Parenting Impossible – The Special Needs Survival Podcast

Host Annette Hines opens the episode with an overview of the "Health and Hospital Corporation v. Talevski" U.S. Supreme Court Case and the impact the case may have on the ability of people who depend on public benefit initiatives funded by state and federal agencies be able to sue states when their civil rights are violated. She also notes the recent gains the disability community is making in combating institutional bias in health care and housing.

Preparing for the holiday season is the primary focus for the episode. Hines provides tips to emotionally manage this stressful and perhaps sorrowful time that her family uses to keep the memory alive of her daughter Elizabeth who passed away in 2013. In her classically transparent and warm fashion, Hines shares her anxiety of anticipating the holiday season and the trigger questions people might ask her. Her honesty about these feelings that many of you may experience help normalize the struggle we may feel to either withdraw or blow up at people. Plus, one of these tips might make the holidays more manageable for you!

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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.

Even though mindfulness is familiar, and we know we should practice it, we struggle to do it and need reminders to stop and care for ourselves. Podcast guest, Shonda Moralis, who is a life balance coach and therapreneur, explains how mindfulness and finding a state of calm is when we perform at our best. She developed a method and wrote a book with the same name, Don't Forget to Breathe, that focuses on simple practices that can be applied in minutes and provide huge benefits to our mental and emotional health. Mindful breaks are reminders to stop in our busy day that pull us out of our rush and autopilot nature, and pay attention to our body and the present moment. You can read more about mindful breaks on Shonda's website: www.shondamoralis.net

Please let us know if you're enjoying these episodes and whether there is a topic you'd like to hear! 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 wraps up her series on legal planning and supporting the decision-making of your loved one with disabilities during Special Needs Awareness Month with a deep dive into special needs trusts. Have you ever wondered:

• How does someone manage a special needs trust?
• How do you choose a trustee or appoint one in your planning documents?
• Who can serve as a trustee?
• What kinds of distributions can you make from a special needs trust?
• How do I work with a beneficiary who's disabled?

Sharing from her extensive knowledge as a special needs attorney, Annette Hines gives an accessible overview of trusts and how they can be used to support your disabled person and operate in the real world.

All of the videos for this series will be posted in our Special Needs Academy for purchase as well in our private Facebook group Circle of Care.

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

Voice and Choice is a term host Annette Hines developed to refocus the decision-making process on the disabled person to ensure that their voice is heard and their choices are honored. She explores how to support legal decision-making for your disabled person; recent developments related to guardianship; the Britney Spears conservatorship case; what we have learned from the Covid pandemic; and fundamentals of the options related to legal decision-making. A depravation of civil liberties is at the core of the Britney Spears case, the early response during the Covid pandemic for disabled people in group homes, and is the reason why it's so necessary to examine whether there are other options for supporting decision-making aside from a guardianship or conservatorship.

We'd love to hear what you think of this episode! Join our Circle of Care Facebook group to become part of a support network and discuss these issues within 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.

October is Special Needs Awareness Month! Attend one or all four short, complimentary trainings via Zoom each Wednesday in October at 5:30 pm EST with a live Q&A session with Host Annette Hines. A single registration is required to attend four sessions as each will use the same meeting link. Register for the webinars here: https://bit.ly/SNPlanningWebinars

The first episode in this series is about Special Needs Planning. Many people ask: So is estate planning really just about taxes and creating a will? Actually, estate planning is a roadmap to get to a set of goals that you have established and documents help us get there as part of the plan.

Everything starts with a will, but it is the least important document you're going to sign. For those with someone with a disability in their life, trusts are going to play a part. What happens when you're no longer able to make decisions or have a say? It's essential that you use proper planning to legalize and affirm your wishes and goals. Learn more on our website: https://specialneeds-law.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.

Did you know that how you were raised and what you witnessed about money impact how you spend and save?

Guest Michelle Francis is the owner of Life Story Financial in Denver whose slogan is: "Money is the heart of our life story," as well as a mom to three, two who have Phenylketonuria (PKU), a rare metabolic disease diagnosed at birth. She's found in her work as a financial planner that our life story and upbringing affect how we use money. The second in a series about financial planning and sharing our money stories, Developing Family Money Smarts relates to the How to Talk about Money episode with Kathleen Burns Kingsbury. Francis and host Annette Hines discuss the importance of sharing our stories and money history to identify what motivates us so we can accomplish financial goals and spend mindfully. They also touch on impacts on families with complex medical needs of U.S. formula shortage earlier in 2022. Learn more on our website: https://specialneedscompanies.com/developing-family-money-smarts/ as well as on the Life Story Financial website: http://www.lifestoryfp.com/

Have an idea for a podcast episode or a guest you'd like to hear? Share it with us: 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.

When your family is faced with natural disasters or emergency situations, how do you cope? For families with children with disabilities or complex medical needs, what types of plans do you have in place to protect their access to medicines, devices or equipment, food and more? Host Annette Hines and her guest, Patricia Frost who is vice-chair of the National Pediatric Disaster Coalition (PDC) with over 35 years of experience as a pediatric/neonatal critical care nurse, discuss resources the PDC has created to empower families to develop emergency plans for home and school so that the care of children and those who are most vulnerable is maintained. Be prepared as a family at home and school with an emergency plan by using checklists and developing a community of supporters who are ready ahead of the disaster. Consider creating an Individualized Health Plan (IHP) for your student at their school that may or may not be part of the IEP. Resources for developing an emergency plan are available on the NPD's website: https://www.npdcoalition.org/

Learn more from a previous guest, Alex Ghenis, the deputy director of Sustain Our Abilities, who educates the public on climate change and disaster preparedness in our local communities.

Let us know 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.

Sensitive Topic Warning: Host Annette Hines discusses child abuse and child sexual abuse in this episode. She introduces the episode by reflecting on the report of the abuse of a young man with disabilities in a group home in southern Illinois published on ProPublica.org, noting that the incidence of abuse is much higher for youth with disabilities.

Her two guests, Dr. Amy Saltzman, founder and director of Spot a Spider, a program to prevent abuse, and 30th Circuit Court Judge Honorable Rosemarie Aquilina who oversaw the trial of U.S. gymnastics doctor and convicted abuser, Larry Nassar bring to light the behaviors of abusers and the importance of providing kids and community members the language to report abuse. Abuse is when someone you trust uses their power to hurt you. Preventing abuse starts with empowering ourselves to speak out when something is wrong, and believing and affirming our kids or others when they tell us.

We would love to hear what you think about this episode. Please leave a comment! 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 do when your five-month-old child has seizures that are only happening at night?

For writer Marc Palmieri, it was hard to know whether the strained movements and odd facial expressions were a problem for his young daughter Anna, when she had been a healthy, happy baby otherwise. Ultimately, Anna was diagnosed with complex partial seizures, frontal lobe Epilepsy and was able to live a fairly normal life despite having severe epilepsy until age 11. Join host Annette Hines in hearing the adrenaline rush of a nerve-racking, mystery pursuit for Palmieri's family to save Anna when epilepsy completely took control of her body resulting in a serious brain surgery. Palmieri shares how much he learned from Anna about pursuing dreams and overcoming the impossible.

You can read about Anna's fight to live on Palmieri's website: www.marcpalmieri.com and his newly released book, SHE DANCED WITH LIGHTNING, My Daughter's Struggle with Epilepsy and Her Boundless Will To Live

We would love to hear what you think about this episode. Please leave a review or post 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.

Host Annette Hines opens the episode sharing about the month of September and the celebrations of Special Needs Companies, which includes the 10 years of service of Special Needs Law Group of Massachusetts and 3 years of hosting Parenting Impossible Podcast! Plus, this month is the start of the online Transition Planning Masterclass & Coaching Programs: Learn more here: https://bit.ly/TransitionPlanFreeCall

At the root of the philosophy and our recent episode with Parenting Coach Allana Robinson of Uncommon Sense Parenting and the Facebook group: Parenting Posse is this concept: Your child can't behave well unless they're calm … and what this means for your parenting.

With actionable recommendations, Robinson explains how to gain back control by calming ourselves first as parents and collaborating (not compromising) with our kids. Based on her research with parents in many different countries and situations, Robinson shares that most parents are spending upwards of 6 HOURS a day dealing with behavior struggles with their children.

Gain some accessible tips from the discussion and online through Robinson's website: https://www.allanarobinson.com/

We would love to hear what you think about this episode. Please leave a review or post 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.