Being on the Forefront of Change: Texas Students Speak On The 2018 Federal Advocacy Forum

Left to Right: Daniel Millar (UTEP), Sarosh Ahmed (Angelo State), Xiomara Navarro (UNT), Shane Edmondson (UTSW)

The Federal Advocacy Forum (FAF) was an awesome opportunity to get first-hand experience in advocating for the physical therapy profession. For those of you that don't know much about FAF, it's a 3-day conference that happens in late-April/early-May each year in Washington D.C. and is hosted by the American Physical Therapy Association. The first 2 days (Sunday and Monday) comprised of several lectures and small group discussions to debrief on some of the policies affecting our profession that will go into the House/Senate this year. Being a student from Texas definitely had its benefits because several veteran advocates regularly attend FAF and are passionate about mentoring new student advocates, so I personally felt up to speed on most everything by the time we took on Capitol Hill on Tuesday.

The conference builds up to Tuesday morning, where all 300+ conference attendees go and engage in discussions with staffers from the city/state/and national levels. It sounds intimidating, but generally in each meeting, you go in groups of 4-6 people from your state to give a 10-minute elevator pitch of about 3 or so policies to a staffer in a U.S. Senator's or Representative's office. To make it even less intimidating for you, staffers tended to be a young professional in their late 20's/early 30's, genuinely interested in hearing what we had to say. Each attendee had a chance to be a part of about 3-4 meetings on Tuesday, and we've already gotten feedback that some representatives have co-sponsored legislation we introduced (such as the CONNECT Act that would allow physical therapists to utilize TeleHealth with specific patient populations). Needless to say, playing an active role in shaping policies that influence patient access to therapy services is a very rewarding experience.

Even if you may not feel like the strongest advocate or you feel like you just don't know enough, I'd strongly consider attending next year's FAF. Not only is it a great networking opportunity, but it also is a great learning experience that helps you strengthen your voice as a student and helps you get hyped for our profession!

Daniel Millar, SPT
The University of Texas at El Paso

Federal Advocacy Forum this year was truly a remarkable and enlightening experience. I have been eager to attend the forum as a means to progress my understanding of professional activism and lend my voice to the many barriers our patients face on a daily basis in accessing physical therapy. I was blown away by the level of commitment I witnessed in preparing for the forum - so many of the clinicians in attendance have been advocating for their patients beyond twenty years! The topics most important to educate legislators and legislative staff on this year included physical therapy’s relationship with telehealth, the student loan bill to better allow students access to physical therapy education, and the value of utilizing physical therapy as a frontline defense to the opioid epidemic. Though each of these issues will take time to resolve on a legislative level, I was encouraged by the receptiveness to our message I witnessed on the Hill. I can’t wait to return next year! Thank you for this opportunity!

Sarosh Ahmed, DPT, CSCS
Angelo State University

    

APTA National Advocacy Dinners: Three Texas Cities Join The Movement

Houston's second annual National Advocacy Dinner took place on April 9th at West Alabama Ice House and was an amazing success. This year's planning committee, made up of Texas Woman's University second year's Rachel Macneill, Avery Huessner, and Savanna Golson, planned an innovative happy hour style evening. The night started with mingling and pizza, and a brief introduction of National Advocacy Dinners and all of the experienced advocates and policy experts in attendance. Students and other attendees were then encouraged to network and circulate among three "discussion stations" focusing on federal advocacy, state advocacy, and the PT PAC. Students engaged in conversations about how to fit advocacy into their busy schedules, how to get involved as a student, why advocacy matters, and discussed practical tips to start advocating for our profession today including downloading the APTA Action App and donating to the PAC. Over 75 attendees from 5 Houston-area DPT and PTA programs, as well as local clinicians were in attendance and enjoyed engaging in dialogue about advocacy in a casual setting over pizza and beer. 

As the current APTA Student Assembly Professional Advocacy Project Committee chair and part of last year's inaugural Houston NAD planning committee, it was an amazing experience to be a part of such a fun and creative event with so many students interested in getting involved. We were also extremely fortunate to have Lindsey McAlonan, the APTA Student Assembly SPT Delegate attend our dinner as she was in Houston for a clinical rotation. In addition to having the opportunity to share our student experiences with local, state, and federal advocacy, she and I, as well as other experienced students in attendance were also able to talk with many attendees about how to start getting involved with the APTA. It was so encouraging to see so many first and second year students looking for ways to contribute to making our profession better. 

As a student on the brink of graduation, and with experience attending many different advocacy events including Federal Advocacy Forum as a student, I always feel like I learn something new and am re-invigorated by attending events like NAD's. My favorite takeaway from this year's Houston dinner came from Tim Schauer, the Senior Vice President of Cornerstone Government Affairs. When giving a short speech before the networking portion of the evening, he spoke to us about the importance of professional advocacy and stated, "99% of success in the political arena is just showing up, consistently. Get involved for the long haul." This rang so true to me for not just advocacy, but for involvement and elevating our profession in general. Even if things haven't been going our way in Texas (cough*Direct Access*cough), we still have keep showing up and talking to our policy makers about why what we do matters. If we don't show up for our profession and our patients, nobody else is going to do it for us. And if we're not showing up, somebody else will be, for themselves. It's up to us to stop letting other's dictate our profession. And while you may not always know exactly what you're doing, just starting somewhere and doing something is better than doing nothing at all. I've also learned that someone who has been in your shoes before will always be there and willing to help you figure it out. While this applies to advocacy, it also applies to involvement in our profession, or following other interests or passions you might have. Just start and you'll figure it out. 

I'm thrilled that Texas has had three dinners this year (Houston, Dallas, and El Paso), and hopefully another in San Antonio later this year! If you have questions about attending or planning an NAD, getting involved in advocacy, or just getting involved in general, please reach out to me at aptasa.advocacy@gmail.com or abeck1@twu.edu and I'd love to talk with you! Students are the largest part of our professional membership, and I love that so many of us in Texas are getting involved and making our voices heard! 

Aly Beck, DPT

TWU Houston - Class of 2018

PS. Below you'll find some photos from the Dallas and El Paso National Advocacy Dinners:

Dallas (April 19, 2018)

El Paso (April 12, 2018)