Badass Advocate: Becoming The Champion Your Seriously Ill Loved One Deserves
Is your loved one's serious illness causing you to feel overwhelmed or powerless? Do you desperately want them to get the care they deserve but aren't sure where to begin? Are you looking to make sense of the chaos surrounding their health issues?
In this information-packed and action-oriented book, you will learn how to lead the charge and powerfully advocate for the patient in your life. Whether your loved one is hospitalized or home-bound, Badass Advocate will teach you how to effectively navigate the challenges you face.
After losing her father and sister to aggressive diseases, Erin Galyean learned what it takes to powerfully advocate. In Badass Advocate, she shares what she learned so you can make a difference in your loved one's care.
In Badass Advocate, you will learn how to:
- Build an unstoppable support team for both you and the patient
- Ask doctors effective questions to get the real answers you need
- Remember key conversations with healthcare professionals
- Be the patient's voice when they are not able
- Avoid caregiver's fatigue
- Find credible information online
- Balance being both compassionate and assertive as a caregiver
- Stay focused on advocating without overloading yourself
Badass Advocate will help you make a difference in your loved one’s healthcare experience.
Badass Advocate will serve as a guidebook for influential caregiving.
Badass Advocate turns overwhelmed caregivers into empowered advocates.
What's stopping you from being the kind of advocate your loved one deserves?
Don't wait until tomorrow. Be the badass your loved one needs today by scrolling to the top and clicking the "buy now" button.
Reviews (59)
A Powerful, Moving, and Informative Read!
I will keep this book closeby always. As a cancer survivor and someone who has had to advocate for family and friends with serious illnesses, I know that this is a conversation that everyone will need help and support with and some point in their lives. I couldn't put the book down. I underlined, took notes, and relished each of the author's personal stories. It's the first time I ever found myself crying over acknowledgements at the end of the book! Wow! I highly recommend this book to anyone with a heartbeat! I'm grateful for this book, for sure!
Whether you're a caregiver or patient, this book contains information you need to know
As a former cancer patient, this book was spot on. I wish that this book had been around when I was sick so that those helping and supporting me could have read it. Everything made so much sense and would've made things easier for everyone. In fact, several times as I was reading, I thought, "wow, she really gets it". It also made me realize how much my husband, in particular, had done while I was sick and that I really never looked at things from his point of view. It made me see things from not just the patient's perspective, but through the caregivers' also. Both sides were represented so well. There was so much good information, and it was such a thorough, easy-to-follow guide for how to put the most effective plan in place. The love the author had for her sister was so apparent throughout the book. What she learned and put into this book will help so many families.
The absolute BEST and MOST helpful guide/advice to becoming a bad ass advocate!
This book is fantastic! A must-have in such difficult times, that brings clarity and guidance in moments of confusion and despair. This book will give you a place to start in this difficult journey, and will guide you every step of the way. It will make you feel confident and empowered, and it will help you become the best advocate for your loved one. I have read many books that promise to provide useful and applicable tips, and I have never before read a book that is so clear, helpful, organized and actionable as this one. The author does a great job of developing a very clear strategy to become a bad ass advocate and of breaking down the process into very clear and easy steps. Each chapter describes a step of the process, with a very helpful checklist after each chapter to help you follow through. Based on the author’s own experience, the book is a perfect balance between (1) a wonderful, heart-felt, supportive and understanding voice/perspective and (2) a very rationale, blunt and much needed realistic view, that will help you care and support your loved one in the best possible way. In times in which denial might play tricks on us, the author helps face and handle the tough questions and decisions that nobody wants to, but need to be thought of. I would highly recommend this book to absolutely everyone that wants to be the best advocate that they possibly can for their loved one. Actually, I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone, because most times when you are in the middle of the situation, you don’t even think/know that a book like this could be out there and could be so helpful, so I think everyone should be aware of this valuable tool that they can have stored away in their toolbox in case they need it. I will be buying extra copies for close friends and family.
Amazing tool for caregivers
Many people are eventually tasked with caring for a seriously ill loved one. The problem is this: no one talks about it or prepares you for it. If your loved one is relatively young or healthy and suddenly falls ill, you likely will know few people who have experience with such a thing, and that's a lonely place to be. This book is a long overdue primer on how to navigate the complex system of doctors, so that you can be the best help for your loved one. I am part of a caregiver group through my church and this is the best resource i have found for a loved one trying to be a supporting advocate. So many times caregivers feel guilty and just give up in the face of an overwhelming and confusing healthcare system. This book will give so many people somewhere to start. A positive and heartfelt story from someone who knows what it's like, this book will be a lifeline to so many.
A valuable guidebook
BadAss Advocate is a heartfelt, courageous account of Erin Mulqueen Galyean’s personal journey of navigating the healthcare system when her sister was seriously ill with lung disease. Galyean outlines eight concrete strategies that one can use if faced with caring for a seriously sick loved one. Galyean’s voice is strong and honest. Her background in pharmaceutical training provides guidance on how to communicate effectively with health professionals. The use of anecdotal evidence bolster her claims and resonate well with her audience. Galyean’s use of strong imagery captures the picture of her tightly-woven family. The reader enjoys hearing the stories of the laughter and the love, which can be refreshing for a reader experiencing a similar sadness. She comes across as a friend who speaks naturally to the reader; it is clear she truly desires to coach a caregiver in helping a sick loved one in the best possible way. Furthermore, Galyean confronts the uncomfortable choices and unthinkable decisions such as planning advance directives, appointing a healthcare proxy, obtaining a second opinion, questioning a doctor’s treatment and trusting one’s instinct. Her suggestion to have a thoughtful conversation with the patient about some of these things, even if the prognosis is a positive one, is sage advice and one that can bring a sense of peace to the patient. She walks the reader through how to challenge a doctor’s opinions respectively. She encourages the reader to stand strong and teaches the reader a respectful and effective way to push back confidently. Galyean spells out the various roles of the advocacy team members. The “director of delight” or “vice president of communication” are clever, creative ways to get family members involved and to empower them in the process. She reflects on being an advocate from all angles--from suggesting one become familiar with the hospital evaluation method to discussing a prognosis with children who are close to the loved one. She even provides the names of organizations that help families in these situations. She mentions the importance of keeping the caregiver healthy both mentally and physically and provides creative and practical ideas for doing this. Encouraging quotations by inspiring people are sprinkled throughout the book which keeps the reader in a positive mindframe. Bottomline, a caregiver who reads this book will have valuable tools at his/her disposal which, inevitably, will assist in feelings of control and peace of mind in a difficult situation.
Great support to help advocate for your sick loved one!
I wanted to share how Badass Advocate supported my family during a dark time! My parents came to visit my husband, 6-year old daughter and I in Texas from Georgia. One morning my Dad woke up and his behavior and level of confusion were raising a lot of red flags with my family. My Mom and I took him to the ER to discover he was having a stroke. The next 24 days we spent in the Neuro-ICU where I brought my Dad’s DNR documentation to the hospital worried he wasn’t going to make it. Over the course of 2 weeks he was stepped down to Neuro-PCU, got worse and ended up back up in the Nero-ICU, stepped back down into the neuro PCU and then finally discharged to in-patient rehab. Things were moving fast, emotions were elevated, many medical professionals were involved in his care, exhaustion eventually settled in and we were trying to understand and advocate on my Dad’s behalf as best we could. During this overwhelming time my Mom had mustered all her strength and was doing her best to support my father and make the best decisions based on what we knew, but I still felt like we were not always asking the best/right questions or always fully understanding next steps. It was then that I started reading Badass Advocate. Badass Strategy #3 was incredibly valuable in helping us to organize our concerns into thoughtful questions, dig deeper where necessary and listen better through our anxiety and fear. Towards the end of my Dad’s in-patient rehab stay my Dad’s physician complimented my Mom by telling her she was asking really good questions!! It was a journey to get there, but I am glad we had Badass Advocate to help guide us in this time of need. My Dad is back in Georgia and on his way to recovery! If you have a loved one that is going through a tough medical journey I highly recommend reading Badass Advocate, not only will you find meaningful information to help you advocate, I think you will love how the author writes with humility, experience and passion to help others that are struggling.
Guaranteed to lighten your burdens!
The tragedy of this book is that by the time you realize you need it, you will have already faced some avoidable stress. If you are supporting a loved one though a medical crisis or you are concerned about someone’s future health, this book is a must-read! The shared strategies will save you time, stress, heartache, and will lighten the load that you and your loved ones bear. This might be one of the most applicable books I’ve ever read. This is one to keep on shelf. When you need it, you’ll be unmeasurably grateful you have it!
Well written, smart, Informative! A must read..
This book is heart wrenching, raw, informative and so full of great information! It reminded me of when my daughter was gravelly injured in a car crash, you know, when the chaplain calls to notify you what’s happened. You’re numb beyond belief. If I had read this book perhaps I would have been more equipped to go down the road we went down. This book should be read by everyone. When tragedies happen we are scared, lost in emotion and we try to dissimulate information we’ve never heard before. Thank you to this author who has lived this, twice unfortunately, and through writing this book will help so many!
Loving Tribute and Practical Advice
In Badass Advocate, Erin Galyean provides a loving tribute to her sister and father while giving the reader a practical guide to getting the best possible care for their seriously ill loved one. There are six key adjectives I can use to describe why I like this book: Concise, Human, Realistic, Technical, Authentic, and Achievable. Badass Advocate is concise, packing a great deal of information into a small number of pages. Anyone facing advocacy for a sick loved one can easily read this book in 3-4 hours. Each strategy is summarized with key points at the end of each chapter, providing the reader a quick reference. Badass Advocate consistently makes the point that all parties involved in a critically-ill patient's care are human. The patient, the care team, and the medical staff are not superheroes nor perfect beings. All involved need to ask for help, practice self-care, and engage in mutual respect and empathy. Laughter and affection are as important as medicine. Badass Advocate is realistic and points out many difficult truths of modern medicine. It is not always an exact science and no one doctor knows everything. Respectful persistence and second opinions are key to getting the best care for your sick friend or relative. Badass Advocate is technical and provides many good references to available applications, websites, and social media groups to assist with the organization of care. This is so important for caregivers who may not have the prior exposure to technology nor be aware of these key resources to ease the tasks involved. Badass Advocate is incredibly authentic. Throughout the book, the author offers personal memories and anecdotes of her experiences with her family's illnesses and her own journey of advocacy. These memoirs add a great deal of credibility and legitimacy to the recommended strategies. Badass Advocate is achievable. I came away from reading Badass Advocate with the thought that I could "do this" if I was ever in a similar situation with a sick family member. While it would be incredibly difficult, this book would make the job much more doable.
Perfect playbook to help navigate and advocate for my parent's health
This book has such great practical information to help family members support loved ones who are terminally ill or in my case, have ongoing medical issues. As I navigate caring for my ageing parents, all while in another state, I found the information, key conversations and questions incredibly helpful. Before reading this, I was unable to articulate and ask the right questions. I am so glad to have this resource as I continue to navigate the health system for my family. I was touched by the author's story and appreciated her vulnerability and practicality that she provided. I enjoyed it so much, I'll be sending it to other members of my family so we're all on the same page as we navigate tough situations.
