Why is healthcare like this?

Healthcare is complicated. It often doesn’t make sense – to consumers, patients, students, policymakers, providers, administrators, and everyone else. The lack of understanding has discouraged people from engaging and slowed progress toward real reform. We’ve heard from people across the continuum that there is no place to find balanced, comprehensive answers that is understandable and…

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COVID’s lessons — and what we can do about them

COVID exposed Connecticut’s underlying health disparities to new audiences, receiving a lot of public attention. But what have we learned? A new report from the CT Health Foundation looks at what went wrong, what went right, and what we can build on to fix this long-standing problem. Going back to the old-normal of inequities isn’t…

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Book Club — How Charts Lie: Getting Smarter about Visual Information

Data visualization is trendy for a reason. How Charts Lie by Alberto Cairo describes how well-designed charts and graphs can help make numbers clear, especially as competition for readers’ attention grows. But badly designed charts can confuse or even lie to the reader. Healthcare is more confusing than most areas so deceptive charts are more…

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Guest Blog: Why Advocacy Tools Matter by Haley Magnetta

You want to make a difference, but advocacy can be confusing, frustrating, and time-consuming.  We can help. Sign up for Today’s Advocacy Tool – a month of inspiration, tips, and practical tools starting January 10. As a practicing Emergency Medicine Physician Assistant throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, I could not help but notice many areas where…

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Book Club — You Have More Influence Than You Think

By Vanessa Bohns I want to send every advocate a copy of this book. You Have More Influence Than You Think: How We Underestimate our Power of Persuasion, and Why it Matters uses research to make the counter-intuitive case that people are hearing us, even if they don’t seem to be. Well-documented, including much of…

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Sign up for daily tips on the Art and Craft of Advocacy

You want to make a difference, but advocacy can be confusing, frustrating, and time-consuming. We can help. Sign up for Today’s Advocacy Tool – a month of inspiration, tips, and practical tools. Every weekday for a month, we’ll send an email with insight, best practices, and lessons we’ve learned from the updated CT Health Advocacy…

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CT Healthcare employment is slowly rebounding, except for nursing homes

Download the report Like other Connecticut workers, healthcare employment was hit hard by the pandemic in March 2020, according to data from the CT Department of Labor. Since then, hospital employment has partially rebounded but not in nursing and residential facilities. At its start, the COVID pandemic sharply increased demand in a few healthcare sectors…

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Advocacy Toolbox Addition — Social media for advocates

Social media has become an important tool for advocates. It can be a powerful way to connect with other people advocating on your issue and with elected officials. But it can be overwhelming, and a bit scary. We’ve added a new page to the CT Health Advocacy ToolBox distilling best practices for busy advocates to…

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