In this…the only complete book that focuses on advocacy from the Event to emotional healing…authors Joni Aldrich and Chris Jerry bring advocacy into the much-needed spotlight through their combined twenty years of advocacy experience, and the experience of guests on Advocacy Heals U, the radio program. The Event can leave you devastated, but it also exposes the Need. The Call may lead you to ask, “Who me?” Chris and Joni want you to get past the objections and answer, “Why not me?” There has never been a better time to combine networking, the ripple effect, and social media tactics to meet your advocacy objectives on a local, national or international level. Even more important is the personal fulfillment…Joni and Chris want you to realize that advocacy does heal U!
Endorsements
Advocacy Heals U helped me realize that I was a closet advocate. I lost my son because he was born too soon. As a premature infant in 1977, his chances for a full life were small compared to today. After his loss, many of my decisions and actions were evidently due to my advocacy. It wasn’t until I read Advocacy Heals U that I became aware of how much my own personal advocacy has governed my life. Joni and Chris have given me a new and legitimized understanding of my life. I see now that advocacy is a reaction to something, and that advocacy is part of the healing process. It is the immune booster against depression, despair and anger. I thank them for making me understand the role that advocacy has played in my life.
~Chuck DiTrapano, RPh, President of RxTOOLKIT.com, Developer of Emily Jerry eLearning
As a cancer survivor, I understand that the foundation of successful advocacy is emotional health and wellbeing. As a national cancer advocacy program director, I train and mentor advocates. This dual role gives me the unique perspective of understanding that advocates require different guidelines for different stages of their advocacy work. Advocacy Heals U acknowledges this fact and creates the guidelines that balance the emotional needs of the individual advocate with the practical guidelines that are valuable to all advocates—from advocates that are just getting started to experienced advocates. Whether an individual is seeking information on advocacy basics, or seeking inspiration from other advocates, Advocacy Heals U will provide you with answers. A common factor among survivors and caregivers is often feeling alone. Through the personal stories shared in Advocacy Heals U, the reader will understand that others have walked your path and are able to support you through advocacy!
~Rose Gerber, Breast Cancer Survivor, Director of Communications and Patient Advocacy, Community Oncology Alliance, Washington, D.C.
I started reading the chapters thinking I would finish the book the next day. I was surprised to find myself at the last chapter! The words on each page spoke to me loud and clear, as I reflected hearing similar stories in my healthcare consulting travels across the country for over forty years deploying performance improvement methods. I have heard these stories over and over, but not so well articulated with passion from the advocate's perspective. I have always heard from the healthcare prospective.
With the evolution of massive change in how we delivery healthcare and so much more to learn, patient safety has to be a top priority. We never have the time to practice for the potential medical errors and mistakes that could happen. We seem to always be looking back and learning from mistakes that have occurred. We have to be looking beyond the challenges of the present, and envision what is possible in the future. Healthcare desperately needs to adopt an innovative mindset to build systems of care that demand forcing functions and electronic checklists to protect our healthcare workers in the care they deliver to patients. Healthcare has a dominant design, the standard architecture almost everyone follows, and it doesn’t always work. The time is now to adopt designs that require radical change for safety. A "Spark of Possibility."
~Deborah Smith Ph.D., MBB, MCA, Jonah
Advocacy Heals U: 15 Keys to Fast Track Results and Emotional Fulfillment is fundamentally different than any other advocacy book I’ve ever read in that it puts the reader squarely into the middle of the storyline. So many times we see caregivers—whether for wounded warriors, individuals with dementia, or any other caregiving need—lose themselves completely in their grief over what has happened to their loved one. By following the steps outlined in this book, caregivers can lift themselves out of the “why me” mode that leaves them depressed and weary, and become proactive and engaged advocates instead. Understanding that your grief can be the fuel that will help others dealing with similar situations can be tremendously empowering! Thank you for this very important message!
~Laura J. Bauer, National Program Director, Operation Family Caregiver, Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregiving
Only decades ago, very few people survived cancer. Today, millions of men, women and children triumph over the disease. However, while novel treatment options have drastically changed the outcome and overall survival of patients, a cancer diagnosis is still devastating. Research has shown that much-needed mutual support not only improves a patient’s emotional and psychological wellbeing, it also aids their overall recovery, and helps them gain confidence and courage when they can speak openly about their feelings, fears, and wishes.
Advocacy Heals U is a deeply affecting and urgently needed book with an excellent, thought-provoking, and highly readable message giving readers a new perspective on the exciting and powerful gift of advocacy. It’s a recommended read designed to help readers understand that a patient’s own journey may directly lead to advocacy, in which their individual experience of surviving cancer can help other patents confront the same challenge, so they don’t have to face their disease alone.
~Peter Hofland, Ph.D., Publisher of ADC Review / Journal of Antibody-drug Conjugates and co-host of The Onco’Zine Brief
Advocacy Heals U…how appropriate! One of the unique aspects of being a caregiver is the innate ability to understand each other, even though every caregiving journey is different. Yet the stark reality for every caregiver is that each caregiving journey will end, and life is transformed in so many ways. What will we do next?
Joni Aldrich and Chris Jerry (through their real-life caregiving journey’s and the loss of their precious loved ones) learned that advocacy heals you, me, and them. Through advocacy—where we share our innermost thoughts, feelings and emotions—we spread light and hope to those who care for another, while healing from our own journey through the role of advocate. Advocacy Heals U is a must read for those who are a caregiver, who will be one in the future, or who have been a caregiver in the past.
~Chris MacLellan, the Bow-Tie-Guy, Author, Caregiver Advocate, Blogger, Show Host of Healing Ties
In our lives (often several times), we find ourselves confronting anxiety, fear, pain, helplessness, and hopelessness. Experiencing these personally or on behalf of someone we care about, education and life have not prepared us to respond appropriately. Instead, we are encouraged to submit, withdraw, and succumb. (Be strong. Keep your chin up.) Or we just simply shut down.
My brother was a nationally renowned legal scholar and long-time advocate for human rights and social justice, but he became mute and passive after a Stage IV cancer diagnosis. Internally, he was angry and frustrated, yet he was unable to assume an advocacy role on his own behalf.
Recognizing the need to educate, mobilize, and help us overcome the silence, Joni Aldrich and Chris Jerry provide us with the gift of an incredible guidebook that helps us develop and utilize the necessary skills to advocate for ourselves, a family member or loved one, a friend, or a cause. Advocacy Heals U provides the inspiration to achieve personal fulfillment by making a difference. If you don't, who will?
~Walter L. Shepherd, Retired Executive Director of North Carolina Advisory Committee on Cancer Coordination & Control and Lifelong Advocate
Advocacy calls you! The journey is seldom easier than the actual Event. Thankfully, Joni Aldrich and Chris Jerry heard our shouting! The need to heal and help—brought forth through their experiences (and that of thousands of others)—have compounded and formed Advocacy Heals U. As an international advocate and cancer survivor, I personally feel the world has to read this inspiring and informational book!
Joni, your relentless commitment and expertise, is only equaled by your integrity! Thank you for this book.
~Johann Ilgenfritz, Cancer Survivor, Healthcare Advocate, Founder & CEO of UK Health Radio and Health Triangle Magazine
As a Rabbi for many years, I have seen from my own experience and learning how great a concept it is that Advocacy Heals U!
None of us can remain passive about what happens to our loved ones or ourselves. I have known many cases when a doctor’s glum prognosis became a death sentence. I am heartened by examples of friends who faced illness as a challenge. My dear friend Isaac was determined to live each day to the fullest. At the age of seventy, he climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro and ran a Marathon at the base of Mt. Everest. When he did finally passed on, he had accomplished his dreams.
What seems to be a disaster at first glance may actually be a new open door. There is an old tale of a Sage called Nahum. During his travel, it is said that he was locked out of the town’s gates and had to sleep in the forest. The wind blew out his campfire and a lion made off with his donkey. “This too is for good,” he said. Upon awakening, he saw that thugs had overrun the town. He realized that the locked gate had kept him away from disaster, and that the light from the lamp and the donkey’s braying would have given him away to the brigands. He would have been their victim, too. “This too is for good,” he said again. What may seem like a disaster may be a step towards keeping us from a greater harm, or may lead us forward to something amazing!
I believe that many will find their lives elevated and made so much better on many levels because Joni Aldrich and Chris Jerry have chosen to expose the healing in advocacy!
~Rabbi Dr. Norbert Weinberg, Advocate for the Survivors of the Holocaust in Austria and Germany, Educator, and Author of Courage of the Spirit, an account of his father’s struggle to survive Nazism and Communism
With compassion, honesty and courage, Joni Aldrich and Christopher Jerry tell their tragic stories of loss, and how those experiences catapulted them into a life of reaching out and serving others. Going from raw grief to finding the right avenue to help others is not an easy process, but it is this journey that will bring you inner healing. Yes, advocacy will help others and heal you. Helping frail seniors and their caregivers has helped me heal from the saddest events in my life—the suicides of both my husband and son. Read this book, and you will be motivated to find your own path through advocacy to healing!
~Toula Wootan, Advocate, Author of Conversations on Caregiving; Love Stories and Timeless Tips, Radio Host of Toula’s Tips for Caregivers
Life is difficult. Having an “interesting life” (a famous Chinese curse) requires a willingness to risk—a marriage, children, job, relationships, etc. In a world of inevitable change, what was once fulfilling often changes to grief when what gave us joy is lost. It’s rarely a matter of IF we will suffer a loss, but rather WHEN.
The question people face is what will they do when the theoretical becomes the actual. For Joni and Chris, the answer is one that is healing and gives back something positive to a world that gave them joy and meaning: Personal Advocacy.
This book begins with the active participation of both authors in the type of tragic events we all face. To their credit, they dealt with their grief by offering a strategy for people experiencing significant losses. It’s an approach enabling the re-entry into meaningful living while contributing to society. Bravo!
~Stan Goldberg, Ph.D., Writer, Speaker, Survivor, End-of-Life Expert, Author of I Have Cancer; 48 Things to Do When You Hear Those Words
Joni Aldrich and Chris Jerry have produced a very well written book. It has an easy-to-read format with content that is extremely important given today's rapidly changing healthcare and medical landscape. The timing is perfect! Advocacy Heals U is very informative, highly educational, and it is a must read for everyone who participates in health care delivery. And especially consumers who must become more self-responsible and advocates for their health on a "care continuum" from birth to the last act in life.
~James (Jim) Wilds, MHA, Former, CEO HealthCare/Medical, Military Veteran, Founder of the Nationally Recognized ProActive HealthCare USA Centers of Excellence
As a two-time cancer survivor…once given fourteen days to live, in coma for a year, and left with only one functioning lung…I am living proof that cancer survivors who want to accomplish something amazing can have a new lease on life. I personally decided to dedicate my life to advocate to provide other people with something I never had…HOPE. There are so many amazing advocacy groups out there like The Cancer Climber Association that focus on supporting those touched by cancer to live an active, fun life.
So many people in the world are touched by cancer, and they do everything they can to overcome the illness, but unfortunately they don’t win. Those who have passed away—please know that you’ve been my main inspiration to continue forward to help others realize how fragile life is, and to take advantage of every moment we have on earth.