NHPCO NewsLine Spring 2022 - 16

continued
In terms of barriers, (as an example) in Baltimore city we
have a number of communities that are food deserts in
which there are no grocery stores, where people have no
access to fresh produce, fresh food. They have to literally
go outside of their communities in order to get the basic
necessities. If you are coming to my home and you're
saying I'm here to meet medical needs, etc., but let's talk
about what my real needs are... I need access to food, how
are you going to help me, how is my health going to
benefit if I can't even have fresh produce. Are we really
helping to look at those needs? Unfortunately, persons
who tend to be in underserved communities don't always
have the finances, the resources, or even the
transportation to go outside of their community.
Trust is really the crux of things you know, in terms of
leading into how we serve and how we care for people. It's
that trust that is the crux, and trust inspires hope. And
when we are able to go in and build relationships - and
sometimes it's within the first five minutes and it feels like
we've known them all our lives, right, sometimes it takes
longer than that to build that trust - but by building that
trust, it opens the door for hope. But it also provides an
Rev. Brandon
BREWER
avenue for us to advocate on their behalf, particularly those
people who are in the shadows, those people who don't
have a voice. Those people who feel like they're not
empowered, or no one cares, no one's listening, we get to
take that and we get to open the door for their voice to be
heard and advocate on behalf of them.
One of the things that I would add, is making sure that we
are not afraid of innovation and creativity. We have to
think outside of the box, and I know that's very overused.
When we're thinking about human lives, when we're
thinking about people, we're not thinking about
diagnoses, we're not thinking about numbers, we're
thinking about human beings - each person representing
a significant life.
Advocacy is not a one-time thing. It takes a lot, you have to
be present and really strengthen and build that trust, you
have to build the trust with the leadership with the
administration and let them know that you are reliable,
that you are there and that you are a source of advocacy on
behalf of other. If it's for positions if it's for a certain type of
care or whatever the case may be, advocacy is so key but it
starts by you being an example and using your voice.
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Newsline / Spring 2022
NHPCO NewsLine Spring 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NHPCO NewsLine Spring 2022
