“We hear a lot – he doesn’t look like he has autism.” 

In this episode of Coffee with Caregivers, Jess sits down with her friend Sarah Broady, a wife and mom to three boys including Sam who has autism. They chat (and laugh a lot!) about how they each crave community, how people often misunderstand her son Sam because he is high functioning, and how people can better accommodate caregivers like herself. Sarah is also a writer, advocate, speaker, and podcast host of A Special Hope. Her greatest passion is encouraging weary hearts. You can find her at www.hopeinautism.com.

“People need to understand the pain and the suffering before we’ll see change.” 

In this episode of Coffee with Caregivers, Jess chats with Vance and Kristy Goforth in an extremely vulnerable and honest conversation about life as a caregiver to Joshua, their son with profound special needs.  They discuss the details from Joshua’s aggressive behavior to their mental health struggles as his caregivers and Vance’s eventual health problems which were stress induced. They also discuss why we need to desperately raise awareness for caregivers in order to gain the resources that are needed.  To learn more about the Goforths, please follow them at Facebook/A Voice for Joshua Instagram/ A Voice for Joshua  

#severeautism #caregiver #coffeewithcaregivers #autism

 “Don’t be afraid of THAT kid…Their needs are actually pretty simple.” 

In this episode of Coffee with Caregivers, Jess sits down with Ryan, her husband and Lucas’s adopted dad. They talk about how Ryan felt the first time he met Lucas, his past, present, and future worries about caring for him and what stresses him out and how he tries to relieve that stress. In addition to caring for Lucas, Ryan is dad to 7 other children and enjoys flipping houses and fishing.

"The average person really has no idea how to help caregivers.” Lindsay Spitler 

In this debut episode of Coffee with Caregivers, Jess sits down with one of her oldest and dearest friends Lindsay Spitler to discuss life as a caregiver to her 16 year old son Lucas who has profound special needs. In addition to caring for the Lucas, Jess has 7 other children, is married to her husband Ryan, is a published author, speaker, founder of the non-profit The Lucas Project and now podcast host. During this episode, Jess and Lindsay talk about the details of Lucas’s needs, what a daily routine looks like for him, and some common misconceptions that others may have about her life as a caregiver.  They also dive into one of Jess’s favorite subjects – self-care and how she manages to prioritize pockets of time for herself in the midst of the chaos.  Jess can be found at www.jessplusthemess.com.