{"id":5468,"date":"2021-10-22T21:14:42","date_gmt":"2021-10-22T21:14:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveyourlifept.com\/blog\/?p=5468"},"modified":"2021-10-22T21:14:42","modified_gmt":"2021-10-22T21:14:42","slug":"advocating-for-our-profession-and-patients-in-washington-d-c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/liveyourlifept.com\/blog\/2021\/10\/22\/advocating-for-our-profession-and-patients-in-washington-d-c\/","title":{"rendered":"Advocating for Our Profession and Patients in Washington D.C."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Over the course of\nthe past years of pursuing my career in physical therapy, I have began to\nrealize the impact that our voices in the profession can make to optimize the\ncare we can provide for our patients. Advocacy can take many forms from\ndiscussing with friends, family, and co-workers, to sending letters or meeting\nwith members of congress at the state and federal levels. Most recently, I had\nthe opportunity to travel to Washington D.C. and gather with passionate members\nof the profession to advocate to the federal government at the Capitol. The\nexperience was a large highlight of my new career since graduating as a Doctor\nof Physical Therapy this past June. In the physical therapy field, we are\nconstant educators to our patients and their loved ones, and with advocating,\nwe are able to use our skills in education to share with members of congress\nthe influence that various legislation could have on our providers and\npatients. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; One\npiece of legislation that we were advocating for in Washington D.C. was The\nAllied Health Workforce Diversity Act. This legislation would provide grants\nand stipends to higher education programs to aid in recruitment of individuals\nof underrepresented backgrounds within the physical therapy profession as well\nas in occupational therapy, speech-language pathology, respiratory therapy, and\naudiology. We were able to share with our congress members how this piece of\nlegislation could ultimately influence our patients as patients tend to have\nbetter outcomes when they can receive care from members of their own racial and\nethnic backgrounds. I was able to share the work that the University of\nMinnesota Physical Therapy Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion group was striving\nto complete in the recruitment of members of underrepresented communities and\nthe influence that this legislation could have on these already growing\nefforts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; My experience in Washington D.C helped me understand that members of Congress need to hear our stories to understand how legislation influences our profession and patients. I learned that although I have a lot to learn about how legislation is developed and put into place, I still was able to be a voice and advocate for legislation that I knew impacts our profession. I am incredibly grateful for this opportunity to learn, advocate, and be inspired by members of our profession through my time advocating. I look forward to continuing to learn about current issues that impact our profession and seeking out ways to be an advocate for my patients and colleagues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"190\" height=\"184\" src=\"https:\/\/www.liveyourlifept.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/image-2.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5469\"\/><figcaption>Dr. Alicia Bellefeuille<br>LYL Physical Therapist<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr. Alicia Bellefeuille, PT, DPT serves as a physical therapist with Live Your Life in a home health setting and with University of Minnesota Medical Center in an acute care setting. Alicia graduated from University of South Dakota with a Bachelor of Science in Biology and minor in Spanish and then went on to earn her Doctorate of Physical Therapy at the University of Minnesota. Alicia has worked with a wide array of conditions in outpatient and inpatient settings and is enjoying her opportunity to now work with individuals both in preparation for leaving the hospital and to improve independence and safety for people currently living at home. Alicia is passionate about working with patients to help them maximize function, independence, and confidence in activities most important to them, and she has a special interest working with patients with neurologic diagnoses, including following a stroke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alicia is a Minnesota native and is very\ngrateful to be able to spend free time with her family in the cities. Alicia\nalso enjoys spending as much time as possible in the outdoors \u2013 hiking,\nrunning, picking up new sports with her friends, or relaxing at a lake.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over the course of the past years of pursuing my career in physical therapy, I have began to realize the impact that our voices in the profession can make to optimize the care we can provide for our patients. Advocacy &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":5471,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,28,63,123,180,181,185,206,215,227,228,229,251,2,252,257,276,277],"tags":[472,616,864,2092,2207,2382,2670,2790,2857,3141,3209,3513,3889,3995],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Advocating for Our Profession and Patients in Washington D.C. - LYL<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/liveyourlifept.com\/blog\/2021\/10\/22\/advocating-for-our-profession-and-patients-in-washington-d-c\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Advocating for Our Profession and Patients in Washington D.C. - LYL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Over the course of the past years of pursuing my career in physical therapy, I have began to realize the impact that our voices in the profession can make to optimize the care we can provide for our patients. 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