Self-advocacy is the ability of individuals to overcome challenges they face to getting their needs met. Self-advocacy is crucial because it allows a person’s values and priorities to be heard, and helps translate those needs into the care they receive.
Our research focuses on promoting self-advocacy after a person is diagnosed with cancer because of how vulnerable this time is but also because individuals are extremely strong, too. It allows patients to receive the most optimal treatment and attain the highest possible quality of life while coping with their disease (See article).
Our team has summarized three main ways that people with cancer self-advocate:
- First, they become informed about their cancer care, which helps them make personally meaningful decisions about their care.
- Second, they learn how to effectively communicate their needs and priorities with their healthcare providers
- Third, they learn how to manage both receiving and giving support to others.
Our research aims to improve self-advocacy skills among the most vulnerable individuals with cancer. We conduct behavioral intervention trials, qualitative studies, and descriptive studies to provide in-depth, robust knowledge about how best to promote patient self-advocacy.
We are happy to provide the scale items, response options, scoring instructions and citations for our Self-Advocacy in Cancer Survivorship Scale.