MADDvocate - Summer 2009 - (Page 4)

in the know Get MADD’s Latest News—FREE! We want MADDvocate readers to receive our regular online updates, including our MADD Monthly newsletter, legislative alerts, advocacy and fundraising communication, plus news and information about victim services, drunk driving and underage drinking prevention. If you haven’t already sent us your e-mail address, take a minute to be sure we have it. Go to www.madd.org and scroll down to “MADD Membership” in the middle of the page. Membership is free, so register by clicking “Subscribe” and entering your name, e-mail address and ZIP code. Then, watch your inbox for important communications! BOOK REVIEW Over My Head: A Doctor’s Own Story of Head Injury from the Inside Looking Out By Claudia L. Osborn Volunteer! We Need Your Help! While victims/survivors are the heart and soul of MADD, volunteers are the “little engines that could.” Their compassion and determination drive MADD. And now, we’d like to invite you to help us eliminate drunk driving! Whatever your interests, expertise and time availability, MADD has a wide variety of volunteer opportunities: Lend a shoulder. Become a trained victim advocate to provide emotional support, community referrals and guidance through the criminal justice system to drunk driving victims/survivors. Roll up your sleeves. Support MADD’s grassroots efforts by working to strengthen existing laws and enact new ones, distribute MADD ribbons and promote tying one onto your vehicle, help law enforcement agencies at checkpoints and roll call briefings, and handle administrative tasks such as answering phones, filing, copying or typing. Be a role model. Teach youth the dangers of underage drinking and encourage positive behavior. Help victims spread the message. Coordinate a victim impact panel. Assign victim speakers and register drunk driving offenders. Raise funds. Get involved with Walk Like MADD, our fun and family-friendly 5K to help raise awareness and funds for MADD. Visit the courts. Help ensure that drunk driving offenders are punished to the fullest extent of the law by monitoring court cases and reporting outcomes to the community and media. By building our capacity and strengthening our volunteer base, MADD can truly save lives and help serve more victims/survivors in need. To learn more, visit www.madd.org/volunteer.aspx. Claudia Osborn invites us to step beside her, take her arm and travel with her along her personal journey with a brain injury— a journey the reader will find well worth taking. Embarking on this journey in Over My Head, we inevitably reflect inward, imagining how our own life would change if we or a loved one ever had to endure a similar traumatic injury. Using her journals and the amazing memories from her family, closest friends and newly found support systems, we step into Dr. Osborn’s daily routine as a trauma doctor, teaching resident physicians the true art of patient care in a hospital setting. Shortly after we are introduced to her, Dr. Osborn experiences a violent crash as she is struck by a reckless driver while riding her bicycle. We travel with her through the devastating impact of that crash as she is transformed from caregiver to the patient in need of expert care for days, weeks and years afterward. Together, Dr. Osborn and the reader explore the depths of grief that accompany injury and the inescapable reality that life will never be the same as it was. As we attend sessions at the rehabilitation clinic, we witness the debilitating impact of the word “permanent,” as Dr. Osborn absorbs the concept that her life is forever changed. We also witness triumph as Dr. Osborn establishes her new self in a life so very different from the one she once led. Book reviewed by John Evans, MADD National Victim Services Training Manager 4 ■ MADDvocate | summer 2009 http://www.madd.org http://www.madd.org/volunteer.aspx

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of MADDvocate - Summer 2009

MADDvocate - Summer 2009
Contents
In the Know
Court Reporting
Bonded by Love, Forever Apart
Searching for Greener Grass?
Painful Reminder
Legally Speaking
Healing Journey

MADDvocate - Summer 2009

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