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