Patient Advocacy
Prayer For the Sick and Dying
FOSTERING A PATIENT’S HAPPINESS AND SENSE
OF DIGNITY THROUGH PRAYER
by Julie Grimstad
June 10, 2026
Learn to savor how good the Lord is;
happy are those who take refuge in him.
~ Psalm 34:9
Many years ago, through the prompting of the Holy Spirit, I realized that the elderly and sick people I visited in their own homes, nursing homes, and hospitals needed prayer as much as they needed the air they breathed.
Some of these people were deeply unhappy. Praying with them was good medicine which often had a miraculous cheering-up effect. Read more…
Informed
NEW IN 2026! This 16-page magazine is designed to help patients, families, and their advocates prepare for difficult and complex medical decisions. INFORMED is a joint offering from Human Life Alliance and the Healthcare Advocacy and Leadership Organization.
Donations gratefully accepted!
Some Of The Topics Our Patient Advocates
Respond To Most Often Are:
What should I know about the drugs used by hospices?
How can I find a pro-life hospice?
The hospital is threatening to stop my loved one’s treatment, including
tube-feeding. What can I do?
What type of advance directive do you recommend?
Should I have a do not resuscitate (DNR) order on file?
What can you tell me about ventilators and “pulling the plug”?
How should I handle healthcare threats that my loved one is experiencing?
I think my mom (dad, friend, …) died from drug overdosing in hospice.
Am I crazy?
Elizabeth Graham
EUTHANASIA –
THIS HAPPENS TO REAL PEOPLE
Elizabeth served 25 years in the life advocacy movement filling numerous roles, including media spokeswoman and patient advocate. She aided countless families whose ailing loved ones faced difficult medical ethics decisions and the “medical futility” process at Texas hospitals. Born and raised in Kansas City, Elizabeth graduated from Rockhurst University there. She resides in Houston where she moved in 1994 to pursue graduate studies at the University of St. Thomas.
Patient Advocacy Seminar
As a relative, friend or volunteer, have you ever been called upon to support/advocate for a person in a healthcare setting? This patient advocacy video with HALO President, Julie Grimstad, will answer the most common questions when assisting those who are medically vulnerable. Watch the Video.
The Importance
of Patient Advocates
NEW – In this short video Alexandra Snyder from Life Legal Defense Foundation discusses the importance of patient advocates, especially during the unprecedented COVID crisis and also outlines the need for an advance health care directive. Watch the Video.
INTRODUCING A CRITICAL TOOL TO HELP YOU NAVIGATE THE HEALTHCARE SYSTEM – KEEP IT HANDY!
June 28, 2022
Julie Grimstad
HALO advises everyone to either print this document or order it from HALO (email feedback@halovoice.org with your request). Put this document in a safe place, perhaps with your Medical Power of Attorney document, so that it is handy when needed – as it may be needed quite unexpectedly sooner or later.
*Health Care Civil Rights Task Force Members
- Michael A. Vacca, J.D., Task Force Chairman, The Christ Medicus Foundation
- Father James Bromwich, R.N., M.A., S.T.L.
- Julie Grimstad, Healthcare Advocacy and Leadership Organization (HALO)
- Terry McKeegan, J.D., Law Office of Terrence McKeegan
- Joseph Meaney, Ph.D., The National Catholic Bioethics Center
- Anne O’Meara, Healthcare Advocacy and Leadership Organization (HALO)
- Alexandra Snyder, J.D., Life Legal Defense Foundation
- Bobby Schindler, The Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network
- Deb O’Hara-Rusckowski, R.N., M.B.A., M.T.S.
- Louis Brown, J.D.,The Christ Medicus Foundation.
December 2020
Julie Grimstad
Each member of HALO has a story to tell. This is my story.
I graduated from nursing school in 1969. As far as I knew, there was universal respect for the sanctity and equality of human life. Patients could refuse burdensome treatment and we respected their wishes, but one thing we did not do was deliberately cause a patient’s death.
In the summer of 1985, a friend called and asked, “Julie, what do you know about Living Wills?” She informed me that Living Wills—the first healthcare advance directives—were introduced by the Euthanasia Educational Council as “a foot in the door” for social and legal acceptance of euthanasia. In fact, Montana, where I was living at the time, had just enacted a Living Will law that permitted patients to be starved and dehydrated to death! Read more…
by Julie Grimstad
A patient may need someone he trusts by the bedside in order to feel secure enough to go to sleep.
Visiting the sick is a work of mercy. Mercy is similar to compassion, which means “to suffer with” another, but it is more challenging than mere compassion. Mercy is putting our kindly inclinations—which we are often tempted to resist—into practice through readiness to assist. A relative or volunteer advocate who accompanies a medically vulnerable person to doctor appointments or stays with the person when hospitalized or in a nursing home contributes immeasurably to the person’s well-being. Read more…A BABY’S LIFE SAVED IN COURT
Posted in February 2025
In October 2020, the Healthcare Advocacy and Leadership Organization (HALO) was one of a diverse group of organizations and individuals who submitted an amicus brief (friend of the court brief) to the Supreme Court of Texas on behalf of Tinslee Lewis. Tinslee was then almost two years old. She had clung to life despite an unfavorable prognosis from Cook Children’s Medical Center (Fort Worth) that Tinslee would not live beyond six months of age. (For more details of the fight for Tinslee Lewis’s life read How Tinslee’s Story Helped Change Texas’s 10-Day Rule – Texas Public Policy Foundation).
Protect TX Fragile Kids and HALO each paid half of the attorney fee for preparation of this amicus brief. Our generous donors made it possible for HALO to be instrumental in saving this baby’s precious life. It is very difficult for us “little guys” to win a case when our opponent is a powerful hospital with vast resources. We are grateful that Tinslee’s mother refused to give up and that the Supreme Court of Texas decided rightly in favor of life!
Tinslee is now 5 years old and thriving in her mother’s care.
To read the brief our diverse group submitted in the case of Cook Children’s Medical Center v. T.L., A Minor, and Mother T.L., On Her Behalf, click here.
Patient Toolbox
Citizen’s Council for Health Freedom (CCHF) provides a “Patient Toolbox.” Use it to protect your rights, understand your options, and maintain control over your treatment decisions. Click here.