Parenting Impossible – The Special Needs Survival Podcast

In this episode, Host Annette Hines welcomes Erin Prosser and her daughter, Lucy's (Lulu) neurologist, Dr. Christina Bergqvist of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia to share their story of working together to care for Lulu and treat her neuro-developmental disease, STXBP1 encephalopathy. This is a great example of how a family member and caregiver can work successfully with a medical provider.

If you're interested in the topic of rare disease, check out our older episodes like "When You're the Patient and the Parent" or "Dig Deep: Finding Hope in Special Needs Parenting with Kelly Speck."

To learn more about STXBP1 and the Prosser family, check out their site here.

Have you been searching for a law firm that understands the unique challenges of your family? We can help you at Special Needs Law Group put legal planning in place to protect you and your loved ones now and in the future. Book a free call today with our team or contact us via our website: specialneeds-law.com/contact.

In this episode, Host Annette Hines shares more about her goals for 2023. This year she is taking a sabbatical, not from work, but from all her external commitments. She notes that the term "sabbatical" means taking a break, which most often is associated with a leave from work. However, as Special Needs Companies, which includes her law and trustee practices, requires her to continue working, she is taking a sabbatical from any outside commitments of her time, talents, and treasures. Guiding listeners through her personal exploration of her motivations to always say 'yes,' Hines describes fear, social engagements, and identity as factors that influence her need to be constantly involved and over-committed, which will sound very familiar to listeners.

By the end of 2023, Hines hopes to be able to identify the things that truly bring her joy. Once she's able to identify those areas where she is particularly passionate, she will have a much clearer sense of which external commitments to add back into her life in a mindful way. Her hope for listeners is that you write down your own goals for 2023 and let her know what they are! Leave a comment on our page: https://specialneedscompanies.com/podcasts

Have you been searching for a law firm that understands the unique challenges of your family? We can help you at Special Needs Law Group put legal planning in place to protect you and your loved ones now and in the future. Book a free call today with our team or contact us via our website: specialneeds-law.com/contact.

What do you want to accomplish this year? Where do you want to be a year from now? For many of us, as soon as we say: "Happy New Year!" we feel the pressure to set resolutions for this year related to our health, personal or professional life. But simply saying: "I want to lose weight this year," notes Host Annette Hines, sets us up for failure because we have not created a specific, attainable objectives to make this desire a reality. In this episode, Hines guides listeners through the process of setting and achieving SMART goals. The acronym SMART stands for: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, timely. If your goal has all five of these elements, then your ability to achieve the goal dramatically increases. Listeners will be able to relate to Hines' personal journey of learning how to find the goals that really resonate personally when struggling with the day-to-day life routines that can make visioning for the future challenging. She shares strategies to ensure that you will be able to predict progress, prioritize efforts, and attain what is realistic for you. So, what are you waiting for? Grab a notebook as you listen to write some notes about the types of specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely goals you will achieve in 2023.

One of Hines' goals that she has been making a reality is her Special Needs Academy, which is a combination of online courses and coaching programs. Her signature program, Special Needs Advocacy and Planning (SNAP) offers a group coaching program that starts on January 18! Check it out online: enroll.specialneedsfamilyservices.com

Have you been searching for a law firm that understands the unique challenges of your family? We can help you at Special Needs Law Group put legal planning in place to protect you and your loved ones now and in the future. Book a free call today with our team or contact us via our website: specialneeds-law.com/contact.

Our annual podcast episode on Preparing for Your Best Year Yet features the planning duo of Special Needs Law Group of Massachusetts, P.C.: Host Annette Hines and her husband and law partner, Mark Worthington.

Do you have an estate plan or do you still need to create one? How long has it been since you've reviewed it? Annette and Mark provide an essential guide in this episode for reviewing your estate plan to prepare for your best year. They invite listeners to consider three things:

1. What's changed about your assets or your stuff? What's your financial picture look like?
2. How are you and the people named in your plan doing?
3. Have there been changes in the law?

Because Annette is an attorney, planning is an essential part of her job, which often is a focus of her episodes. In an earlier episode from this year, Special Needs Awareness Month: Estate Planning, she explains what an estate plan is and why it is so essential for special needs families. Special needs estate planning is for anyone wanting to ensure that their disabled person will be safe and provided for no matter what happens in the future.

Let us know what you think of this episode! Please leave a review or a comment on our website: https://specialneedscompanies.com/podcasts

Have you been searching for a law firm that understands the unique challenges of your family? We can help you at Special Needs Law Group put legal planning in place to protect you and your loved ones now and in the future. Book a free call today with our team or contact us via our website: specialneeds-law.com/contact.

Ever wondered how to give back to a charity or organization that has truly made a meaningful impact on your family? Host Annette Hines shines a spotlight on one of her beloved organizations, Perkins School for the Blind, where her daughter, Elizabeth attended school, to show how easy it is to make planned gifts. Charitable giving is one of the most frequent discussions Annette has with her clients in planning their estate. Planned giving is accessible to almost everyone, and it is a meaningful way to make an impact at your favorite organization. Two guests join Hines for this discussion on charitable giving. Jennifer Volpe works with donors on planned giving to Perkins, and she shares the perspective of what planned giving looks like from the organization. Brooke Carter Sukhavasi serves at Colby College as the Senior Associate Director of Gift Planning and is working with Perkins on planned giving through her consulting organization, B&P Consulting LLC, also joins the discussion. Annette encourages you to review your year, learn about what went well and didn't go well, and celebrate wins and move forward with a plan for 2023.

Let us know what you think of this episode and what questions you have about planned giving on our website: specialneedscompanies.com/podcast Also, we would love it if you would leave us a review. It really helps us increase our podcast's visiblity and ability to share great content for the disability community.

Have you been searching for a law firm that understands the unique challenges of your family? We can help you at Special Needs Law Group put legal planning in place to protect you and your loved ones now and in the future. Book a free call today with our team or contact us via our website: specialneeds-law.com/contact.

Host Annette Hines and her guest, David Goldfarb who is the Director of Policy at the Arc of the United States discuss policy and advocacy issues related to housing and institutional bias in the disability community. Despite the landmark Olmstead decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1999 that found that people with disabilities were being segregated into institutional facilities and should be supported in community living situations, these services are not mandatory under Medicaid. Therefore, most people with disabilities are only able to secure funding for housing in institutions. Hines shares startling statistics from a report released by the National Council on Disability that 14 million Americans need community-based services, and nearly 40% of those people are under age 65. As a result of this, people under the age of 30 account for the fastest growing group of nursing home residents. She refers to lack of financial investment for home and community-based services "institutional bias," which prevents people from living their best lives and neglects their choices and freedoms in their home life. Without the financial support that enables access to affordable housing, quality direct support workers, and community support programs, people with disabilities are forced to choose between living at home or living in an institutional setting. Let your representatives know that community-based services should be mandatory under Medicaid. Learn more on The Arc of the U.S.'s website: https://thearc.org/

What policy issues would you like to hear about in our podcast? What are your thoughts about afforable, safe, and supportive housing for people with disabilities? Leave us a comment on our website: https://specialneedscompanies.com/podcasts

Have you been searching for a law firm that understands the unique challenges of your family? We can help you at Special Needs Law Group put legal planning in place to protect you and your loved ones now and in the future. Book a free call today with our team or contact us via our website: specialneeds-law.com/contact.

The third in a series featuring unique and innovative solutions for the disability community, this episode features the Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Sponsors of the Future (SoF), Suzy Im. The goals of SoF are to design easier ways for parents and caregivers to access information and advocate for their loved ones, as well as connect neurodivergent kids with global organizations to empower them and ensure that we consider a person's whole being. Host Annette Hines notes that SoF's concept of connectivity, an ecosystem that supports the neurodivergent community through education, advocacy, and inclusion, is like grassroots organizing by networking and navigating complexities together. They also discussed finding hidden gems of local support and necessary corporate responsibility of organizations in industries like healthcare and pharmaceuticals to create solutions in partnership with the people they serve. You can learn more about or donate to SoF's mission on their website: www.sponsorsofthefuture.org/mission

We need your feedback and reviews to continue to produce and promote the innovations of agencies like Sponsors of the Future! Please rate and review this episode as well as share it in your community. Or leave a comment on our website: specialneedscompanies.com/podcasts

Have you been searching for a law firm that understands the unique challenges of your family? We can help you at Special Needs Law Group put legal planning in place to protect you and your loved ones now and in the future. Book a free call today with our team or contact us via our website: specialneeds-law.com/contact.

Working at the intersection of artificial intelligence, ed tech, and dyslexia, Guest Hugo Richard of Dystech in Australia is driven to solve complex problems in our society. His goal is to create more awareness about how computer intelligence and artificial intelligence could enable the creation of reliable tools that will positively impact children worldwide and drastically improve and change how we do education. Learn with Host Annette Hines about how Richard and his team at Dystech are developing technology to empower educators to easily screen for dyslexia and assess reading performance. These innovations dramatically cut the time and cost for conducting reliable assessments for learning disabilities, which holds so much promise for our disabled student community. Learn more about their developments on the Dystech website: https://dystech.com.au

We would love to hear what you think of this episode. Leave a comment on our website: https://specialneedscompanies.com/podcasts/

Have you been searching for a law firm that understands the unique challenges of your family? We can help you at Special Needs Law Group put legal planning in place to protect you and your loved ones now and in the future. Book a free call today with our team or contact us via our website: specialneeds-law.com/contact.

Host Annette Hines opens the podcast reflecting on the many ways that technology can improve the livelihood of people with disabilities through the creation of assistive tools. Her guest, Ange Anderson M.Ed discusses the benefits of technological interventions to support students with learning differences that she has employed in the UK. She asked the question, how can we use the technology neurodivergent students enjoy and are comfortable with to gain control and make life easier for teachers, staff, and students? Computer programs are logical, predictable, and can provide a reliable outcome, unlike real life situations. VR (virtual reality) activates the motor cortex in our sensory system in a way that is similar to real life situations and gives students the feeling of being in a virtual environment. During her work as an educator, she has found that VR helps students practice scenarios that appear like real life situations so that they can prepare to better encounter the actual situation in life. The VR room at her school provides the ability for students to develop a familiarity with a new situation such as a dentist office or store in the safety of the school so that they can be successful once encountering these spaces in the real world.

We would love to hear what you think about this episode. Please leave a comment! specialneedscompanies.com/podcasts

Have you been searching for a law firm that understands the unique challenges of your family? We can help you at Special Needs Law Group put legal planning in place to protect you and your loved ones now and in the future. Book a free call today with our team or contact us via our website: specialneeds-law.com/contact.

Guest Jennifer Fraser, PhD founder of The Bullied Brain shares what she has learned about the resilient nature of humanity as well as damaging impact of abuse and bullying on the brain. She sees brain science as the key to helping people heal from abuse. When we are subjected to a repeated cycle of abuse or bulleying, our minds and bodies start to feel anxious about a threat from a preditor, which activates the sympathetic nervous system without our decision-making process. We are unaware of the automated response of our bodies and brains to threats, and unless we develop strategies to manage this stress, we suffer dramatic impacts on our health. However, if we keep our brains healthy and safe, our brains can be powerful and effective.

Let us know what you think of this episode! Leave a review or a comment on our website.

Have you been searching for a law firm that understands the unique challenges of your family? We can help you at Special Needs Law Group put legal planning in place to protect you and your loved ones now and in the future. Book a free call today with our team or contact us via our website: specialneeds-law.com/contact.