Recently, the Government Affairs Office’s (GAO) Grassroots Advocacy team attended the Well Spouse Association’s annual national conference. This year marked its 30th conference, and our Grassroots team got to play a special role at this milestone program. The Association, which serves as a family support organization for “well” spouses who act as primary caretakers for their chronically ill loved ones, holds this yearly weekend-long conference to provide education, tools, resources, and social supports to members.
The Grassroots team attended the conference for the first time to host a break-out session to lead members through an interactive discussion about health care advocacy. Attendees discussed the importance of advocacy and of unifying their voices to help our elected officials better understand the value of home care and health care in their families’ everyday lives.
We were able to connect to so many new and experienced advocates and share our Hearts for Home Care message. One member even used the Hearts for Home Care legislative portal to identify their legislator and their contact information to call and leave a voicemail about the importance of quality in-home care! The importance of advocacy is well-known to many service office employees—it is important that we extend this message to our families and clients as their stories make a huge impact on our decision makers’ ability to understand home care and its effects on families across the country. If you have a client that sounds like a good fit for advocacy, please contact me or direct them to sign up for Hearts for Home Care.
