In this episode of the Secure Your Retirement Podcast, Radon and Murs discuss the critical role of patient advocacy with Dr. Elizabeth Mizelle, founder of Palm Wellness. Drawing on her extensive background as a family medicine physician, Dr. Mizelle now serves as a health advocate for seniors and their caregivers, helping them navigate the complex world of senior healthcare. Whether it’s understanding a new diagnosis, coordinating follow-up care, or finding the right resources for aging in place, her approach offers clarity and compassionate support for individuals and families alike.

Listen in to learn about how a patient consultant can provide peace of mind by helping with healthcare decisions, coordinating communication with providers, and creating safe, functional home environments for aging loved ones. This episode is especially useful for those involved in retirement healthcare planning, acting as advocates for elderly parents, or seeking caregiver resources. Dr. Mizelle explains the unique difference between clinical care and advocacy, and how she supports people looking to stay home longer or adapt to life-changing diagnoses with confidence.

In this episode, find out:

• What patient advocacy is and how it differs from traditional clinical care
• How a health advocate for seniors helps families manage new diagnoses and medical complexity
• Real-life examples of how advocacy can ease transitions after hospitalization
• The process of aging in place and how to safely adapt a home for long-term care
• How to connect with Palm Wellness for personalized healthcare support

Tweetable Quotes:

“Patient advocacy helps you slow things down, understand what’s happening, and make better-informed healthcare decisions.” – Radon Stancil

“It’s not just about treating the illness—it’s about creating an environment where people can heal, live, and thrive.” – Murs Tariq

Resources:

If you are in or nearing retirement and you want to gain clarity on what questions you should be asking, learn what the biggest retirement myths are, and identify what you can do to achieve peace of mind for your retirement, get started today by requesting our complimentary video course, Four Steps to Secure Your Retirement!

To access the course, simply visit: POMWealth.net/podcast

Here’s the full transcript:

Welcome everyone to Secure Your Retirement podcast. As you know, Merce and I,

as we have been doing this podcast now for a few years, we really try to bring in

different types of topics, not just financial things. We do talk about obviously how

we can leave a legacy and those kinds of things, but one of the things that we

have spent some time at over the years is talking about lifestyle, lifestyle choices,

and that could be a lot of different things. But today, I think you’re really going

to like the guests that we have on Dr. Elizabeth Mizelle and we’re going to talk

about a lifestyle that I think will be very beneficial to you. But before we get

into any of that, I just want to say, Dr. Mizelle, thank you so much for coming

on and talking with us and our audience today. Thank you for having me. Great. So,

we’ve had a little bit of conversation with you, Dr. Mizelle, prior to going into

record mode here. So, I want to do a little bit of a set up. We have quite a few

episodes that we’ve talked about. The aspect of as we get older, we have to start

thinking about things like long -term care. And I think most people really get it in

their minds that as we get older, that we’re going to get to a point where maybe

we aren’t able to do some of the things we were able to do when we were I know

that, and when a person’s in their fifties, they’re not really wanting to think

about that yet, and they’re not really wanting to be in that place. But I will

tell you that as we’ve talked about the different options, whether it be a

continuous care retirement community, whether a person’s going to say I’m going to go to an

assisted living, there is a lot of folks that really like the idea of how I can,

what can I do to prolong my health as long as possible, A, B,

be able to stay at home as long as possible. And I think that’s why we were so

interested in having you on the show. So, for those of you listening, Dr. Mizelle has

an advocacy practice where she works with individuals to help them in this category.

So, before we go into a lot of those details, Dr. Mizelle, could you give us a

little bit of your background? And then what has got you to this point today where

now you are however you want to describe it I’m going to say an advocate for

individuals to stay healthy as long as possible. Sure, I am a family medicine

physician by trade I’ve been practicing for over 10 years and over the years I have

dabbled in different types of facilities and practices and started leaning towards

lifestyle medicine because I like to focus on prevention and wellness instead of

always treating with medications. And I also started learning more about a field

called patient advocacy. I know we have them set up in hospitals already, but I

didn’t realize that a physician could act as a professional patient advocate.

And so, I became more interested in advocacy than clinical practice because I get to

spend more time with patients and affect change in a greater way. And so, I have

decided to kind of pivot again and focus on patient advocacy and lifestyle medicine

to help patients and clients in ways that I haven’t been able to before.

Yeah, I think that sounds super exciting and intriguing. You know that the phrase of

Treat the cause not the symptom right is becoming more and more common people

are becoming more and more aware that There are ways to holistically kind of advance

your health without just popping pills and stuff like that So I think it’s a great

time to be doing this. So, what in I guess what is a patient advocate? What does

that truly mean? What type a role do you assume in an advocacy type of

relationship? A patient advocate is a professional with some clinical expertise who

can help someone navigate the healthcare system, their medical diagnoses,

coordinate care, understand their insurance coverage needs, and just be someone to

help them understand the complexities of their health and wellness in a way that

they haven’t been able to get in their traditional doctor’s office Yeah, so I guess

as I hear it. I know and when we were talking to you prior to going on and

recording here You kind of made a point that kind of hit me and regulated as you

know, if I go to my doctor’s office, right? Typically, we everybody knows how that

works, right? I go in I have the nurse come in their going to do all And I’m going

to get all that thing. They’re going to ask me all these questions, then get all

the notes. And then finally, the doctor comes in, the doctor comes in and I feel

like I’m in a speed dating thing, you know, like I’m going through and they’re just

like, here, is this the case? Is the case? And then they give me a thing and

they’re out. And I’m like, I think they’re going to go get something and come back,

but they never come back. And, you know, it’s like that really fast pace. And you

said the difference with having someone in this role is that now I could spend

really as much time as I need in order to walk me through. I mean, am I on the

right track there? – You’re definitely on the right track. We’re definitely limited in

time in a traditional medical practice. Visits are usually 15 minutes in most

traditional practices. And a few of those 15 minutes goes to our medical assistant

who’s getting your vitals and asking you the reason for your visit. That leaves the

doctor with maybe 10 minutes to talk to you, ask you how you’re doing, come up

with a diagnosis and a plan and treat you. So, what’s being left out are all of

your questions, time to discuss, to educate. And so patient advocacy takes you out

of that office, kind of makes you more comfortable, more casual setting. Your mind

is freer to think about all the questions you have because a lot of the times you

forget them when you get to the doctor’s office. It’s just a lot happening. So, you

can ask all of your questions,

get some feedback, express your frustrations, and that’s something that many patients

don’t have the opportunity to do in the doctor’s office. But one thing you have to

remember is in advocacy, there’s no patient -physician relationship. This is client and

consultant, and that’s why we have unlimited time. So, we’re not diagnosing and

treating, but we’re helping you understand the diagnosis and the treatments that

you’ve received from your doctors. – Okay, well, great. So, I like that you

distinguish that this is more consultative because you go into like the doctor’s

office, that example is they get the data, and they make a diagnosis, it’s very

quick. But what I guess what you’re saying is, let’s have a conversation, let’s try

to understand all the elements and take the time to really come up with some type

of plan going forward. Um, and that’s going to take more than 15 minutes, right?

So, what does that look like in real life? Do you have any examples for us as far

as a patient advocacy? Yeah. So, if you were to say, here’s, here’s a common type

of scenario that I’ve, I’ve dealt with over, uh, in my past and, you know, from,

from start to finish, maybe they came in and sat down with me and we figured out,

you know, what, what type of path and how do you, how do you help guide them

through the whole process? I had a family come in with their father,

a senior gentleman who was recently hospitalized

and he was independent prior to the hospitalization, living on his own, and his

adult children were very overwhelmed with all the new diagnoses from that one

hospitalization, all the care he was going to need at home, all the follow -up

appointments, all the new medications that he was prescribed, and they were bringing

him back home, going back to their own lives, and had no idea what the next step

was. It was just very overwhelming because they lived out of state, actually. And so

they hired me as their advocate to kind of logistically piece everything together,

explain to them how did all of this happen? He was healthy. He was living on his

own, and now he’s homebound, needs all of this help. And all of these medicines,

aren’t they bad for him? So, I pretty much explained the disease,

anatomy, physiology, the prognosis, and what the doctors have determined is the best

treatment plan for him. I have created a document to help explain all of the

diagnoses, medications, what they’re used for, something they could refer back to and

share with all of the siblings so everyone’s on the same page. Also shared it with

the client as well so he understands his own diagnoses and together it’s a lot of

emotional support, it’s a lot of hand -holding, it’s a lot of educating and

coordinating care. I helped to make doctor’s appointments because sometimes they don’t

know what to ask, how soon they need to follow up, so I was able to do that for

them and actually be on the line when they call the doctor’s office to ask the

appropriate questions. So, I can actually feed the questions to them or tell them

what they need to make sure they ask. Sometimes they are just not comfortable doing

it, very overwhelmed or very emotional, so I can do that for them. And ultimately,

I’m still working with them now, but I’ve given them a literal framework on a sheet

of paper that they can always reference. They understand why everything is being

ordered, imaging tests, medications, follow -ups.

So that’s an actual example of how I was able to help them, and I continue to help

them now. – Excellent. So, if a person’s listening to this and they’re thinking maybe

about that type of scenario where I got a parent, I know I just went through this

with my mom. Unfortunately, away the first of the year but you know we went through

that whole scenario that your kind of describing where we were overwhelmed with

everything  was fast moving my mom was overwhelmed there was me and my two

siblings overwhelmed so that I really get that side of it as well and then as I’m

listening to you I think about I it doesn’t maybe have to be that way it could be

I as an individual I am going Hey, I have something maybe it’s not catastrophic,

but maybe it’s new. It’s a new diagnosis of some sort. And I’m thinking, Well, how

do I deal with that? So, if I’m looking at that, like if I wanted to reach out to

someone like your kind of how that first conversation does I guess go to even know

if if that if you could help or if you’re able to be an advocate? I mean, how

does that first conversation really go? Because I’m a practicing physician, It tends

to go like, “What brings you in today? How can I help you? What’s going on? Okay.”

And we just have a casual conversation, and I glean all the information and

determine if that’s something I can actually help you with.

Sometimes clients are looking for more of a legal support,

and they’re saying, “I feel like I’ve been wronged, and I need you to look at my

x -rays and tell me if this was the real reason, so they’re looking at maybe a

malpractice issue and they need me to help them in that fight. And I’m not a

medical legal attorney, but I’m going to help you understand what happened during

your care. I can help you understand the systematic evidence -based approach to

physicians in making a diagnosis and determining the course of medical care so that

you can be your own advocate and understand that okay, so this was done correctly

okay this does make sense or maybe we’ll determine this was done out of order or

it should have been done another way so again a lot of education a lot of advocacy

and just clearing out all the mud and the confusion and the complexities in

healthcare to help you understand what makes the most sense, what was supposed to be

done, and letting patients know that they have a right to their opinion and their

own decision -making for their own medical care. – Yeah, I think that’s fantastic

because it’s confusing, it’s overwhelming, just like in our world of financial

planning, retirement planning, investments, all those different things, there’s so many

facets to it where it could just be a lot if you don’t have someone that’s there

to advocate for you and knows that world very well. So, I know when we were talking

before we started recording, you mentioned more of a passion of yours, I guess, on

the creative side of, and Raiden mentioned that we’ve got some people that want to

go to continuous care retirement communities as they’re kind of their final leg into

that stage of their life. And then others, they don’t want to leave their house,

right? This is the place that I raise my kids in. It’s debt -free. I love this

place. I don’t want to leave it. And so, you mentioned that you kind of help people

think that through a little bit as far as aging in place. So, tell us a little bit

about that side of your business and what that looks like just a little bit of

background. My mother has advanced dementia. And so, I had to move her into my home

for three years. And I was her caregiver. So that took a lot of transitioning from

her long-term care into our home. And we had to make sure that she was safe and

that she was comfortable. So, I had my own experience of transforming our home from

a two -person, middle -aged home into a safe space for my mother to move into our

dining room. We transformed a dining room into her sanctuary. All the things that

she loves that she enjoys, she likes to look at, and things that her caregiver

could use and toileting, bathing, cleaning, eating, all the things in one room.

And so, I realized this is a big need, especially for aging seniors who maybe they

can’t afford to go to long -term care, or maybe they want to stay home with their

families. Maybe their families have the resources and the spaces to move them in

with them, but there is a right and the wrong way to do that. You can’t just make

everything beautiful. They have to be functional, and they have to be safe. We think

about flooring and preventing falls and slips. We think about grab bars,

handles, walk -in showers. There’s a lot to think about making a safe space when you

want to age there and not just be bored and stare at plain walls but enjoy it as

well and feel like you’re home and you’re not in a sterile space or facility. So

that is the lifestyle portion of palm wellness. And it it focuses on the lifestyle

medicine pillar of environment. So that’s why I wanted to introduce that into my

business as well. That’s excellent. So, if somebody’s listening to this and they go,

wow, this, you know, because we’re having obviously a very brief conversation here.

But if somebody were listening to this and they said, man, this sounds like

something I would like to have a conversation about on and the judge,

I guess, just let me ask, I mean, how does that work? I mean, if I was listening

to this and I go, I’d like to have a conversation with you. What would be my

steps? How would I do that? Sure, you would start off by going to my website, www

.mypalmwellness .com and just schedule consultation with me and that initial consultation

is about 20 to 30 minutes and we just discuss everything that you’re concerned about

or more about me and how I can help you needs and see if we’re a match and if

that’s the case then we can either do hourly consultations or do a large package

and then I just work with you over a long period of time. I have a lot of

clients that book me for six months or just indefinitely to just be a part of

their health care journey. All right. Well, fantastic. Well, if you’re listening and

this is something of interest to you, then we will make sure we have the website

listed in the show notes as well, but Dr. Mizelle thank you so much for coming on.

It seems like you’ve got a lot of experience and a lot of different areas when it

comes to this. So, I think Anyone that works with you is going to benefit some way

somehow even if they just have that initial conversation with you So thanks a lot for your time. Thank you for having me.