Presentation Speaking Topics

The Business Side of Caregiving 

Taking Care of Business: Your Priceless Investment
Let’s face it: your family is your legacy and your pride, but love and devotion have blind spots. Learn to put your emotions aside and utilize business concepts to effectively create a strategic plan for your loved one’s care. Tammy Flynn will teach you how to perform a situation analysis, including analyzing the risks, the care team, the financial situation and the implications of any decision. This talk will give you the skills to approach your caregiving decisions as if you are running a business. 

To Hire or To Fire? Building the Best Care Team Possible
How do you build the best care team to advise you and effectively treat for your loved ones? You start by examining the individuals involved in caring for your loved ones. Do they embrace your loved one as a real, whole person? How do they approach team planning and communication with other providers? What is their quality of care? Are they dedicated to providing continuity of care for all of their patients? Do their values match your core values? Do they respect and see your loved one as an individual?
This practical talk will give you medical care strategies to build a great team throughout the spectrum of a loved one’s life. Whether your talking to doctors, counselors, school administration and other care workers, you need to truly understand how their approach will work for your family. You’ll gain insights into what you are looking for in a provider and how to find it, while learning skills that help you decide whether to stick with a provider or to move on. These principles can be applied to anyone requiring a care team, elderly or child. 

Mother on a Mission: A Story of Weight Loss 
In 2016, Tammy’s son had an urgent mission: to lose over 40 pounds for a greater chance of success in an upcoming life-threatening surgical procedure. Losing weight is a daunting task for anyone, but especially a child with cognitive and developmental delays, multiple anaphylactic food allergies, a metabolism disorder, and a love for carbs. Learn the tips and tricks that Tammy used to help her son lose 60 pounds. This interactive talk will teach you how to actively work with your child to attain a variety of medical or educational goals, not just weight loss. From tracking systems to ensure goals are met to building a team to hold you accountable, we will address systems and tools to turn huge goals into step-by-step campaign. 

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Best Practices for Working with the Educational System  

Managing the Gap: Chronological Age vs. Cognitive Age
Are you having difficulties getting services for your child because the gap between chronological age and cognitive age isn’t big enough? Is your child missing out on important therapies or not qualifying for services as a result? This talk will teach you how to better articulate a case for services for your child when faced with a gap, including the information you need before requesting services and how tell your story with greater impact. 

ADVOCACY – 101 
In advocacy, you must always remember: “What you accept, you will receive.” To ensure your loved ones receive the highest level of care, you need to be a strong advocate. Advocacy requires effort, including investigation, education and persistence. This interactive discussion will teach you how to best advocate for your child using a 5-step process. Whether advocating for yourself or your loved one, this talk will give you the information you need to develop a strong and accountable care and educational team with a plan for the future. 

Project IEP 
An accurate individual educational plan (IEP) is paramount for your child to receive appropriate and effective education and services. Beyond just a school document, the IEP is a comprehensive plan that ensures educational goals are actively worked on, healthcare needs are addressed and safety measures implemented. The IEP also serves as the medical basis for many benefits and accommodations during your child’s school-aged lifespan. 
This informative talk will empower you to with an understanding of your child’s rights and how to advocate for a strong IEP for your child’s situation. This important conversation will empower you to create an IEP with accurate goals and modifications to help your child—at school and beyond. 

What’s Next: The Child to Adult Transition 
What does turning 18 mean for you and your child? An astronomical amount of change occurs as your child moves into their adult years. As your child ages out of the school system, it is time to look for services and resources available within the community to help families with adult-age children with special needs. This conversation will share the ins and outs of obtaining guardianship; discuss the transition of services required; evaluate the pros and cons of services and organizations within the community. We will also discuss when and how to handle and the emotional hurdles that can arise for both parents and child as children turn 21 and phase out of the school system. This interactive conversation will outline your rights and help you create a plan that works for all. 

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Taking Care of the Caregiver 

The 5 P’s  - Process, Prioritize, Plan, Patience and Pray
Being a caregiver is draining emotionally, physically and financially. This interactive presentation will share how to care for yourself while helping loved ones with different abilities or special healthcare needs. This workshop will teach you the 5 Ps and how to put them into action for the best outcomes for your children, your family and yourself.

The Portrait of a Caregiver
Grab your tennis shoes and pace yourself, because you’re in it for the long run. Caregiving is a marathon and not a sprint. This empowering discussion will teach you how to combat the physical, emotional and financial burden caretakers undergo. By learning ways to take care of yourself first, you will be better equipped to help others in your life. Tammy will discuss practical tips such as healthy eating and exercising, and provide emotional tools that help you combat guilt, fear and even depression. Tammy will also address how to build a village that supports you and your loved one. 

A New Career? Making a Living while Caring for Your Loved One
Managing the demands of a career and those of a loved one that needs support is a challenge. The need to leave the office for numerous doctors appointments and therapy sessions can put your career on the line and cause frustration for you and your co-workers. Tammy will discuss the home versus career connection, how to redefine your role so you can handle both while honoring your needs for personal growth. She’ll also discuss alternative funding programs available for caregivers and individuals with disabilities.

The Miracle Effect 
God gave us burdens, but he also gave us shoulders to carry it. Using faith to guide her, Tammy has been able to see how having a son with special needs has happened FOR her and not TO her. Tammy’s deep faith has guided her life and she will share how she has let go and let God lead the way, especially in regards to caring for her son. She’ll introduce you to the spiritual tools that help her, like the Serenity Prayer. As Tammy likes to say, “faith is seeing the stair but not seeing the staircase and remembering He is still present in every facet of our lives.” Regardless of whether you have a spiritual background or not, this talk will help you find peace.

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Family Dynamics 

Always 2nd Place
Does it feel like your child with special needs gets all of the attention? In this talk, we’ll tackle the emotional struggle that sibling(s) of individuals with different abilities face. We’ll look at how to create special time with siblings and ways to enhance your relationships with your other children while caring for your child with special needs. We will explore building a network to help your other children get their needs met. 

Coming to Terms: The Grieving Process
Being a caregiver can take a huge emotional toll, regardless of whether you’re caring for a child, an elderly loved one or an individual who suddenly became ill.  This talk will help caregivers grieve the loss of what could have been while giving them skills move forward. This talk acknowledges that the mourning occurs at every milestone—when the loved one enters school, when they leave school, when an elderly relative downsizes, has a surgery, etc. While it may be easier to push these feelings aside, it is important to acknowledge and move through them. Tammy will lead you through the steps of grief in a kind and healing way. 

The Lonely Road: Tools for Single, Divorced and Co-Parenting Children of Special Needs 
Bills in the mail, career demands, demands of running a household, caregiving, decision-making…..the demands of a single parent are daunting, but the challenges increase threefold when parenting a child with special needs. One in four special needs children live with single mothers, resulting in increased mental, financial and emotional demands. This talk will provide single parents with tools and techniques to better equip you for the demanding challenge of parenting on your own.

Parenting a Child with Special Needs 
When caring for a child with special needs, how do you stay the parent rather than becoming the nurse, doctor, physical therapist or other caretaker? Regardless of the illness, children with different abilities still need goals, visions and dreams to lead a fulfilling life. This talk will provide resources and information on how to keep your focus on parenting rather than just caretaking so that you can help your child become all they can be. 

It’s my job to be sick 
The battle with chronic illness means multiple doctor’s appointments, medical surgeries and procedures, and a plethora of days missed from school. It also changes the dynamics between parent and child. When sick becomes normal for a kid, they find a comfort in being sick. They learn to be good patients but lose site of normal life, tasks, homework and fun. As a parent and caregiver, how do you nip it in the bud and give your child the identity they need. Tammy will provide insight and guidance for parents facing of children facing chronic illness.

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For Educators

Food Fight 
20 students in a classroom: two with life-threatening allergies and one with diabetes requiring calorie counts. How does a teacher manage these serious implications with confidence while handling behavior issues, parent demands and teaching the students? This interactive workshop will provide best practices to keep students safe in your classroom as well as throughout the school. We will provide tools, ideas and planning strategies to make sure parents and teachers collaborate to ensure a child is safe and feels confident and accepted within his or her classroom. 

Building Kindness in the Classroom
This workshop will provide information for classroom teachers on how to create an environment of acceptance and kindness for everyone. Students, parents and teachers will learn to collaborate in an effort to create a respectful environment for all. We will explore topics of bullying, invisible disabilities and different abilities through activities, projects and educational content that you can transfer to the classroom or other settings. 

Tough Conversations: Sharing Concerns with Parents
As a classroom teacher, you know normal stages of development. When a child in your classroom does not display age-appropriate development, you notice. How do you safely and empathetically broach the subject with parents when children aren’t meeting developmental milestones? How can you carefully voice your concerns without violating federal, state or school regulations? This discussion, designed for pre-school teachers, will provide strategies to communicate with parents.

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