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 ...
Jan 18, 2023•45 min
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 l...
Jan 11, 2023•13 min
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...
Jan 05, 2023•36 min
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: What's cha...
Dec 28, 2022•54 min
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 ...
Dec 21, 2022•52 min
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, m...
Dec 15, 2022•1 hr 3 min
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...
Dec 08, 2022•49 min
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 develo...
Nov 30, 2022•51 min
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, ...
Nov 23, 2022•42 min
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...
Nov 16, 2022•54 min
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 primar...
Nov 09, 2022•21 min
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...
Nov 03, 2022•46 min
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? Sha...
Oct 27, 2022•1 hr 4 min
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; t he 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 t...
Oct 20, 2022•1 hr 9 min
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 cre...
Oct 13, 2022•1 hr 7 min
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 sh...
Oct 06, 2022•40 min
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 ...
Sep 28, 2022•45 min
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 Rosem...
Sep 21, 2022•1 hr 7 min
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 th...
Sep 14, 2022•47 min
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 Rob...
Sep 08, 2022•1 hr 11 min
What is PDA? New to the United States, Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA) Syndrome is a small, distinct profile of autism characterized by avoiding demands and expectations due to an anxiety-based need for control. Our guest, Diane Gould, is the founder of PDA North America and the first American professional with a certification in Pathological Demand Avoidance Syndrome. She notes that those with PDA often experience panic attacks that appear to the outside world like meltdowns or a behavior p...
Aug 31, 2022•49 min
In a time when employers are scrambling to fill empty job posts, imagine having a tool that would enable the ease of hiring neurodiverse individuals with a 90% retention rate to fill those positions. Our episode guest, Director of avail Support Lisa Marie Clinton explains how the avail® solution provides the one-on-one job support through digitalized tools to provide tailored training and ongoing support. Avail stands for assisted visuals achieving independent living , which acts as a type of jo...
Aug 25, 2022•44 min
Feeling anxious about money or wanting to avoid talking about it are normal. However, Wealth Psychology Expert and Host of the award-winning, Breaking Money Silence® Podcast Kathleen Burns Kingsbury explains that when we're not talking about money, we're more likely to make financial mistakes and have difficulty learning from them. Plus, in order to have goals and plan for ourselves as well as let go of money shame, we need to talk about money and our financial values. Start with yourself, Kings...
Aug 18, 2022•57 min
@RareDiseaseDad and DadVocate are the monikers for Adam Johnson who is now a rare disease patient advocate who hosts a podcast called Parents As Rare that features stories of others like him who are affected by rare or chronic diseases. Host Annette Hines and Johnson discuss a range of topics relating to the struggle that he faced in 2019 when his symptoms related to mitochondrial disease started emerging in the prime of his education career and family life as a husband and dad. Although advocac...
Aug 11, 2022•40 min
While setting out to write a book about how to age to perfection and thrive to age 100, Award-Winning Author and Podcast Guest Judy Gaman met Lucille, an amazing woman who would transform Judy's life and perspective on aging. Lucille introduced Judy to the beautiful, wonderful, tender side of old, became a dear friend, and provided Judy the hope that maybe she could have that much fun when she's 100-years-old. Judy also gained the value of relating to and appreciating the people around her and h...
Aug 04, 2022•42 min
“Adversity is not an excuse - it is a reason...to thrive and to push ourselves to excel,” writes Mindy Henderson , podcast guest, author, motivational speaker, and advocate as well as the editor in chief of QUEST magazine of the national Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA). Despite the adversity Henderson encountered in the workplace and while job searching due to others' assumptions about her being a wheelchair user, she motivated herself to self-advocate and open possibilities. We encourage y...
Jul 28, 2022•41 min
How might climate change affect your world? What is a disaster readiness plan? Host Annette Hines discusses these timely topics with her guest, Alex Ghenis who is the deputy director of Sustain Our Abilities (SOA). His advocacy work within climate change and disaster preparedness highlights the needs and voices of the disability community that comprises 20% of all people in the world. As a wheelchair user, he is aware of how essential modern power, transportation, and healthcare infrastructure a...
Jul 21, 2022•58 min
A severely traumatic or unusual birth experience, weeks spent in the NICU, and harsh lectures from a neurologist about your child's chances of survival or living a good life are common starting points of the parenting journey that unites many special needs families. Host Annette Hines notes how her guest, Kelly Speck , author of the new book, Hope in the Heartache: The Journey of Grace and Growth with a Special Needs Child , shares many commonalities with Hines' narrative raising her daughter, E...
Jul 14, 2022•1 hr
How does your child's diagnosis affect your family? Where do you find other parents or caregivers facing similar joys and challenges? Kate Swenson writes that autism "affects the whole entire family," and notes that it was nearly impossible for her to find an autism community when her son Cooper was first diagnosed. Parenting Impossible Host Annette Hines talks with Swenson about creating the blog, Finding Cooper's Voice to be a shared space for families like hers that has reached thousands. Thi...
Jul 07, 2022•53 min
Annette Hines host of Parenting Impossible – The Special Needs Survival Podcast Co-Founder and President Elliot Kallen of A Brighter Day an organization created in memory of Kallen's son who committed suicide have an eye-opening discussion about teen depression, stress, and suicide statistics. A Brighter Day in San Ramon, CA provides resources for teens and their parents to reduce stress and depression and prevent teen suicide. Kallen's research uncovered shocking facts such as higher suicide ra...
Jun 30, 2022•1 hr 21 min
