Two programs; One Mission
Supporting families

Our goal is to promote optimal health for children and youth with special health care needs.

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Adjusting the sails: a podcast for parents, caregivers and providers of people with disabilities

Adjusting the Sails is a podcast aimed to discuss the lives and specific challenges children with special health care needs and other disabilities and their families, caregivers, and service providers face, and how to manage those challenges. The podcast will serve as a platform for all disability-related topics to be discussed and as a mediator between families and caregivers to share their stories and experiences. The podcast will feature guest speakers, panelists, and a variety of program representatives and service providers to offer education and training to the listener.

This podcast is sponsored by the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources, Office of Maternal, Child, and Family Health/Children with Special Health Care Needs Program and the West Virginia Family 2 Family Health Information Center and produced by the West Virginia University Center for Excellence in Disabilities.

Listen on iHeartRadio, Spotify, Audible, or below.

  • A Good Life is Within Reach - Cheryl Childs, A First Person Perspective & Disability Myths Debunked

    Stereotype -
    (noun) An untrue belief that society holds about all people sharing a particular characteristic.

    Cheryl is a mother, daughter, friend, program assistant, and person who utilizes a wheelchair. Listen as Cheryl shares her story of rising above stereotypes to live her life to the fullest, wheelchair and all. Cheryl has faced her fair share of societal prejudice and life's adversities so she has come to discuss her thoughts on commonly believed myths, why society may have those beliefs, and how we, as a community of advocates, can help to change the rhetoric.

    **Trigger Warning - mentions of domestic violence**

    Transcript: Episode 2

  • A photo of Tina Crook.
    "When Things Like This Happen" - Tina Crook, Parent Network Specialist and Daylin's Mom, A Story of Hope

    Tina Crook is a Parent Network Specialist for the WVU Center for Excellence in Disabilities. She is passionate about her job, helping other parents of children with special medical needs, because of her experience and journey with her son, Daylin. Daylin acquired a brain injury at the age of 13, leaving him with significant left frontal lobe damage. Today, 8 years later, Tina speaks words of wisdom and hope from a parent's perspective; how she felt during the most difficult years of her life, how she managed and overcame and where Daylin is in his life and recovery now.

    **Trigger Warning- Mentions of suicide**

    Transcript: Episode 1