If you have not already read Part 1 of this series please do by simply clicking on Part 1. Thank you.
When I was in graduate school I remember hearing one of my professors state that education is key to advocacy. He went of to share that by having our clients / consumers communicate the nature of their disability (ies) they would reduce societal stigmatization and ignorance. He said, by doing so the individual would advocate for both themselves and for other people with similar disabilities.
“Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.” Mother Teresa
Based on my own personal experience during the past 43 years – which you may have read about in my 7 part series My Journey thus Far presented in Part 1 of this series – I have come to believe that advocacy needs to occur with one person at a time. In my experience, I had to first begin to accept my reality, by processing and working through my own denial, before I could stop buying into my families and other people’s denial systems for me.
I needed to do the work to be able to begin to know what to ask for as an individual living with a brain injury. I needed to work through my own grief process before I could hope to help anyone, much less myself. Please read my 7 part series Traumatic Brain Injury and the Grieving Process Part 1. As I began to accept my reality, I was able to begin to share what I found out about myself and my reality.
I found that I had to first be my own advocate, before I could advocate for anyone else.
Please read Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 of this series. Thank you.
Here is my Contact page. Send comments and questions and I will respond to you.
Receive more articles like this one simply by clicking on Subscribe to Second Chance to Live by email.
Bookmark and Share Second Chance to Live with your friends through a Feed Reader
All material presented on Second Chance to Live is copyright and cannot be copied, reproduced, or distributed in any way without the express, written consent of Craig J. Phillips, MRC, BA
Leave a Reply