Endorsements
Valerie is a visionary and inspirational leader who has spent decades leading a high-performing team to effect change in the mental health system. Her data-driven approach and unwavering advocacy have provided valuable insights into how to better serve those living with mental illness, substance use disorders, and intellectual disabilities, leading to improved outcomes. This book is the culmination of lessons learned over decades of servant leadership and provides unique insights into the field of mental health.
It is a privilege and an honor to endorse this book. I was blessed to work with Valerie Melroy as a consultant in the agency she co-founded, Voice and Vision. The experience was short but powerful and transforming as it moved me closer to my purpose. The book is impactful and reflects her strong commitment to serve one another humbly in love (Galatians 5:13a NIV), particularly those in need of healing of the mind, body, and spirit.
It is a way of life for Valerie. We can learn from her as she sets a great example of how to help others with compassion and encouragement, treat people with respect, dignity and honor, and gives others individual attention and listens well. Valerie operates in the gifts of discernment, healing, wisdom, and faith. She has chosen the way of faithfulness (Psalm 119: 30) in serving God and man.
I have known Valerie for more than four decades and have always appreciated her keen sense of the loving heart of our Father God. Her sensitivity to the people she has encountered over her 50 years of experience has taught her valuable lessons that she shares in this wonderful book.
The compassion that God put in her DNA and the understanding from her relationship with the Holy Spirit have led her into strategies for helping people with mental health challenges, those with addictions, and disabilities, and the family members who love them.
Because of her strategic skills, we have welcomed her onto our Board of Directors, and she has become a great asset to us. I trust that you will also be blessed by the lessons and strategies she shares in this book and that, as you encounter similar situations, you will know how to help those you meet.
Seen, heard, and known. These three words perfectly describe how one feels after encountering Valerie Melroy.
Valerie is not only an advocate, minister, and friend, she is also a mother; my mother, and a grandmother to 17 grandchildren. I’ve had the privilege of working alongside her in the mental health field, and of traveling with her to just a few of the many countries she has visited throughout her decades of service.
My mother lives, breathes, and dreams of helping people reach their fullest potential through the transforming love of Christ. Whether the need is mental, emotional, physical, or spiritual, she carries the 5 ability to make others feel seen, heard, and known. From mental health hospitals to churches, villages to cities, boardrooms to marketplaces; wherever Valerie has gone, she has left people with renewed hope and restored dignity. I have witnessed her sit on dirt floors and hospital beds, holding hands, listening deeply, and praying with compassion. I have watched burdens lift from the heavyladen as she ministered directly to the hearts of those who sought her counsel. I have listened to her passionate speeches advocating for the voiceless, the unseen, and the unknown, transforming how others approach treatment and care. People may come to her feeling worthless, but they leave knowing they are priceless.
To hold even a piece of her story, and those she served, is a gift. To learn from her wisdom, gleaned through 50 years of faithful service, is a privilege. May the words in these pages challenge and inspire us all to remember that the work is not finished, and that each of us has the power to make others feel seen, heard, and known.