How do I stay informed about what’s happening so that I don’t miss anything affecting my child who is living with a disability?

I'm sharing an article from the Disability Pathfinder Compass Newsletter. If you have a child living with a disability, this article may give you some insight on how to stay informed on various topics.

Caller: Hi. I have a child who has a disability, and he is in middle school. Sometimes I just wonder if I am missing something and what it is that I am missing. I stay very involved with my son, my family, and my job, but sometimes these days, I ‘come up for air’ and look around and think, I must have missed something. But how do I find out about those things?

Pathfinder: Great question! Especially during this pandemic time when everything is different – things happen in different places, we look different wearing masks outside our homes, and we stay six or more feet apart from other people to stay safer – it is still important to stay engaged. Even as we carefully navigate the present to avoid getting COVID-19, a disease that could kill us or a family member, we are frequently told by health experts and medical professionals that it is healthy to stay as engaged and active in our lives as possible. I think digital subscriptions are a surprisingly under-utilized way we can stay active, interested, involved, and engaged.

You can start a new subscription list today with Tennessee Disability Pathfinder’s emailed offerings: our monthly newsletter The Compass, English and Spanish editions, and events and training notification emails. As a nonprofit organization which collects and maintains a database of disability-related resources for all ages and all disabilities across the state, our monthly newsletter is themed with topics of interest to our broad readership.

You can subscribe here, as well as access our current issue and any archived issues from the last two years: https://vkc.vumc.org/vkc/pathfinder/enews/ Another subscription of importance and possible interest to you is the weekly Policy Update from Policy Director Lauren Pearcy, of the state Council on Developmental Disabilities (DD Council). It covers what is going on at the state and national policy level – items of particular interest to persons with disabilities, their families and persons who care for them. You can also elect to get Breaking Ground digital magazine and/or the public policy notifications and alerts. Here is where you can subscribe to the DD Council’s digital offerings: https://www.us6.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=c19758ec49388aade26feeccf&id=a4d7cff02e

There are many great digital offerings from organizations across the state, and I cannot list them all here. But whenever you connect with an organization or agency you like, you can check for and subscribe to their newsletter. You will find many also have social media options, and you may want to engage there. Both Pathfinder and the DD Council use Facebook and Twitter posts. And don’t worry, with any subscription, you can always unsubscribe if you find it doesn’t meet your needs.

By Karen Mevis 

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