that patients who share their experiences and knowledge are also advocating for you?
Patient advocates, also known as patient leaders, are exactly what they sound like. Patients who spread awareness about their illness. They share life experiences, hardships, problems accessing treatments, how they deal with insurance companies, and more.
Anyone with a terminal or chronic illness or someone who is a caregiver for them can be an advocate. All you need is a story to tell and a platform to tell it on. Sounds easy right? Wrong! Unless you already have a large social media following, building an audience or finding opportunities (paid and unpaid) to share your experience and opinions is not as easy as it sounds.
Today I am sharing how becoming a member of WEGO Health took my chronic illness advocacy to a new level and how it can help yours too!
Free Training Modules
Becoming a member of WEGO Health opens the door to endless free training. They have training modules that cover areas of advocacy that you may not have even thought of such as:
- How to prepare for your 1st keynote
- Everything you need to know about FTC guidelines
- How to charge for your expertise
- Creating videos
- Legislative advocacy
- Social media tips and tricks
- and many more
Their modules can help you define your advocacy. For example, while fibromyalgia and psoriatic arthritis are the chronic illnesses I write about and advocate for, my core niche is mobility and living well despite being chronically ill. This doesn’t meant that I don’t discuss other aspects of chronic life, but that I have learned which topics my audience wants me to dig deeper into.
Access To Other Advocates
The world of chronic illness advocacy may seem small, but there are actually more than you might realize. Think you know everybody who advocates for fibromyalgia, psoriatic arthritis, or multiple scoliosis? Think again!
Meeting and having access to other advocates is one of the awesome benefits of becoming a WEGO Health member. We are all there to help and support each other the best we can. This leads me to the next perk!
Support For Your Chronic Illness Advocacy
As you get to know other advocates you will find ways to collaborate with and support each other.
Another thing I love about being a member is that there are no dumb questions. Everyone is happy to offer their experience and advice about an advocacy issue you may be having.
Members may share their blog posts, podcasts, social media campaigns, etc. Doing so lets others in the same chronic illness community know what you are up to and may spark a collaborative idea for the future.
Speaking of support, WEGO Health also offers ways to earn rewards that can be redeemed to boost your advocacy.
Paid Opportunities
Yes, you read that correctly. Patients should be compensated for their invaluable expertise. Finding those paid opportunities isn’t always easy. WEGO Health finds and shares paid opportunities with their community all the time.
I personally have benefited from a handful of paid opportunities through their platform. Some directly from the opportunities they listed and others through the connections I made with other members.
Blogging with one or more chronic illnesses can be challenging if you don’t have the right tools. I recently shared 13 blogging tools that save time, energy, and my sanity! Read about them here.
No matter what illness you advocate for, don’t do it alone!
Thanks for posting about this. I recently joined them and look forward to getting more involved.
My pleasure and welcome!
Love this. I’ve been working with WEGO Health for years. This year I am on the Patient Leader Advisory Board. Looking forward to kicking my advocacy up a notch!
That’s awesome!! Looking forward to cheering you on and supporting your efforts however I am able.
I joined WEGO earlier this year, but I had not realized all they have. I guess I’ve been advocating for the invisibly disabled 5 years now. And as I read this, I realized the book my husband and I co-authored (coming in Feb or Mar) is really an advocacy tool. We really want others to learn from our experiences. So, I will be going back to WEGO and make use of their helps.
Yes!! Your book is definitely an advocacy tool. Be
sure to go through all their resources, you never know what will help you.