Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things. Peter Drucker
The road to Spokane moves on with our second and final survey, this one is for employers. Last week we started to gather data from working family caregivers in conjunction with my good friend, Denise Brown from Caregiving.com. Denise and I are teaming up again to gather data from organizations who have family caregivers as an employee.
I wrote about my experience as a working family caregiver extensively in Chapter 5 of my book, “What’s The Deal With Caregiving?” and understand the difficulties from both the employee and employer side of the issue. During my family caregiving experience, I was fortunate to work for Mark Ketcham at SunServe Social Services who understood the special needs of being a family caregiver. Not every working family caregiver is that fortunate.
If you are an employer at any level in your organization, I encourage you to take this survey. The survey is 100% anonymous and will probably will take no more than 10 minutes to complete. We will share the results of the survey once my thesis is completed in May.
Here is the link to the Employer Family Caregiver Survey https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CNKRKND
Chris MacLellan is an MA candidate at Gonzaga University studying Leadership and Communication and is the author of “What’s The Deal with Caregiving?” and the host of “Healing Ties” radio program.
While I do not attempt to psychoanalyze these dreams, it has made me stop and think about my role as a family caregiver and my life after caregiving has ended. I know in my heart and my mind that I did all I could for Richard and no matter what I think I could have done differently, nothing was going to change Richard’s destiny as the cancer had spread throughout his body. However, the knowledge of knowing and accepting that I did all I could for him, does not change the fact of how much I miss him.
I was attracted to Gonzaga’s Leadership and Communication program because of my desire to be involved in media. I had started The Purple Jacket the year before I started the program at Gonzaga and was about to start my first radio program, “Be A Healthy Caregiver” on Blog Talk Radio. I ended up with 57 different shows on “Be A Healthy Caregiver” and like, The Purple Jacket, I was happy to share our story through different forms of media. “Be A Healthy Caregiver” went off the air in the fall of 2013 when Richard’s cancer came back with vengeance, however, I continued to blog on “The Purple Jacket” which will always be our home! Heck, along the way The Purple Jacket helped coin Richard’s nick name, “TLO: The Little One!” Amazing, now approaching 2 years since
Richard made is life transition, I still get asked about “TLO.” It reminds me of something that I have learned during our course study from media/communication scholar, the late Marshall McLuhan, “the medium is in the message.”
the road. While on the move to acceptance, there will be days when the roads will be smooth and the sky so blue that you feel you’re just a stones throw away from completing your move to acceptance. Those days will be quite beautiful! Then there will be days when those darn red lights appear at an intersection which just stops you in your tracks! That red light just seems linger on and on which makes you want to beat on your steering wheel and scream to the top of your voice so that you can continue on your route. (Those are the days during this move when screaming is Okay!) When you get a red light that just seems to linger, this is a good time to take a break from your move before you run out of gas, because when you run out of gas, you never get to move to acceptance.
Some of these “riders” might be on their own move to acceptance, some might have already arrived at acceptance. There will be a “rider” or two who will jump in the car with you who you haven’t seen in a while, yet even after many years have gone by, you pick up just where you left off with these “riders” and your friendship is in full sail again. Heck, you might even pick up a friendly “hitchhiker” along they way, someone you do not know, who pops into your life when you least expect it, who has experienced their own move to acceptance and would like to share their route with you. All these “riders” have their own place in the vehicle and tend to stay just long enough to ensure you stay on the correct route in order for you to move to acceptance.
to acceptance. Cherish the scenic view! As you get closer to your destination, the scenic views will be like a picture book that sits on your coffee table, however, this book will be forever yours, always entrenched in your memory, always with you on your move to acceptance.
Chris’ Book, “What’s The Deal With Caregiving” is available on Amazon by clicking 
What’s new and what is on the horizon? My new website “The Bow Tie Guy.com” will be live later this week. The new website will host all of my Healing Ties Radio programs as well as my new venture “The Whole Care Network.” When the site goes live this week, I will be sure to let you know. My first book, “What’s The Deal With Caregiving” was published in late October and I am happy to give away 5 copies of my book during the Progressive Blog Party! In January, I embark on a thesis project to complete my Masters degree in Leadership and Communication at Gonzaga University. I’m sure you will be hearing more about this project after the first of the year!
Wishing you a wonderful Progressiveness Holiday blog party and a wonderful Holiday season!
on 
The Purple Jacket 