This week, we're not bringing you stats or data or research... we're just bringing ourselves and our friend Karley. Because the truth is, data can only tell you so much, but for the three of us, some of the most impactful information we've ever

Ep 9: Mental Health Vibe Check: The State of Caregiver Mental Health & the Supports That Keep Us Going in 2024

Apr 15th, 2024 1h 9m

Hey caregiver. How are you doing? No, we mean, how are you *really* doing?Because according to the research (both our informal research and the many published academic studies), mental health for caregivers isn't great. The "why" probably isn't

Ep 8: Facing Uncertainty in Caregiving: IEPs, Social Security, and In-Home Nursing, Oh My!

Mar 25th, 2024 45m 4s

When it comes to being a caregiver to a medically complex and/or disabled child especially in 2024, life can feel.... uncertain. Covid-era legislation that helped caregivers in many states is now being rolled back, support that our families an

Ep 7: The State of Caregivers and Careers & Why That Matters For Our Medically Complex Kids

Jan 22nd, 2024 1h 3m

When it comes to the careers of caregivers… things are complicated. While some caregivers are able to maintain a wide variety of careers with the help of flexible work, home health nursing, understanding employers, and other supports, it’s not

Ep 6: The Caregiver Continuum: This Is Why We’re Always Tired

Dec 18th, 2023 50m 18s

The Caregiver Continuum. The continuum on which we as caregivers find ourselves looping around and around… and around again. We’ve gone through it. We’ve watched our fellow caregivers go through it. And today, we’re giving it a name.On this epi

Ep 5: Surviving Thanksgiving (literally), Holiday Hot Takes, and an Idea-versary

Dec 4th, 2023 48m 22s

Today’s conversation is a little lighter than usual becaaaaaaaause Erica and Alyssa are both still recovering from the holidays. Alyssa, because she always travels on holidays, and Erica, because she was literally sick the whole week. But don’t

Ep 4: Did we invent a new term?! (Or why are so few professionals disability-informed?)

Nov 6th, 2023 49m 28s

Disability-informed… If you’ve been following us, you’ve heard us use this phrase non-stop in the last month. So, you would expect that to be a common phrase, right? After all, the idea seems relatively self-explanatory. Well, hold on tight fri

Ep 3: Disability-Informed Caregiving and a couple of really good moms (and no, we're not talking about ourselves)

Oct 16th, 2023 49m 44s

In their last introductory episode, Erica and Alyssa share how their own experiences as disabled children shaped the way they navigate caregiving now. They touch on the examples that their own parents set as caregivers, the emotional weight car

Ep 2: Cared For to Caregiver: How two disabled kids grew up to parent their own disabled children

Oct 9th, 2023 44m 8s

Erica and Alyssa get super vulnerable and share their own experiences of growing up as disabled children. We talk about our disabilities, the many feelings that come with growing up in a noticably different body, our complicated feelings on bei

Ep 1: Caregiving, coffee, and maybe too much information: an introduction to Caffeinated Caregivers

Oct 2nd, 2023 46m 39s

It's our very first episode, and we promise we talk about way more than just coffee! Erica and Alyssa get into everything including how they first met, their own parenting and caregiving experiences, the power of language to describe our shared

Trailer

Welcome to Caffeinated Caregivers!

Sep 27th, 2023 1m 18s

Welcome to Caffeinated Caregivers, with your hosts Erica Stearns and Alyssa Nutile, two caregivers and parents to medically complex children who are out here, ready to build a community of caregivers to empower each other and advocate for bette

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