Blogging about chronic health conditions can be very rewarding because doctors don’t fully understand disabilities they have never experienced and patients can help people in ways doctors can’t. Anyone can blog about chronic health conditions, and you don’t need to have a degree to be able to do it well because there are no rules that say you can’t blog about your health experiences unless you are a doctor. Health bloggers have to think that someone who doesn’t blog about health would have to because you can be sued if you share something that is considered medical advice without the proper legal statements. It is possible to write about your health experiences and help a lot of people without ever getting in any legal trouble, and a lot of people blog without ever getting sued. How do you blog about health and not get into any legal trouble? In this post, I am going to talk about things that all health advocates should think about before writing about health.
Get your legal statements up immediately– Many of my readers are family and wouldn’t sue me if they thought I gave bad constipation advice, but unless you have a private blog, you can’t assume that everyone reading your posts is family. The more your blog grow the more readers you will have who are not family. I am not concerned about my family suing me because they didn’t like my advice, and usually, family members will ask me to take things down if they are offended by something that was posted, but they won’t threaten me with a lawsuit. The very first thing that all health bloggers should do before writing any posts is get their legal statements up that clearly state you are not a doctor, because by not doing that, you are running the risk of being sued. The legal statements that a blogger should have will vary from person to person because not everyone will run ads and need the same types of policies, but at the bare minimum, you should have a disclaimer and privacy policy.
Do your research- When you are a health blogger, it’s so important that you do your research and do your absolute best not to post incorrect medical facts. Most people who seek out health bloggers are those who have been dismissed by medical professionals, who are looking for support, and if you aren’t giving people accurate information, it could harm someone. It takes a little more time to create a well-researched post, and not all health bloggers take the time to do that, but it’s so important because you never know who is taking your advice. If you don’t know something, it’s better to not post than to guess and be wrong. There are going to be times when a health blogger is going to be wrong because most advocates aren’t doctors, and sometimes the Internet doesn’t give us correct information. You want to try to do your research, and if you aren’t confident your medical facts are correct, don’t post about it.
Add a disclaimer to every post that could be taken as medical advice– Whenever I write a post about constipation that could be taken as medical advice, I always put a disclaimer at the beginning of the post to make it very clear that I am not a doctor. I have a disclaimer clearly displayed on my blog and on individual posts that could be considered medical advice, so one can ever say that I didn’t have a disclaimer and come after me for it. I sometimes even add a disclaimer to some of my social media posts that could be taken as medical advice because, as an advocate, you are responsible for every single thing you post, and you want to make sure people know you aren’t a doctor and that sometimes your information in wrong.
Be a well-educated advocate– As a disabled person, I know a lot about my disability, but despite popular belief, disabled people are not experts on every disability, and we are only experts on medical conditions that we are affected by. A good health advocate is always educating themselves and learning from other disabled people who have different disabilities from them, because you can’t be a good advocate if the only content you read is your own. I am always reading articles from other disabled people and learning about different medical conditions, because when you take it upon yourself to learn about other disabilities, you will be a better advocate.
Blogging about health can be very rewarding because you can provide perspectives that most people can’t, but if you aren’t careful about what type of information you put online, it can get you in a lot of legal trouble. As an online health advocate, I am here to share my experiences while living with a disability, but I am not here to tell you how to cure yourself, and that is what doctors are for. When you are disabled and live with many chronic health conditions, sometimes it can be difficult to manage, and advocating online not only can help other people, but you can also learn how to better manage your health from other advocates, because you can’t know it all. If you live with a chronic health condition and feel comfortable sharing your story, I encourage you to do so because we need more people who understand what it’s like to be disabled. Blogging about health was something I never pictured myself doing, but I am glad that I decided to try it because you can get support from people in the community that your family can’t provide. Do you blog about health? If you liked this post, please leave a comment below and share it with your friends.
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