Things We Aren’t Supposed To Talk About - Being A Caregiver

Good morning. Hello, everybody. I'm sorry I'm late. It is Shannon from Cadre. And welcome to Caregiver day. It's the first inaugural caregiver day on Cadre. I'm sorry. I was having some Internet issues, so that's why I was slow today. Okay, so here we are. We are here for caregiver day. My dog Gilbert, is also here in the background. I'm going to give you guys a minute to join. Um, okay, so for those of you who don't know me, my name is Shannon. I am a human. I am not a mental health professional.

I am not a clinician. I am a person who lives with autism. Who lives with autism. I don't live with autism. My son lives with autism. I live with anxiety. I live with CPTSD, and I parents, obviously a child with autism. I've also been in therapy for eight years, so my ah, speak wonder. Good morning, you amusing human, you. I am a person who will share with you my experience of being in therapy for eight years, what I've learned and apply that to specifically on this day of the week, we're gonna apply it to what it means to be a caregiver.

So I see people are joining. It's so good to see all of you. Hi, Luke. Hi, Colleen. Hi, Debu Bennett. Okay, guys, so I want to give you a little bit of. Today is going to be an introduction to the larger caregiver day. And so why do we even have. I'm going to start with why do we have a caregiver day? And as some of you know, who are caregivers, why we have a caregiver day is that there are parts of. And all of us, all of us do multiple things. Good morning, Luke. All of us do multiple things in life, right?

We all have roles. We all have different roles. And as I already said, and you all know, one of those roles is being a caregiver. And that role particularly can be really difficult to talk about out in the world because, as our friend Colleen Lindstrom says, and you'll probably hear her say when she comes to you at 945 this morning, we're trying to find people with our matching luggage. And the caregiver luggage is a real specific luggage. Whether you take care of. Whether it is, you take care of someone with a disability, whether you take care of an aging parent, whatever you do, it's a super specific kind of luggage.

It's like a Paisley sided, maybe it's like a paisley fabric, right? It's definitely unique. It's definitely one of a kind. When you see it come around. No, I'm going to steal Colleen's analogy, but when you see it come around at the airport and you're picking it up, you got it right. It's like a purple paisley. And if another caregiver is at the airport, too, they're gonna get it. We're both gonna grab for that piece of luggage. Good morning, Anna. So this is a space for those of us with that particular brand of role to come together and talk about it.

So here's what's coming up today and what's gonna be part of your life now. Every Thursday. So you've got me. I'm a person. We talked about it. All the things, you know me. Coming up at 945 this morning is Colleen Lindstrom. Colleen is a mother of a child. I'll let her tell her. Actually, you know what? I'm gonna let all of these people tell their own bios. She is a person who also has a set of this luggage. She will be here at 945 today. And actually, anecdotally, because I see the folks here, and I learned last night, speak, wonder that you actually were a radio broadcaster.

I'm gonna make a community connection here. Going to go with it. Colleen was also a broadcaster. So the two of you may have something to talk about at some point. So Colleen is coming up at 945. We're also incredibly excited, proud, grateful that we have brought on a partner, a clinical partner for Caregiver day. So the Minnesota Autism center here in Minnesota, their CEO, Jeff Nichols, their team, Laura, Jen, they are coming to Cadre every week at noon, and they're bringing clinicians. So today we're going to have Jamie.

Jamie's awesome. I sat next to her earlier this week. She is a clinician, and she has a personal experience in life, not really directly, but in her life, that made her want to. Want to help people. Caregivers, right? To help people living with autism specifically and the people in their lives. Jamie's coming on at noon every week, you will see someone from the Minnesota Autism center. So please, please, please support them. They're like amazing, amazing people. At 01:00 we have girls mentorship who I know some of you know from other days of the week, and they are bringing a really unique lens to caregiving from the perspective of people in our lives that may not be directly, it might not be a familial relationship.

Right. It may be a mentor that you have in life. It may be an adult that comes to your life and adds value and cares for you in ways that aren't that typical familial relationship. So they will be here at 01:00 they're always amazing, Mary and Jill. So, yeah, I don't even know what to say. It's definitely worth checking out. That's at 01:00 and then at 02:00 today. One of my favorites, because her name is also Shannon, although it is an A. Shannon Paul. Miss Shannon is coming on at 02:00. Miss Shannon is also here from Minnesota.

She is also a mother of a son with autism. I'll let her tell her story as well. She's also a comedian, so she brings this lens, right. And we all know as caregivers, for those of us here, you can't always be like, it's not always sad. Right? There's good stuff, too. There's beautiful things. There's gratefulness that comes in and perspective, I think, that comes in our roles as caregivers. Your lens on the world completely changes. And the beautiful thing about Shannon is she brings humor as a point of connection.

And so I absolutely say, check her out all day long. So these are the folks that are going to be here today. I want to remind everyone here, caregiver is one part of our life, right? It's one of the roles that we have. But we're here because it's one of those things that, going back to Colleen's matching luggage, we've all got it. And so if we can see each other in that role, we're just going to help each other. So my life today is just sharing my excitement about what's to come, sharing my excitement about how the people that are tuning in right now, we can support one another.

So I'm gonna be here every Thursday. I'm gonna continue to share my story, and these other folks are gonna come on as well. And so please continue to come. If you know other people in your life that it would help, please join us. And, yeah, I'm gonna look forward to seeing Colleen and 30 some minutes. So come as you are friends on Thursdays at Cadre. We love you. You're amazing human beings. We'll see you soon, and I hope you have a beautiful rest of your day. Bye, guys. Thank you for being here.