Northerner
Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
When the proposal for my second book was being shopped around in 2008, my book agent heard again and again from publishers, "We need a doctor's name on the cover!" As if a book about an illness, and treating it, is only credible if a credentialed health care professional wrote it.
Today, more and more books are being written by patients -- well-educated, informed patients who manage their illness successfully and have experience, practical knowledge and insights to share with other patients.
As the new year incites a rush to become a "new, better and healthier you," we often do so learning from our peers. When it comes to illness-warranted behavior changes, as like seeks like, it's often easier to make changes learned from fellow patients with whom you share the experience of a disease. Like support groups and mentor programs, this is fertile soil for positive behavior change. So, I applaud the rise of patient-authors.
Patient-authors also narrate the experience of illness. That is why I hope health care professionals (HCPs) are also reading books written by patients. A book like No-Sugar Added Poetry, for example, can give HCPs immediate access to some of the emotional landscape of living with diabetes.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/riva-greenberg/books-by-patients_b_2403066.html
One of my poems is in No-Sugar Added Poetry 🙂
Today, more and more books are being written by patients -- well-educated, informed patients who manage their illness successfully and have experience, practical knowledge and insights to share with other patients.
As the new year incites a rush to become a "new, better and healthier you," we often do so learning from our peers. When it comes to illness-warranted behavior changes, as like seeks like, it's often easier to make changes learned from fellow patients with whom you share the experience of a disease. Like support groups and mentor programs, this is fertile soil for positive behavior change. So, I applaud the rise of patient-authors.
Patient-authors also narrate the experience of illness. That is why I hope health care professionals (HCPs) are also reading books written by patients. A book like No-Sugar Added Poetry, for example, can give HCPs immediate access to some of the emotional landscape of living with diabetes.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/riva-greenberg/books-by-patients_b_2403066.html
One of my poems is in No-Sugar Added Poetry 🙂