Latest / Podcasts By Donna Jodhan / Remarkable World Commentary Episode #99: Ask Advocate Donna

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Remarkable World Commentary Episode #99: Ask Advocate Donna · Podcasts By Donna Jodhan

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  Podcast Commentator: Greetings, Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP and MBA invites you to listen to
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  her biweekly podcast, Remarkable World Commentary.
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  Here, Donna shares some of her innermost thoughts,
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  insights, perspectives, and more with her listeners.
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  Donna focuses on topics that directly affect the future of kids,
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  especially kids with disabilities.
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  Donna is a blind advocate, author, sight loss coach,
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  dinner mystery producer, writer, entrepreneur,
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  law graduate, and podcast commentator.
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  She has decades of lived experiences, knowledge,
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  skills, and expertise in access, technology and information.
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  As someone who has been internationally recognized for her work and roles.
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  She just wants to make things better than possible.
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  Donna Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Greetings everybody. And I am Donna J.
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  Johnson, your host for the Remarkable World Commentary Podcast.
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  This is my second episode for July and it is all about ask Advocate Donna.
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  I continue to receive a lot of requests from people asking me different questions and
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  submitting stories to me, and I want to thank everybody for this.
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  So what is Ask Advocate Donna all about?
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  It is all about really trying to have you get into the mindset of advocacy and giving you
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  examples as to what or how you should react based on a certain situation.
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  The situation is submitted to me by listeners,
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  or sometimes I choose one of my advocacy stories out of my huge memory bank.
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  Okay, so let me start with my favorite quotation.
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  Speak in such a way that others love to listen to you.
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  Listen in such a way that others love to to speak to you.
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  Okay. Listen in such a way that others love to speak to you.
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  Okay, we're going to kick things off with a word game.
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  I like this word game.
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  And I developed this word game to really get people to start thinking about advocacy and
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  using words to help people do so.
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  So here we go. Passion or compassion.
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  When we find ourselves delving into any sort of advocacy adventure,
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  there are two things that really raise their head,
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  and they represent what we might want to think about passion or compassion.
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  When we show passion, it means that we are really animated about
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  something and that we really want to take action.
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  This is what passion is all about passion, passion,
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  taking action, understanding and helping others.
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  It is a passion for us to galvanize ourselves into action.
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  Compassion is when it is more of a docile type of of way of looking at things.
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  Compassion is when we have an understanding, when we have sympathy,
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  when we have empathy. So the difference between passion and compassion,
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  I think passion is when you take action.
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  Compassion is silent agreement or silent understanding.
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  Passion versus compassion.
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  Okay. Care or concern is the next pair of words that I'm going to talk about.
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  Care is when, again, you really care about what's going on,
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  and it may galvanize you into taking action.
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  This is what caring is all about.
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  Concern may be a lesser degree of caring.
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  You're concerned about something, but are you really going to do something
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  about it? Care may be more proactive.
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  Concern may be reactive, but that's just my opinion.
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  I'd like to hear from you.
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  Please write to me at Donna Jordan.
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  Donnajodhan@gmail.com.
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  Okay, so let's delve into our stories now.
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  They were submitted to me by listeners, and I want to hear from you after we talk
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  about these stories. First story is that of a waiter who refused to
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  serve a customer with a dog.
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  Mike had gone to his neighborhood restaurant for the very first time.
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  It was a new restaurant.
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  He entered the restaurant and was seated in a very small booth.
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  He tucked his dog under the seat and waited for a few minutes.
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  Finally. A waiter came by, and on seeing Mike s dog,
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  he told Mike that he would not be serving him.
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  What would you advise Mike to do when Mike say,
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  just say, okay. Thank you very much.
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  Get up and leave. Would Mike become angry, upset and seek action from
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  not just the waiter, but the manager?
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  There are two very specific alternatives here.
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  Either Mike would get up and leave upset, disappointed and sad and nothing would be
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  done. He would just get up and leave, take what the waiter had said to him,
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  or would he push forward and seek audience with the manager.
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  What would you do? What would you advise Mike to do?
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  Okay. Advocacy is when Mike would decide to seek the attention of the manager
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  and explain what has just happened.
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  This is what advocacy is all about and who gets involved in advocacy.
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  Mike starts the ball rolling with getting involved with advocacy by approaching the
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  manager and by having a reasonable chat with the manager.
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  And why is it necessary?
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  Because Mike has his his rights have been infringed upon.
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  He's been told he's not going to be served because he has a dog.
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  That's why it is necessary.
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  And how does Mike get involved in advocacy?
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  Mike approaches the manager.
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  First of all, and it depends on, you know, what the reaction is from the
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  manager. He would then choose to draw others into it,
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  other like minded friends and family members,
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  and when to get involved in advocacy.
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  Well, when something directly affects you, that's when you get involved in advocacy.
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  All right, let's go to story two.
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  All right. So what do we have here?
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  A boy in a wheelchair was not given any snacks when he attended a birthday party.
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  Very sad, but very true.
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  David had gone to a kid's party.
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  A birthday party with his friends.
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  Everyone was being served with snacks except.
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  Except for David. And when David's sister noticed what was happening,
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  she asked, why was her brother not being served with snacks?
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  She asked 2 or 3 people or 2 or 3 servers.
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  Why was this taking place?
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  And no one would answer.
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  What would you advise David and his sister to do?
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  Again, you could take the easy way out.
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  David and his sister would simply leave the party and go home.
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  Or you can choose to stand up David's sister to stand up for her brother David,
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  to stand up for his own self, right?
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  Again, it is no shrinking into the the vines and just leaving or standing up and making
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  a point of what is going on.
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  David is not being served snacks, and his sister notices and draws the
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  attention of 2 or 3 of the servers.
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  But nobody says anything.
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  So she's wandering or she might want to wander.
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  Is it because David is in a wheelchair?
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  I would say it is because why is it everyone else is being served except David?
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  What is advocacy here?
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  Advocacy is all about David and his sister.
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  Under these circumstances, David not being served.
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  And he wants to know why.
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  Okay, this is what advocacy is all about and who gets involved.
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  While David and his sister start the ball rolling.
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  And they could then extend it to those around them and to their parents.
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  Okay. Why is it necessary?
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  Because something very wrong is taking place.
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  David is not being served any snacks.
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  He's the only one who is not being served any snacks.
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  And why is this? We want to find out.
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  How do you get involved in advocacy?
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  Again, it's by, you know, enlisting the help of those around you and
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  your parents in this case.
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  Okay. So this is how one gets involved in advocacy.
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  It all starts with the person who is experiencing a problem or what's going on.
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  When do you do it? When it directly affects you.
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  This directly affects David and his sister, who notices.
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  The advice that I would give is that David and his sister should start speaking up,
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  or at least ask the question, Why is David not being served?
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  Any snacks and silence from the service is not an answer.
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  So we gotta dig deeper here.
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  Let's go to the third story and here we go.
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  Okay. A caregiver refuses to serve a person who
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  is vision impaired. Yes, indeed.
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  Caregivers do have their whims and fancies, don't they?
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  Bonnie was a patient in a long term care home.
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  Not only was she vision impaired, but she had a mental disability.
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  And on this day, the care.
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  Bonnie's daughter noticed that the caregiver had refused to serve her mom.
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  When the daughter asked the caregiver for an explanation,
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  the caregiver simply turned and walked away.
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  She did not respond to, you know the question.
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  So what's going on here?
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  Bonnie's a patient. Bonnie is entitled to be served like every other patient.
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  The daughter notices that Bonnie is not being served.
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  She asks the question.
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  The caregiver turns and walks away.
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  Just like that. Okay, so what's going on?
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  What would you advise the daughter to do?
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  Your mum is not being served.
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  You ask the question, why is mum not being served her meal?
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  And the caregiver has the unmitigated nerve to simply turn and walk away.
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  So advocacy is all about advocating for your mum to receive
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  care, to receive service, that being her meal to be served to her by
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  the caregiver who gets involved in advocacy.
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  Well, it's going to be Bonnie's daughter because Bonnie can't really advocate
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  independently on her own, so the daughter has to pick up the ball and
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  start rolling with it.
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  Okay. Why is it necessary?
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  Because Bonnie's Bonnie is not being served, and the daughter knows this is it.
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  We want to know why. Okay.
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  How do you get involved in advocacy?
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  Well, first of all, Bonnie's daughter asked the question.
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  Why is my mom not being served?
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  She gets no answer from the caregiver.
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  So what is her next step?
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  Her next step is to go to the administrator of the long term care home.
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  This is not acceptable.
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  And we want an answer.
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  Why is Bonnie's? Why is Bonnie not being served her meals?
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  Bonnie cannot advocate on her own because she has a bit of a mental disability.
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  She's also vision impaired.
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  But if she were only vision impaired on her own and able to stand up for herself,
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  this is where it would start and the daughter would fall in behind her.
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  But in this case, it is the daughter who has to pick up the mantle and start advocating
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  for her mum. Okay. When do you get involved in advocacy?
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  At a time like this, there's no other way.
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  This is it for me. For this month.
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  The month of July. I want to thank you for dropping by to listen to me.
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  Keep your stories coming to me, and write to me at Donna jordan@gmail.com.
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  That's Donna jonathan@gmail.com.
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  Take care now. Have a good rest of the month and see you in August.
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  Bye for now.
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  Podcast Commentator: Donna wants to hear from you and invites you to write to her at donnajodhan@gmail.com.
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  Until next time.