Patient empowerment

The patient empowerment concept, a recent outgrowth of the natural health movement, asserts that to be truly healthy, people must bring about changes in their social situations and in the environment that influences their lives, not only in their personal behavior. See patient rights for a discussion of the legal and human rights of patients, which are significantly less controversal.

Key tenets of the patient empowerment philosophy:

• Patients cannot be forced to follow a lifestyle dictated by others.
• Preventive medicine requires patient empowerment for it to be effective.
• Patients as consumers have the right to make their own choices and the ability to act on them.

See also

• US Patients' Bill of Rights

External links

• Moynihan R, Smith R. Too much medicine? British Medical Journal. 2002 Apr 13; 324(7342): 859-60. PMID: 11950716
• Patient Empowerment - from NaturalHealthPerspective.com