Advocacy

For Nutrition Professionals, Public Policy and Advocacy is central to your career in any career setting, tenure or nutrition niche.

Recent MAND Advocacy Activities:

Updating Long Term Care Facility Regulations

Participating in State Health Councils regarding, Diabetes, Health and Wellness, and Insurance

Nutritional Care Regulations in Assisted Care Facilities

Defining the scope of practice of unlicensed professionals

Modernizing the State’s licensure provisions for the LDN credential for RDNs & CNSs

Extending federal coverage of child nutrition programs

Approving RDNs to write medical nutrition orders

Authorizing CMS to grant billing status to RDNs

Coverage for the RDN/LDN as an Essential Health Benefit in Maryland

We may believe our work as nutrition professionals begins and ends with the public. However,  we must also understand that under what conditions, and if, how, when, where, and by whom those services are provided, is determined by federal, state, and local governments, as well as private corporations.   Optimizing the provision of such services is the goal of the Academy’s public policy mission.  Thus, if nutrition is your profession, then public policy is your business, even if the decision-making seems remote or complex.  As someone famous is reputed to have said, “Those who choose not to participate in democracy are doomed to be controlled by those who do.”