EP #71: Special Needs Respite with Stacy Georges & Tanja Horan
Jan 08, 2024
Discover the resilience of families navigating the complex journey of raising children with special needs. Join us as we welcome the remarkable Stacy Georges, whose own path led her to establish Special Needs Respite. She sheds light on the lifeline of respite care, a service that breathes hope into the lives of affected families by offering relief funded by the generosity of private donors. In this heartfelt exchange, Stacy details the simplicity of the application process and the scholarships that ease the burdens of care, while Tanja reflects on the wider impact these gestures of support have within our communities.
The conversation sways through the cycles of rejection and the relentless quest for fitting educational support, culminating in a candid discussion about the challenges that can push a family to its limits. From confronting the despair of a suicidal child to the exhaustion that comes with sleep deprivation, we navigate the rough seas that many such families sail each day.
Discover the resilience of families navigating the complex journey of raising children with special needs. Join us as we welcome the remarkable Stacy Georges, whose own path led her to establish Special Needs Respite. She sheds light on the lifeline of respite care, a service that breathes hope into the lives of affected families by offering relief funded by the generosity of private donors. In this heartfelt exchange, Stacy details the simplicity of the application process and the scholarships that ease the burdens of care, while Tanja reflects on the wider impact these gestures of support have within our communities.
The conversation sways through the cycles of rejection and the relentless quest for fitting educational support, culminating in a candid discussion about the challenges that can push a family to its limits. From confronting the despair of a suicidal child to the exhaustion that comes with sleep deprivation, we navigate the rough seas that many such families sail each day.
Speaker 1:
This is the Good Neighbor podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Stacey Grizzly.
Speaker 2:
Hello, friends and neighbors, welcome to North Atlanta's Good Neighbor podcast. We're going to be doing things a little bit differently for today's episode. We have Ms Tanya Horan of Tacosa 360 Consulting back with us today, for I think your third appearance at Pitanya. Is that right it is? Thank you, stacey. Like I said, she has Tacosa 360 Consulting and she works with nonprofits to help them build and expand their reach and their impact on the community. So she is here to introduce one of the local nonprofits that she works with today, and at that I'm going to let you have the floor, tanya.
Speaker 3:
Well, thank you, stacey. Thanks again so much for having me. I'm so excited to share with our community another great nonprofit leader here, stacey Georges, who is the founder and executive director of Special Needs Respite, and I've had an opportunity to talk with Stacey in a number of times and what she is doing to work with special to help families with special needs children is really exciting. And so, stacey, I've got two Stacey's today and the Stacey is working with us.
Speaker 3:
Why don't you first tell us a little bit about what does Special Needs Respite do?
Speaker 4:
Well, we founded in 2017, and what we do is we support families that are raising children with special needs. You know we all need rest, but it's rare that these parents even get a full night's sleep, let alone take a break to collect their thoughts. Families that included child with special needs are often destroyed by divorce, unless the family gets respite care. Physical, mental and financial strain depletes the family. Special Needs Respite uses private donations to pay special needs caregivers. So the parents and the siblings get a break.
Speaker 2:
Well, that is a really important need that is underserved, I would think, in our community. I was an educator for 19 years, working with lots of special needs students, and I can think of tons of families that this would have been beneficial for if I was still an educator, stacey, so I'm glad to hear that you're doing this. Do you mind sharing with our listeners a little bit about your journey? What led you to start Special Needs Respite?
Speaker 4:
Well, honestly, stacey, I've always loved working with this population. Even back when I was in college, I was a recreation therapist, so having fun and helping people that have to approach fun differently has always been my passion. And I have to admit, though, that my eyes were really opened after I had children, because my children did not fit into the school system. The government schools are beneficial for children that can sit and take notes, but when you need more than that, then the government schools are supposed to provide what we call accommodations. I'm sure you're familiar, since you were in the school system, but that's when families have to really become advocates. Sometimes they have to hire someone to help their cause, and it can get very messy.
Speaker 2:
And I, having been a public school teacher, I can definitely attest that it can get messy, and I know that this process is sometimes just a very difficult one for parents and for educators alike, but especially for the parents Because, you're right, they never get a break. So Stacey, do you mind sharing with our listeners just how does the process work? If I was a parent of a special needs child and wanted to seek your services, walk us through what that would look like.
Speaker 4:
This is my favorite question to answer, because this was one of my goals by starting the nonprofit was to make the application easy, because any of you who have ever tried to fill out a government application knows that it's so detailed and the process takes forever, and I actually had the feedback from my mom said that she filled this out at 2 AM and it only took her 20 minutes. So that is success to me. So when you go on our website, I agree. That's my testimony.
Speaker 2:
That is a success. We're a government application, for sure.
Speaker 4:
Absolutely so. When you go on our website at specialneedsrespiteorg, you see three boxes One is get help, one is donate and one is get involved. So when you need help, you get help. Click that. The next thing you see is you'll see in blue letters online application. You click that and then it'll take you to a series of questions and it's really eight pages, but there's like two questions on each page. So it's that simple. And one of the questions is do you have your own caregiver? If the answer is yes, then we will let you use your own caregiver and special needs respite will pay that caregiver. If the answer is no, then we will refer you to another company that will try to match you up with a special needs caregiver. But in both cases we pay the caregiver. We do not give the family money.
Speaker 3:
Well, stacey, that is really great. So you're talking about the scholarships that you give families so that they can get the respite care that they need. I wonder if we could spend a few minutes just telling our audience about why it's so important. So I know, in 22, you were able to help 145 families with 3,600 hours of respite care, which is so important that you mentioned earlier to the whole family well-being into our communities. But what about the other resources that are out there In the situation? Because you mentioned the government application. Maybe we could give some people some understanding of really what that process works, why it's so important that you're here.
Speaker 4:
Well, that is a great question, Tanya, because I would ask the same thing what about my tax dollars? What kind of government programs? Well, in the state of Georgia, there is a Medicaid waiver that is put up by the state and it offers several things medical care, medical equipment and the only one that offers respite care is called the NOW waiver. And right now, if you apply for the NOW waiver and you get approved, you will sit on a waiting list for up to 12 years waiting for those services. And just to give a shout out to Senator John Albers and Senator Sally Harrell, they tried to change that in 2023. They did a beautiful job of presenting a case for us to have more funding, but it did not make it through the Senate, so we continue to fight on that front as well.
Speaker 3:
Yeah. So by the time with a waiting list that long, a child could actually age out, and then our families aren't getting the care that in the time that they need in that break. So it's wonderful that you offer these scholarships out to families who need it and they can get that care now.
Speaker 4:
That's the goal. Even just to give a small break, it makes a difference.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I mean 12 years.
Speaker 4:
Did I hear that?
Speaker 2:
correctly, it was 12. It could be up to 12 years. The child could be grown by then, so definitely could age out. That is too long to have to wait, for sure. Well, so let's shift gears a little bit, if we can. Ladies and Stacey, when you're not working and it sounds like you're doing a whole lot of working but what are you doing for fun? Where would we find you for fun when you weren't working?
Speaker 4:
Well, you know they say that if you do what you love, you never work a day in your life, and that's kind of how I feel. But Tom and I love to go to festivals and concerts and fundraisers. We love to support our local businesses. So my husband plays in three different bands and so when he goes, when he's playing and I go to their gigs, then I cheer for him like he's Billy Joel come to town. So I'm in the front making a scene, but he seems to love that. So we do that. But we usually love networking and we meet people everywhere we go that are interested in what we're doing. So he is an excellent partner for me and we love, like I said, we love to support local businesses. So you can find us almost anytime Strollin' Down Canton Street in Roswell.
Speaker 2:
Wonderful. Okay, I know this is a little off, but I have to know the names of the three bands that your husband plays in.
Speaker 4:
Everyone gets interested in my husband's bands.
Speaker 2:
No, I'm much more interested in special needs respite, but shout out to the husband and the family who's supporting you. Is that something that you get mind sharing or do you want me to just move on?
Speaker 4:
I don't mind, but I just thought it was funny. It happens every time. Okay, he's in a band called 120 East and they do weddings and bar mitzvahs and anniversary parties. You know private parties a lot. Sometimes they play publicly, but it's usually like Gibbs Gardens or Big Canoe. Then he plays with a group called the Back Porch Band and you can imagine it's what it sounds like. These guys are kind of funny the way they do. They do popular songs their own way. I think that's a good way to sit. And then this is my favorite he is in a band called Clapton Comes Alive. So is grown man pretending they're an Eric Clapton's band?
Speaker 2:
Well, I think that was a great way to end the question about fun and to give a shout out to your husband and his bands as well. So, but shifting gears into something a little more serious, stacey, has there been a life challenge or a hardship that you have faced that you can now say, for having been through that experience and coming out on the other side of it, you can, that you're a stronger, better person for that today? Is there anything like that you would like to share with our listeners?
Speaker 4:
Absolutely. Thank you for asking Stacey again, because I usually don't talk about my personal struggles. I usually talk about in general, the struggles of special needs parents, and I do a lot of statistics and how you know it's like improves their mental health. But I will tell you this my husband and I raised two smart, funny, creative children that were also diagnosed with ADHD, anxiety and one with bipolar. It was a life of constant rejection. We have been kicked out of churches, schools, public recreation programs repeatedly.
Speaker 4:
I remember the first teacher that handed me a book that said raising the explosive child and I felt like a mule had just kicked me in the stomach. I didn't realize that this was something unusual. I really thought that the teachers could, you know, help my children calm down. But I thought children calm down. But they let me know that way that it wasn't typical so dealing with the difficult children. We got them tested etc. But every day I got a phone call. I'm not exaggerating. Every day someone would call me from the school and say you need to come pick up this child. The child doesn't want to be here, your child is sick and I'm like who's in charge over there? I mean, really it was like all of my child had to do was say that they wanna go home, and the people were like, sure, we'll be happy to do that. So one of the things that they learned in school is that Fulton County Schools has a policy that if you throw up you get to go home. So that's what they told the teacher every day. So those were the kind of things that we had to get over, and I'm not making this up.
Speaker 4:
We were in six different schools by sixth grade. Can you imagine? Every time I found a new school I thought this is the one, this is the one that's gonna help me. But I really didn't get any help until we got word about GNETs. I don't know if you're an educator, you might be familiar with that, and at the time it was called North Metro and it's a government program that helps students that have extreme emotions, behaviors, and I like to say it's a top secret program, because every time I told someone about it, or asked about it rather to a person from the school, they'd go how did you hear about that? Like we're not, no right.
Speaker 4:
So anyway, it is a program. That was the first time I got any help. I know one time we went to our church counselor and told them you know, this is what our child is doing. They can't seem to settle down in school, we can't seem to get them to. You know, sit down at the table for dinner. And he said well, you know, in the Bible it says spare the rod, spoil the child. I think you should just take them out of school and spank them. This was his solution.
Speaker 2:
My goodness, I have to interject. I'm so sorry that you had to experience that. That is awful Wow. Yeah, and as I'm sorry, Stacy, I had to interject on that.
Speaker 4:
I'm glad you did. I'm glad you did because I thought to myself after we left. I was like, didn't I do that when they were in preschool? You know, I mean preschool, that's all I did was try and train them, train them, train them. So what makes me think that if I take them out of school and do it now it's going to make any difference? So yeah, those were the kind of things that we got from people that felt like maybe they would help but they didn't.
Speaker 4:
So I have lived with a child that has tried to kill themselves. I have called 911 too many times to count. You know I joke because, like I said, we go down to downtown Canton Street in Roswell and I used to be able to go. That policeman's been to my house. Oh hey, I recognize that guy. I must say that the police were awesome. You know, you never know if they're going to shoot her child like a criminal. But the people in Roswell that were police officers were amazing. They always treated her with respect and all of us. I never felt judged. They just came and intervened and I was just so grateful when they responded.
Speaker 4:
I have fallen asleep while I was driving home from dropping my kids off of school and that's a whole subject of sleep deprivation. So many parents don't get to sleep at night because their children can't sleep, and then they have to at least still get up in the morning and take them to school. I think, oh. And then when she turned 15, we were running out of time because all the interventions they stop around 17 because they know that the child is going to be 18 very soon and they're not going to change. They know that the parents can't do anything when they're 18. We were advised by a counselor to send our child into a wilderness program to give structure and they said they would build the self-esteem. It got her away from the toxic friends and bad influences. But here's something that I couldn't believe was when our $50,000 ran out, she was suddenly ready for discharge.
Speaker 4:
They never tried to say you know we're almost done, you know we'll continue the treatment and then you can pay us later. No, so that made me think that the motivation at this place was really the money, not so much the healing of the child, but the most amazing thing about me are you ready? I'm still married to the man who is the father of my children.
Speaker 4:
According to statistics, we are part of the 20%, and I say that I think the secret is that my husband has short-term memory loss. He's like Dory, you know, I'll say something mean to him and then I'll come back and I'll say I'm so sorry, and he'll go what? I don't remember that.
Speaker 2:
Dory is actually exactly what I thought of when you said short-term memory loss. We were on the same wavelength there, Stacey.
Speaker 4:
So yeah, I joke, I joke, but it is amazing that we're still married and now, you know, both kids are on their own and that is wonderful. Just this last Halloween, my daughter eloped, so not only is she happy and married, we didn't have to pay for it. So I love it.
Speaker 2:
It's a great good way to focus on the positive of that. My dad used to joke that he would provide the ladder out the window if I would elope.
Speaker 4:
Exactly, my father said the same thing if you elope, I'll give you the money. But yeah, it was kind of sad, honestly, because I didn't get invited. But looking at it the positive way, a big event like that would have probably made my child sick. And it's too much pressure. It's too much pressure for someone that has anxiety to plan a wedding. It's just too much.
Speaker 2:
Well and things happen for a reason and that very well may have been the case People with anxiety of any type and then to have the spotlight on them. That may just have been too much. But I am so happy to hear that she is doing thriving and is happy and is married, and what a great story that led you to. You've experienced these things firsthand. I hate some of the experiences you had with the school system. That's really heartbreaking.
Speaker 2:
I know one ever wants to hear that those kinds of things are happening, but I think it's important that people do hear that there just aren't enough resources. The teachers are ill-equipped to handle children with certain needs and I really applaud you for your mission to provide respite for these parents. And when you said you had fallen asleep driving home after dropping the kids off, I can relate to that and I don't even have kids with special needs, Just having two kids that were close in age when they were having just going through different stages of life. They get more sleep during some than others, but you're right that with the parents of children with special needs, they're rarely getting to sleep a full night's rest. So I just think what you're doing is so important and I'm so thankful to Tanya for bringing Stacey on today and this has just been a really great podcast and I would love if there's anything else, Stacey, that you would like to share with our listeners about special needs respite.
Speaker 4:
Anything else you want them to know. Well, when you give to special needs, respite your donations, stay here in Metro Atlanta. That makes our community stronger, and when we make our family stronger, we make our community stronger. You can check us out on our website, specialneedsrespiteorg, and my superpower is that I can turn donations into hope. I'd also like to take a minute and thank Tanya, because she has actually been my coach and anybody that has a small nonprofit. You are trying to put out fires all the time and get everything done at once, and Tanya is a real good person to talk to about how to organize things so that you don't feel like you're always in the hamster wheel. Tanya is calm and collected and she can give you great tools. So thank you, tanya, for being my coach.
Speaker 3:
Thank you, Stacey, so much. I greatly appreciate it. I've enjoyed working with you.
Speaker 2:
Well, I can attest I am not a nonprofit, but she is a friend of mine as well and she has approached me some too, and it gives great advice and has a lot of knowledge and wisdom to share. So it has been wonderful to have both of you on today Tanya with Tacosa 360 Consulting, working with nonprofits to help them build and expand their impact in the communities, and Stacey George's with specialneedsrespite. It's been such a pleasure having you both on today. And, stacey, I'm going to repeat what you said it was the best way to get in touch was specialneedsrespiteorg. Is that correct?
Speaker 1:
Yes.
Speaker 2:
Yes, thank you. You are so welcome. Well, ladies, it's been a pleasure. That's all for today's episode, Atlanta. I'm Stacey Risley with the Good Neighbor Podcast. Thanks for listening and for supporting the local businesses and nonprofits of our great community.
Speaker 1:
Thanks for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast North Atlanta. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNPNorthatlantacom. That's GNPNorthalantacom, or call 470-946-7007. Thank you.