The Clinician's Guide to Being a Card Carrying Advocate

Speaker: Dr. Rick Rader

February 18, 2025, 8pm Eastern

Beyond the clinician's role of "diagnosis, treatment and care of the patient," there is the need to be an "advocate." What does that mean, what does an advocate do, how do they perform in that capacity and what impact can they make on the health and wellbeing of the patient. We will explore the varying degrees of patient advocacy, how to pick your battles and the hills worth dying for. What are the tools the advocate needs to have at their disposal. Finally we will review some advocacy success stories and ongoing attempts that require perseverance, diligence and an understanding of the land mines.

Dr. Rick Rader is board certified in Developmental Medicine and cross trained in internal medicine and medical anthropology. He was a co-founder of the AADMD and is President of the American Association on Health and Disability. He has received two presidential appointments to both the Presidents Committee on People with Intellectual Disabilities and the National Council on Disability where he co-authored the Health Equity Framework Report as well as the Joint Commissions Sentinel Event Alert on Diagnostic Overshadowing. He is the Director of the Habilitation Center at The Orange Grove Center (Chattanooga) where he is responsible for the creation of innovative healthcare delivery systems for people with IDDD across the lifespan. He has published over 300 articles on health and disability and is the Editor in chief of HELEN, The Journal of Human Exceptionality. He has been an advisor to four U.S. Surgeon Generals in the area of health and disability.

Every THIRD Tuesday* of the month the AADMD Student & Resident Committee hosts interdisciplinary webinars for clinicians to learn from colleagues in a patient-centered manner with the purpose of encouraging comprehensive care provision to patients with IDD.

*Day of the week is subject to change.