Episode Two: Step-By-Step Guide to Applying for Adult Services, and Gendered Care Continued

Autism Support Centers: Where You Can Go For Help!

The following are Autism Support Centers in Massachusetts:

Central/West Region: www.autismresourcecentral.org

HMEA's (Horace Mann Educational Associates) Autism Resource Central, 712 Plantation Street, Worcester, MA 01605

Phone 508-835-4278

This agency services about 4,000 families, and they are affiliated with Advocates, which is a large social service agency in Massachusetts. Ask about family support services, residential options for shared living, day programs Many of these services are based upon eligibility and the level of support needed.

West: Pathlight Autism Connections, 42 Russell Street, Hadley, MA 01035; also offices in Northampton and Pittsfield.

Phone number: 413-585-8010

Check out the website: https://autismconnectionsma.org/

Middlesex West Area: Vinfen/Autism Support Center, 1208A VFW Parkway, Suite 201, W. Roxbury, MA 02333. Phone: 617-206-5902

Check out the Website: https://vinfen.org/services/asc/

Greater Boston Area: Charles River West Region:

Lifeworks/Autism Support Center, 789 Clapboardtree St, Westwood, MA 02090, Phone 781-762-4001

Website: http://www.arcsouthnorfolk.org/family-autism-center.html

Northeast Region - Danvers

Northeast Arc/ The Autism Support Center, 100 Independence Way, Suite D3, Danvers, MA 01923. Phone: 978-777-9135

Check out the Website: https://ne-arc.org/services/autism-and-specialty-aba-services/autism-support-center

Research Discussed in this Episode:

Gendered Caregiving:

Dembosky, J. W., Heckert, D. A., Boser, S., & Migyanka, J. M. (2024). Shouldering the burden: Intensive mothering and autism. Family Relations, 73(2), 807–825. https://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12943 

Dudley, K. M., Klinger, M. R., Meyer, A., Powell, P., & Klinger, L. G. (2018). Understanding service usage and needs for adults with ASD: The importance of living situation. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 49(2), 556–568. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-018-3733-4 

Hays, S. (1996). The cultural contradictions of motherhood. Yale University Press. 

Marsack, C. N., & Perry, T. E. (2018). Informal support, health, and burden among parents of adult children with autism. The Gerontologist, 59(6), 1112–1121. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gny082 

Tronto, J. C. (1993). Moral boundaries: A political argument for an ethic of care. Routledge. ([Missing authors], n.d., p. 37)
Wilde, A., & Fish, R. (2024). Gender, feminism, and the project of critical disability studies (cds). Disability & Society, 40(3), 533–554. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2023.2298774

Flourishing: Resource Directory

Services, benefits & navigation tools for autistic individuals across the lifespan 

To access the links to this page, please hold the Ctrl key and, with your mouse, select the link. This will bring you to the pages

National Databases & Directories

Autism Speaks Resource Guide

Searchable nationwide directory of diagnostic providers, therapists, support groups, and hou

Transcript

Flourishing Episode Two

Stacey Kohler, MSW, LICSW

  📍 

 📍 Welcome to Flourishing Caregiving Autistic Adults podcast. I'm your host, Stacy Kohler, a social worker with nearly 30 years of direct clinical experience and a caregiver of an autistic adult myself.   📍 In this episode, we will explore As more adolescents transition to adulthood,  📍 we will examine aging parents, building a social network, applying for social security., SSI and we will also explore how in Massachusetts you apply for the Department of Developmental Services for adult services.

 📍 all right, so let's dive into talking point number one, gendered caregiving. So let's start a little bit by talking about gender caregiving. We talked about it in the first episode, but it's really true that as a social worker and a mother of two autistic adults. I definitely see a pattern over the last two decades, which is that there isn't a good smooth coordination between services that are guaranteed in childhood under the IDEA and the services that are available for adults.

While there may be resources that are designed for that transition, they may not easily be accessible to parents. In Massachusetts, the last IEP meeting I believe should have a representative from Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission or from the Department of Developmental Services, or perhaps even an education advocate that can really help you to coordinate the transition.

In episode five, I'm so looking forward to meeting with Dr. Danette Taylor, who is an advocate and she specializes in, K through 12 IEP advocacy. And she is a speaker and we're gonna have her on as a guest. And I think what we need as parents is to know what's the best. A way to manage this transition.

 There really isn't a clear pathway for caregivers to get to the resources that, that we need. And when our children were in school they were in school, they had supports that were designed to help them get early diagnosis to help them get the. Supports and treatment that they needed, like the services we talked about in episode one, but briefly, behavioral therapies, speech therapies, occupational therapies, and other supports that really helped with skill development.

So when we think about how important the IDEA is, that's for skill development in the beginning overall.

Okay. And what we do know about the systemic barriers that there is an impact on communities. There's an impact on delay diagnosis among females.

There's a delayed diagnosis among bipoc females. There's a delay in diagnosis, there's a delay in treatment, and this delay results in a delay in skill development. And when you think about the transition to adult services or the transition itself. You lose all of that structured support and your kiddo also loses that structured support.

So that was the childhood system, and now we have to move into the adult system. See the service cliff is all about that big transition from having supports. To walking into a new, totally new situation and through this transition, instead of finding, direct supports, it is very fragmented.  📍 

It's a landscape that has wait lists. , Agencies have eligibility requirements and rules. Some of them require updated paperwork, updated testing, and. The care and the coordination is done mostly by moms. We do the advocacy, we do the case management, we do the care coordination, but we also create a wonderful, balanced environment that provides really a flourishing for the child and for the transition.

 So that burden doesn't really fall equally, right? We know that it is deeply gendered and it is overwhelming for mothers. And the other piece that we also have to recognize that a feminist theorist who, was involved in the care ethics movement, her last name is Toronto. She talked about how there's also a un.

Undervaluing of the work that women do.

And we know that autism doesn't end a childhood. It really does. It's a lifelong condition, and while there may be improvement from one year to the next, the research shows that a ma shows that a majority of our kiddos still live at home.

There was a research study in 2018 and that was by Marsac in Perry. And really they did a study to find out how parents feel about children living with them versus not living with them and older parents.

They did not have an empty nest like their other friends who are of their age. However. The study did find that most of the parents who were interviewed preferred to have their children at home.

The study also indicated that, the caregiving of autistic doubts may lead to having restricted. Lives having difficulty with employment and also problems with just accessing post-secondary education. So there's a lot of challenges and there's a lot of documentation in the research. So I wanted to point you to that article, which is on the webpage.

But this is definitely an excellent research study because, it really looks at the intersectional demographic of midlife parents. And most of the folks were over the age of 50 and experience social exclusion.,

They still live in the community with their families, and at times families prefer that because the parents feel that they can provide the best care for their kiddo.

The, service landscape of adult services is really fragmented. The medical and educational systems, they feel very isolated in their role of trying to attain supports. There's a, and the Study by Brewer 2018.

If you are a mom and you want to kind of dive deeper into the research that article is called, we were on our own Mother's experience, is navigating the fragmented system, professional care for autism, and it talks about. The disproportionate impact on single mothers and those who are from lower socioeconomic backgrounds as care providers.

So that is a really good article and , I just wanted to bring your attention to that, but so what does that mean? It really means that the literature is validating what we're talking about. And the article, if you're looking for specifically the article that is talking about mothers taking on the predominant role of caregiver, there are several and I will link those on the website.

 So when we talk about gender caregiving, what we're really talking about is what happens at home?

Who's the one who is creating that structure? Who's the one that's creating those meaningful moments that you can have with one another? It's really the, I think the heart of the matter is that what we have, even though we have a lack of care coordination, we don't lack creativity. Our artist, our adults that live at home with us are funny, are creative.

And bring such love and joy and empathy. A lot of studies have shown that it really helps caregivers. We've developed more patients and we know the cadence of what we need to do in order to provide an established routine. That's secure for our kiddos, and that's why it's so important for us to get the support and the care that we need.

In my years working in social work, what I found the most helpful were the classes that I took that taught me. Relaxation techniques and mindfulness meditations that I could use with my clients. But the, one of the most important activities that I have done to really focus on self-care

But self care for the family is engaging in, like playing a game together, a board game if you can, or creating artwork together. It's really nice to just sit down as a family and really connect

  📍   

And I will have a link. To the resource for that study, which was by Marek and Perry in 2017.

 📍 Now let's look at talking point number two, systemic limitations in long-term care planning. The research demonstrates that parents of children with autism and intellectual disabilities experience more barriers to getting supportive services and  limitations in respite care options.

In one study, 72% of parents had not found options for long-term care planning for their child with disabilities, limited residential options and fears that their child will be mistreated in care. Were some of the experiences and fears. There needs to be a more research and outreach based coordinated,

intersectional, neurodiverse understanding of parents who are aging and at the same time are caregiving. And there is a call for more intersectional research on the impact that being disabled. A minority bipoc, older parents facing financial hardships, health issues, and other challenges. There really is a concern in the research that we do need to have more representation from other cultures, ethnicities

 📍 We need to understand the narratives of caregivers right now and the latest news that has impacted this community. So it's important to join on one of the many Facebook caregiver support groups. Or online web pages on. Social media and also to read the latest news. Right now with cuts to services around the world and a move towards more control, there is a direct impact on our community.

There are many recent. Tragedies. So it is imperative that as caregivers we stick together love on one another and give each other support. So let's dive a little deeper into the actual systemic structure of applying for services, which involves looking at the policies themselves and how issues like racism, antisemitism.

anti-Latino racism and anti-immigration racism. Historic harms and fears really are the backdrop for many families. The anxiety and fears these families experience is not new. In fact, the United States and in other countries have been influenced in the past by a preference. And emphasis on healthy children or what they deem to be healthy children and a term called scientific racism.

Yep. I know. Weird that we would. Be talking about this, but if you are a physician or another social worker and you're wondering why the family didn't apply for that support or that service as a result of you asking them to fill out a simple application, you haven't taken the history to heart. I do think you need to know the history of the eugenics movement.

And as a caregiver, you also need to know that this anxiety is an intergenerational inheritance of anxiety and fear. The history of the Eugenics movement, this was a movement that emerged in the 18 hundreds and it focused on who could have children overall.

This movement led to sterilization of certain indigenous tribes and other minorities at the same time, children with disabilities. Were often institutionalized and hidden from view. The theory of eugenics was also behind a very sad history in the beginnings of the autism community. You'll learn more about the history of autism in episode three.

But. Let's see why social justice, history and research are so important now, and I know that I emphasize research because I really am very interested in the context behind what's happening in the world. So let's dive in.

The autism community has experienced racial discrimination and misinterpretation of their child's stemming behavior, which is a repetitive movement or sounds that a child makes, and it can be misinterpreted as being aggressive and violent when they're clearly not. Among Bipoc community, communities of color, diaspora communities have had a history of medical harm being taken away from their families.

If authorities deem the parents are not able to support their children and parents do feel like they are punished. For being open about the struggles that they're having at home. Child Protective Services is a fear among our community, and parents do not have enough support for their child's disability.

When asking for help professionals often blame the parents. Families quickly learn from other families online and in support groups, the realities of surveillance and increased scrutiny. And that their child will be removed without getting the supports that they need is a big fear. An excellent article that talks about, this is an article that was written in 2020 by Walker. You'll find the full citation on this episode's webpage. As social workers and as caregivers of autistic adults, we know that a history of harm is behind fear of simply.

Completing an application for services

There's also an article that I want to draw your attention to. That's by Moray and. It's also appears in the episode's webpage and it talks about how anti-immigration stigma has impacted the access to supports and disparities in healthcare itself. So if you wanna learn more, you can go peek at that.

Okay.

So let's take a. Moment now to just talk about a personal story of lived experience of when I worked at the hospital, there were many times that the emergency room at the hospital found autistic adults who have intellectual disabilities  

    arriving when their elderly parent passed away. These are the realities that many communities overlook.

Behind closed doors and windows. Elderly parents have struggled to get the help that they need.

  📍 And let's look at talking point number three, youth transition programs, realities. There is a lack of coordination for youth services to adult services as we discuss, and there are no guaranteed supports, and that's a big issue for us parents,  that we are all on our own and there are several pieces of legislation that cover some supports for our kids after age 22, and we need to know about them and study them.

That is the Developmental Disabilities Assistance and the Bill of Rights Act of 2000 that provides some federal funding to the states to fund DDS programs. DDS stands for the Department of Developmental Services. Medicaid waivers that were under the home and community-based services waivers that are under the Social Security Act, and some families can apply for what is called SSI, supplemental Security Income and SSDI, the Social Security Disability Insurance.

There is an application process, which we will definitely talk about in a minute, and waiting lists, which ultimately create our service. Cliff, we are talking about in an extensive web search, I found three resources for families that I will include on this podcast webpage.

You can view them there. There will be a link to the guide that was also placed in episode one. It is the DDS Guide to Transition Planning, Massachusetts Department of Developmental Services, and it was printed in 2013. In Massachusetts, adult services provide a state specific transition toolkit that can help and it is from the Asperger's Autism Network.

If you live in Pennsylvania has a state specific transition tool as well, so you definitely want to check out these resources.

  📍 And finally talking. Point number four, step-by-step application process for adult services. Step-by-step application process for adults is what we need. You may want to listen to this section additional times and check out the  episode's webpage for regional autism support offices that are designed to help you apply for adult services.

Massachusetts is often recognized as a model for their approach to autism policy. In 2014, the Autism Omnibus bill was passed, which focused on creating an inclusive neurodiverse affirming approach. To create a streamlined process to apply for Massachusetts Department of Developmental Services, also referred to as DDS.

This department has a children's division as well as an adult services division. And if you had applied early on in your child's autism journey, DDS child applications do not automatically transfer to DDS adult applications. There is a need to go through a process whereby you are seeing if you as an autistic adult who lives in Massachusetts might be eligible to access some new vocational resources and support systems, including health insurance and other benefits.

The DDS adult program if you qualify, can add some benefits to your everyday life. Caregivers of autistic adults will need to coordinate the application process while adding the autism self-advocacy networks. Nothing about us without us motto, that means that you include the autistic adult. In the application process and the completion of these applications, the application process thus becomes even more inclusive.

This is an enormous move for some parents who've been hopeful that their child would have grown out of their diagnosis and going through the application process also involves the emotional and psychological adjustments. Parents often experience when they reflect upon their lived knowledge so far, and they may also have some.

Facilitators that help in the application process, but they also may have barriers as well to the application process itself. So in social work, we look at facilitators and barriers. That means that there are processes and resources that are available through the DDS office. That would help to facilitate the application process and work directly with you and your adult to determine if your kiddo is eligible for support services for caregivers.

This can be extremely difficult as you will be meeting face-to-face with a worker who will assess the service needs and support needs. Of your kiddo, and they will want to really ensure that the process goes smoothly for you. Okay, so now we need to determine if you're eligible to apply for adult autism services in Massachusetts.

The office to contact is DDS. You would need to ensure documentation of your official residency. That means that you will have to document that you live in Massachusetts. So how do you prove that Massachusetts is your domicile? First, you could use a Massachusetts ID card, which is an identification card for individuals where you do not have to have a driver's license.

Another document that proves your residency in Massachusetts is a school transcript. The school transcript needs to be within the last 12 months. Here we may have some difficulty for many families who did not know initially to apply for DDS adult services in that case.

What you would do is you would gather alternative information that they are looking for.

Then you can head over to the DDS website and review your application options. If you're applying for adult autism services, your adult needs to be at least over the age of 18 and had graduated high school already and was diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder.

There are also other layers of the application process itself. If you are applying with an intellectual disability, there will be another application that you would need to complete. There is also the home and community-based services waivers that increase eligibility for some supports.

So let's look at the criteria. You have to meet a high level of support needs so that you can thrive in your own community. Here are some challenges because now you have to gather documentation that describes the diagnosis. Support services previously attained in the educational setting, such as previous copies of IEPs, individual education plans, and an official diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder.

That is up to date. With the criteria that it's required to meet under the DSM five, which as you know is a recent publication, that means that the diagnosis needs to come from a doctor. A psychologist and that there are some sort of professional evaluations that take place. There are some diagnostic assessments, reports that you may already have on file.

Usually DDS is looking at what areas of functioning are needed in order to maintain a person in the community. These things are personal hygiene. Is there a need for bathing, dressing, and changing assistance? They look at how the individual engages in communication and what communication equipment might be needed.

They will want to know if your kiddo had a, b, a, and possibly a Finland assessment, which talks about the levels of independent functioning. Definitely DDS understands that autism is a lifelong condition, and they will let you know what other supports you would need to think about. All right, so next steps.

So the next step is looking at the DDS adult eligibility application form. You can access the application at the link provided in this week's episode,

which will bring you directly to the DDS website. You will want to ensure that your kiddo qualifies. For the program, oftentimes, DDS suggests planning ahead and applying at age 17 to be proactive. But as we learned earlier from the research in the earlier episodes, most caregivers are aging, may have health issues that have impacted their ability to be proactive, and there's a huge knowledge gap with the majority of parents not knowing what services are available in the adult environment.

Let's get some help, shall we? I'm a little overwhelmed just thinking about the application process. What I love about this podcast is that it is addressing the knowledge gap directly. It turns out that in Massachusetts there are many regional autism support centers that are designed to help families and autistic adults with all things autism services.

These centers are listed on this episode's webpage. As well with links to the agency to apply for supports. They help with information and referral and other cool supports like support groups, training, apparent network opportunity, and they work directly with other community programs and they aim to be culturally humble.

Okay, so another talking point number five is your interview with DDS. That's right. They send you a letter and set up an appointment to meet with you and your autistic adult to interview and go. Even deeper into seeing what the support needs are, and they wanna get to know a little bit about your youth and what their needs are.

My older son did attend several interviews and at that time he was not very vocal in answering the interviewer questions, but this is a huge part of the process. You know that you are on the right path when you get to this point. At these appointments, there may be further evaluations regarding self-care needs and life skills needed in Massachusetts.

If you require an interpreter, DDS does provide this for you. You will receive a letter in the mail that will tell you whether or not you have provided everything needed in order for them to make a decision right away. And if they have not made a decision, they will ask you for further information. One of the barriers would be if you needed to go for formal neuropsychiatric testing.

At this point, as many of the individuals applying have evaluations that are dated back into their childhood, there is also an appeal process that they will let you know about and how you can go about. Appealing.

  📍 All right. Now let's talk about income, financial income. That is an option for some individuals who might qualify, and that is through the Social Security Administration. There are some programs for children under the age of 18. And there are some programs for over the age of 18, and we are gonna briefly talk about them, but it is a way in which you can access some money and that could be used towards supports and services for your adult  child.

 I often recommend to parents that they should contact the autism center in their town or in the general area to get some assistance with applying for SSI or SSDI. It can be very frustrating. And we'll dive a little bit into the research, which will validate the frustrations that parents have because there is delays in being approved and there are denials that occur.

S-S-I-S-S-D-I for some income support, SSI or supplemental security income is a needs-based program that individuals with disabilities who have limited income and resources. Are may qualified while SSDI, social Security Disability Insurance is for those who have worked and paid social security taxes.

That means the adult may be eligible for SSDI only if they have a parent who worked is retired, disabled, or passed away.

So flourishing caregiving, autistic adults wants to remind you to subscribe to our channel, and don't forget to fill out the Google survey document at the end of each episode so we can see how helpful this information is.

Again, being a caregiver is a blessing and I just love my kiddos so much, but if you need help. Please make sure to check in with your neighbors friends, the elderly, because we really need to come together to create our own facilitator network for autistic adults.

Let's create a community that is neurodivergent affirming and understanding.

So let's dive deeper into the research and find out just what other caregivers say about facilitators and barriers in applying for adult services. In social work we call a facilitator. Anything that will help and barriers are any challenges that may occur along the way. We also look at the ecosystem itself.

And where there may or may not be services available. One of the research studies that I want to highlight was conducted in 2018 by Shaddock and colleagues, and they wanted to know how to improve the overall systems that are designed to care for this growing population. I. In research, we often examine what type of method is used to study a subject.

In this case, the researchers used one of the most comprehensive, well-documented replicable methods called a systematic review. It all starts with a research question, and the researchers are including the results of studies based upon inclusive criteria or what they're going to include in their pile of research.

Shad and his colleagues did find that discouragement was one factor that posed a barrier. They identified that there are information gaps in what supports and resources are available, and they advocated for a central information hub that specializes in transition information. Ooh, wouldn't that be cool?

What could we call it? The caregiver hub. The info hub. But I love that idea of having a hub. They also found that there was a low knowledge, awareness. Of autism and they encouraged increasing training, increasing autism awareness, and having doctors, physicians, nurses anyone in the medical field, mental health field teachers especially, to develop more flexibility.

They endorsed the discouragement because the studies demonstrated that there were few really good service designs. They noted that there were a lot of token programs and they advocated for a strength-based supports and the co-creation of programs that align with what the individual with autism. Needs, and if there's one thing that I believe it is focusing on the strengths based approach, what is gonna be good for the adult and what's gonna be really manageable for the family,

and that's why narrative theory is so important. Narrative theory, the storytelling. Because although that is a story and a narrative of some family members, it's not the narrative of everyone. There's growing research that talks about, a different story from. Falling over the cliff at the service cliff.

Um, one of the studies talks about, and I will put this in the, on the webpage. That caregivers are very resilient. If you think about all of the, lived experience that midlife mothers go through, they are resilient and they have gone through two decades or more. Of care. And despite being a caregiver and despite the chronic stress, there are some real capacities that we think of for resilience.

I think about, , sitting down and doing, support with other mothers of autistic adults as a, , social worker in a private practice. I see every day how resilient my clients are. They have linked up some problem solving that's really positive and meaningful. They've created meaningful days, not just getting through, but.

Really creating a life that is worth living. , I have heard stories of families who are from different, backgrounds. , One autistic adult is very much into, , singing. And so she's created an amazing, , life for him where he's able to, , sing. And there's also a lot to be said about. Having the right supports.

Yes. A partner, yes. A friend is really important because it really helps you feel less alone. , And there's also, , strengthening resiliency there, what we call strengthening. There was, , a. A lot of study recently on that, how families just come together and

, They wanna change the

outcome. , There are a lot of, movements now for better. Outcomes for adults, including having access to services and if there isn't current access to services. Mothers are pretty resilient and very interesting. In fact, they create jobs for their. Kiddos. And one example would be, a soap company in Framingham.

At the mill, there was a soap company and they hired, uh, their autistic adult child. And that the soap that they made was amazing was called Aunt Stacey's soaps. So that is an example of a, . A family that is using art and love and creativity, uh, in an art studio. Um, there has been a lot of research. , I love research.

So let's dive just a little bit more that, , you need to recognize that there is research out there that is, , telling you about the horror stories, the phone calls that are never ending, the wait lists. , And yeah, that is definitely a thing. But the stories are not the whole story.

Research is showing us that there is a whole new movement now where there's quality of life, quality of care. The ability to adapt, to find meaning, to find meaning in their life, to find meaning in the problem solving and the wind that they go through. Also, one of the things that I love is this idea of creating a really cool, comfortable space for my kiddo.

Who is still living, , at the home. And that means also decreasing the level of tension and stress. , Really encouraging the kiddo to have responsibilities and, do laundry and artwork and learn life skills like being able to learn how to do. Simple meals and also a little bit more complex meals.

So it's really interesting when you stop and step back and you look at, , the perspective, that lens that we look at our child who. We thought was going to follow, a certain path is now following a different path and it's very creative and very interesting. And so I'm really excited about that development.

And her artwork development. So don't lose hope. Really don't make, , all of the information that I told you not to be discouraged. I am actually giving you the hands on information from the lived experience of a. A hospital based social worker and I used to work at the hospital for 27 years and I sat with families and we would apply for applications and the physicians would wonder, and people would wonder, what is the barriers?

What are the barriers to filling out these applications? And now, , it's not just a simple application that they're completing. The application represents the termination. Of hopes and dreams, or it can also represent a beginning that they're not ready for. So there are emotional aspects to medical social work that I don't think often are discussed.

But if you're a physician , or caregiver or a nurse, you know that there, there is a long waiting list and. There's also creativity, , there's really a lot of supports that are out there. Once you do apply, there really is, , I mean there is ongoing, , educational training, the current.

The, the current trend now in Massachusetts is we want to really,, see where the child is at. We wanna create a new story. We wanna, um, proactively find, um, you know, where their talents are, where their, um, passions are, and to go with that because you can create a life with your passions. Think about.

All of the individuals who have, uh, love their job, you know, they're very passionate about it. So I think that there is some hope, and I want to assure you that you as a parent are doing everything you can. You really are. I mean, if you think about it, you really are. And sometimes just waking up in the morning and pouring a cup of coffee and taking time for yourself is okay.

And again, I understand that, um, caregiving is a journey, but like we said earlier, we have to create our caregiver team and that team has to include. Other family members, other supports. I want to give a huge shout out to, uh, my mother, who is a grandmother who is, uh, acting as a caregiver, adjacently, uh, in, um, uh, for my other son who is, uh, living independently in a house not too far from her.

So I wanna give her a shout out because grandmothers are. Like maternal caregivers, they take on a huge role. They're unbelievably fantastic, and, uh, and we just love when you can help us out and when you can enjoy, uh, the benefits of a relationship with your, um, grandkid. Okay.

this episode focused on the experiences of aging parents engaged in lifelong caregiving. We also covered youth transition services that are covered under the IDEA and how to apply for adult services. We have a lot to share. With you in our next episode with When we will discuss a thorough understanding of the history of autism and we will also learn.

More in depth about some caregivers.

  📍 Thank you for listening to Flourishing Caregiving Autistic Adults. Please remember to subscribe to my channel where we will share research and stories from other caregivers journeys. Please review the resources on this episode's webpage.