Doctor’s Note: August Newsletter Introduction from Dr. Sandy Chung

Congratulations! We have successfully completed another busy summer well check season! Hopefully, you can now take a breath and take a moment to check in on yourselves, your staff, and your practice.  While the “sick season” does not quite seem to follow a pattern anymore, we can hopefully at least have a week or two of reprieve while students go back to school and everyone is back from summer vacations.

I believe that it is safe to say that change is the new normal. As pediatricians, we understand the importance of resilience in children so that they navigate the challenges that may come their way. Similarly, as pediatricians and pediatric clinicians, we have exhibited that we too can be very resilient as we are faced with a dynamic and changing health environment. I congratulate each of you on leading through this time and adapting our practices as we help our patients and families. You are truly heroes as we continue to take the very best care of children and adolescents in the face of adversity.

I would challenge you not to just be resilient, but to be an advocate to reduce some of the adversity in the environment. Some of what is occurring around us is not completely out of our control. By being vocal and speaking up from children, we can help to ensure that decisions being made lead to better health outcomes for all children.

If you’ve never engaged in advocacy, it can seem intimidating or seem like it would take too much time. So, if you are not quite sure what to do, here a few suggestions.  Even if you just do one of these, you are being a wonderful advocate and will affect change!

1. Post, re-post, tweet, re-tweet something to promote health in children
2. Encourage your young adult patients to vote
3. Sign up for national AAP or your AAP Chapter’s emails on advocacy issues so that you will know when something important is happening
4. Send an email to your legislator about a bill that is important to support or oppose
5. Call your legislator and tell them to support or oppose a bill
6. Write an op-ed about something happening in the news cycle that you feel strongly about
7. Attend the AAP Advocacy Conference in the spring (it is usually in DC so it is super easy to get to)
8. Visit your legislators during their session or in-between sessions

For help with any of these, please feel free to email your state AAP Chapter for additional guidance.  The Virginia, Maryland, and DC Chapters are incredibly active in advocacy and there are plenty of pediatricians around you to help you get started. And of course, get out to vote when it is time to do so!  Thank you for all that you do to help children, adolescents, and families in your communities!

Sincerely,

Sandy Chung, M.D.
Medical Director, PHN