June 9, 2025 • 18 mins
In this first installment, hosts Meghan (Smallwood) and Patrick (Cadigan) discuss the role of Support Broker with Jamie Brodnax, who recently transitioned from Coordinator of Community Service (CCS) to running her own Support Broker agency. The team of three work to clarify the differences between support brokers, the CCS & day-to-day administrators. They emphasize the support broker's role in self-directed services, while Jamie explains some of the tasks her position asks for, including attending PCP meetings, budgeting, and creating newsletters to keep teams informed. They also talk about the importance of early planning and accurate information sharing, especially amidst frequent policy changes. Join the conversation!
Episode Keywords:
support broker, self-directed services, DDA, person-centered planning, budgeting, compliance, day-to-day administrator, transition coordinator, newsletter, advocacy groups, fiscal management services, IEP, PCP meetings, family support
Links:
Acronyms/Definitions (page)
Maryland (specific) Links/Supports:
Achieving Independent Support Services (site)
DDA Connection (page)
To download a copy of a transcript for this episode or any of our previous conversations, click here.
Also visit our Podcast webpage to find links to all of our other discussions; go to www.p2transition.com.
Additional information about post-secondary transition can be found at our website.
The Post-Secondary Transition Podcast Facebook page.
Visit our YouTube Channel to find additional video resources.
Intro/Outro music by AudioCoffee from Pixabay.
Transition music by Joseph McDade from Transistor.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Meghan Smallwood (00:00):
Welcome. This is the Post Secondary Transition
podcast where we haveconversations around the ins and
outs and everything in betweenof the transition process for
families of students withdisabilities. I'm one of the
hosts. My name is MeghanSmallwood, and I am a public
school transition coordinator.
And as always, I have my co hostwith me.
Patrick Cadigan (00:18):
My name is Patrick Cadigan. I am also a
public school transitioncoordinator, I feel like we've
been here before, but it'salways a good thing. Meghan and
I are back into our classicformat where we get to talk to
somebody. And as it turns out,Meghan, you want to tell
everybody who we're talking to?
Meghan Smallwood (00:39):
Yeah, we brought back one of our
favorites, Jamie Brodnax,because we figured self directed
and support brokers has beensuch a hot topic, and it's only
expanding. So it would be greatto hear from the source of
someone who lives it every dayand just found out it's a lot
that she's doing.
Jamie Brodnax (00:58):
Yes, yep, and it's constantly changing. So I'm
excited to share some of thisinformation with you guys.
Patrick Cadigan (01:05):
Quick update so that everyone knows what's going
on; because if I remember thelast time that we talked, you
were a Coordinator of CommunityService. So, Ms. Broadnax, what
has changed?
Jamie Brodnax (01:18):
So just over a year ago, I ended being a
service coordinator andtransition to a new role of
being a support broker, and havemy own support broker agency
now.
Meghan Smallwood (01:31):
And what is the name of that?
Jamie Brodnax (01:32):
It is Achieving Independent Support Services.
Meghan Smallwood (01:36):
Awesome.
Patrick Cadigan (01:37):
All right, no shameless self promotion here.
Meghan Smallwood (01:39):
I gotta throw it in there.
Patrick Cadigan (01:42):
Okay, so I love these kinds of conversations,
because Meghan knows so muchmore than I do. So I get to play
catch up. If you were asked togive a definition of a support
broker, Jamie, how would youdescribe it?
Jamie Brodnax (02:00):
I would say that a support broker is really a
role that is designed to provideassistance to the participant or
the individual, whatever theywould like to be called and
their team to just help themwith managing all of the
responsibilities that come alongwith choosing to self direct
their services.
Meghan Smallwood (02:20):
Now that is different than the coordinator
of community services or CCS,right?
Jamie Brodnax (02:25):
Yes, yep.
Meghan Smallwood (02:26):
...because I feel like a lot of families get
confused with so many differenttitles and acronyms that they're
not sure who does what, but thesupport broker is specifically
for self direction.
Jamie Brodnax (02:37):
Yes, and...
Meghan Smallwood (02:39):
In addition to the coordinator.
Jamie Brodnax (02:40):
Exactly. So every person that has DDA services
gets a coordinator. It istypically not a person that you
choose. It's someone that'sassigned to you based on the
agency that you choose to workwith, but a support broker, we
are interviewed, hired, chosenby the participant or their
representative, and not everyonehas to have a support broker or
(03:03):
chooses to have a supportbroker. Only people in self
direction, and then, even morespecific, only people that have
family and staff or a day to dayadministrator on their staff are
required to have a supportbroker. Anybody can have one
that's in the self direction,but it's not required unless you
(03:24):
fit one of those two things.
Meghan Smallwood (03:26):
I see. So a family is working for the
individual, then they arerequired to have it...
Jamie Brodnax (03:31):
Yeah.
Meghan Smallwood (03:32):
...always.
Jamie Brodnax (03:32):
Yeah.
And then you said the day to dayassistant, day to day
administrator, that's somethingnew.
It is. It's relatively new. Iwant to say it's been a thing
for about two years, but morepopular in the last year, year
and a half. And that's a rolethat is similar to support
(03:56):
broker and to the CCS. It's kindof like those three roles are
there as the support roles, butthe day to day administrator
takes on a little bit more ofthe daily management, so maybe
creating schedules, makingappointments, supporting the
person with their personalfinances, you know, the day to
(04:17):
day needs of the team in Thehousehold where the support
broker is more focused on theself directed aspect and the
budgeting and making sure thatthings stay compliant, and the
CCS really oversees a little bitof everything, but mainly
focuses on that person centeredplan and the services and the
(04:37):
implementation of those.
Meghan Smallwood (04:39):
So if the the family. I know a lot of parents
when when they're thinking aboutself directed it's an
overwhelming and daunting taskto think about a schedule and
trying to plan out what theindividual will do every day. So
it sounds like that day to dayadministrative assistant would
be very helpful.
Jamie Brodnax (04:56):
Yeah, it definitely can be. And even more
so, a lot of parents. Parentschoose to take on that role for
themselves and then have hiredstaff take on the role of being
the support staff, because a lotof times you know as mom or dad
or guardian, you're alreadydoing those things. You're
already making the appointmentsand helping with the finances.
(05:17):
You already know the dailyschedule and the things that are
happening. So it's easy to fallinto that role and then leave
the services to someone else, ordo a combination.
Meghan Smallwood (05:29):
So the day to day, if you were to have a day
to day administrative assistant,that's not required?
Jamie Brodnax (05:33):
It is not.
Meghan Smallwood (05:34):
...so you can potentially start with one, and
then over time, as you becomemore comfortable, kind of take
it out of the plan?
Jamie Brodnax (05:41):
Absolutely. And with day to day administrator
two, that is not a role that isfunded by DDA. So that's a role
that a person has to use costsavings in their budget to fund.
So it depends on, can you afforda day to day administrator, and
maybe that's one of the thingsthat I can help with, is
(06:02):
figuring out how to adjust thefunding and some of the other
services to leave money for thatrole.
Meghan Smallwood (06:08):
Ah, ok, whereas the support broker is
actually funded through theplan?
Jamie Brodnax (06:14):
Yes.
Patrick Cadigan (06:15):
So then Meghan and I have said it a million
times over, that all of thesethings, transition in general,
is very individualized. However,for you, Jamie, what does a day
look like for you?
Jamie Brodnax (06:31):
So it's funny you bring up the individualized
part, because it really isdifficult to say, because every
day is different, because everyteam is different, there are
some things that I would say Ido pretty commonly, maybe not
every day, but there's, youknow, I'm attending all of the
PCP meetings and helping withidentifying the best way to use
(06:53):
the funding that DDA provides intheir PCP. I'm also just helping
the teams with understandingtheir budget, because sometimes
they're confusing to look at,especially if you're not a
numbers person, or somebodywho's done a lot of budgeting
and then monitoring the spendingthat takes place throughout the
year. It's not always easy totrack payments in time sheets
(07:18):
and making sure that things aregetting paid the way that
they're supposed to, and thatthere's no errors. So I do a lot
of that on a regular basis. I'malso always assisting the teams
when problems come up, so ifsomebody doesn't get paid, or if
there's a document that needs tobe updated, or information that
needs to be updated with theFMS, I'm getting on top of that
(07:41):
as quickly as possible, just tokeep things running smoothly and
making sure there's nocompliance issues. None of the
staff are missing theirpayments. And then I'm also
helping with keeping the teamsinformed, especially now where
we're at a time where literallyweekly or monthly, we're seeing
changes regarding thegovernment, DDA, self directed,
(08:05):
the FMS is there's just so manychanges. It's it's really
difficult to keep track of allof that information. So I make
that a part of my job, to createmonthly newsletters and send
that out so that everyone isreceiving the same information,
and kind of understands when I'mcalling them asking about
something, they're notblindsided. But then, you know,
(08:28):
on other days, it could behelping somebody hire or
advertise for staff. Could behelping with completing the self
directed documents. And then Ialso do trainings for people
that are new to self direction,to help them understand all of
the things that they're going tobe expected to do on a regular
(08:48):
basis.
Patrick Cadigan (08:50):
And for the uninitiated or any new listeners
that we have, this is what weaffectionately refer to as
acronym vomit. FMS will beFiscal Management Services, PCP
being Person Centered Planning.
Always happy to help insituations like this, to make
everything that we're learningjust a little bit more clear. We
now join our regularly scheduledprogram already in progress.
Meghan Smallwood (09:14):
I love your idea of a newsletter and keeping
everyone informed of thechanges, because I know there's
a lot of worry around whatthat's going to look like moving
forward, but that is a goodquestion for a family to ask.
Then, if they're interviewing asupport broker, like, how do you
keep people informed what kindsof things you do? Because,
again, that's individualizeddepending on the support broker,
right?
Jamie Brodnax (09:34):
Yes, and it's not something that I think every
support broker does, maybe theexact same way that I do, I know
that there are some who mayexperience their support brokers
sending them the newslettersthat come out. DDA does have
their own DDA connection thatthey send out each FMS has their
own updates. So do the manyother advocacy groups, and, you
(09:59):
know, just groups that.
Following self direction, I justchoose to keep track of all of
those and put it together in onehopefully easy to understand
newsletter, and then send thatout to everyone that I support
and their teams at least once amonth, unless there's no big
changes, which, since I'vestarted, that hasn't happened.
Meghan Smallwood (10:24):
There's always big changes with the state
that'll never stop. I was justgonna add, I know we were
talking before we started, justabout, like families looking for
a support broker. And honestly,there's no early, well, there's
an early time, but you shouldn'tbe waiting until, you know,
right before exit, to come upwith one, right or interview
(10:45):
one.
Jamie Brodnax (10:46):
Absolutely. I mean, you know, things change,
and I have seen where somepeople maybe start out the
process not planning on goingself direction and then deciding
at some point that they do wantto go that route. So you can
always reach out whenever it isthroughout the year, and you
know your CCS can support you inidentifying a support broker,
(11:07):
but specifically fortransitioning youth, I
definitely suggest when youreally start that planning
process, include talking tosupport brokers in that early
part of the planning. It helpsnot only the support broker be
prepared, but it also allows thesupport broker to attend those
meetings. I've been to quite afew IEPs, quite a few early PCP
(11:33):
planning sessions, and that waythe support brokers get a good
idea of what the person islooking for, and can help make
suggestions, but also then theteam has the knowledge of the
support broker and identifyingdifferent things that they can
put into the PCP, helping tobuild that first budget, and
really just understanding what'sgoing to be required of them,
(11:56):
because going from The schoolsetting to DDA is already a big
transition. Deciding to go selfdirection adds a little bit more
responsibility to that, so it'sgood to have an idea upfront of
what you can expect.
Patrick Cadigan (12:13):
Jamie, you've mentioned this a couple of
times. Obviously, lately,there's been a lot of
discussion, both in the mediaand just in general, with all
these changes, as the SupportBroker, how do you find out
about the changes, and then howdo you know what is the correct
information to pass on?
Jamie Brodnax (12:33):
That is a great question, so it takes a lot of
patience and really payingattention to what is coming from
DDA, what is coming from theadvocacy groups I attend, all of
the webinars, all of thehearings, I read everything that
they send out, and sometimes itdoesn't apply, but a lot of
(12:57):
times it'll Be that lastparagraph that shares that
really important information. Ireally try to lean towards
transparency. So I shareinformation as I'm getting it,
and if I am not 100% or if thereare some, you know, some details
(13:17):
that haven't been shared, I willsay that because I think again,
just that early knowledge ofknowing what to expect is so
important, I don't want to waituntil I have every single detail
and then share it andsomething's happening in two
weeks where I could share it afew months in advance, people
can be prepared. They can askquestions. We can find out
(13:38):
together with the final detailsare going to be but yeah, really
just attending all of thehearings, listening to what's
being said, reading all of theinformation that comes out, and
then spending the time to putthat into understandable words.
Because unfortunately, sometimessome of the newsletters and
(14:00):
things that are released are invery DDA specific terminology.
And, you know, there are alldiffering abilities when it
comes to understanding, so Ijust want to make sure that I'm
as clear as possible and astransparent as possible.
Meghan Smallwood (14:18):
Yeah, that's definitely helpful, because I
even get all the emails and I'mlike, Oh my gosh, I don't even
know how to decipher this, and Iknow I have to go down the
rabbit hole, but I think of aparent and everything else they
might have on their plate, andhow, like, just overwhelming and
stressful that can be. So it'sso helpful to know that they
could have a support brokerhelping them through that
(14:41):
process.
Jamie Brodnax (14:41):
Absolutely, and their CCS as well.
Unfortunately, what I do seesometimes is specifically with
some of the social media groups,is that there will be a person
who doesn't fully understand andthen they may share information
that isn't a. Ways completelyaccurate. So I would definitely
(15:03):
say, if you are unsure aboutsomething, go to your CCS, go to
your support broker, they canhelp you in understanding what's
happening.
Patrick Cadigan (15:10):
Wait a minute! Are you intimating that social
media might not be correct..?!
Jamie Brodnax (15:16):
Sometimes.
Patrick Cadigan (15:18):
Ahhhh, now...
Meghan Smallwood (15:18):
Patrick's mind is blown.
Patrick Cadigan (15:20):
Now we're just getting political. Oh, this is
ridiculous. All right, I'mchanging...
Meghan Smallwood (15:23):
And its sooo...
Jamie Brodnax (15:25):
It's not always an intentional misunderstanding?
Some of it's just confusing.
Meghan Smallwood (15:30):
Yeah.
Patrick Cadigan (15:31):
Of course.
Meghan Smallwood (15:31):
And you're right. I mean, I think it's so
like, there's such a positive tohaving these groups so people
can lean on each other. Butyou're right, I always tell
families to take everything theyread with a grain of salt, and,
you know, do a little moredigging, or talk to your
resources and just make sureit's accurate.
Jamie Brodnax (15:48):
Absolutely.
Patrick Cadigan (15:49):
Well, as the transition coordinator, the
other thing that I've had to dois to tell people to to just be
patient, because you never know.
You never know what's going tohappen.
And for those who are not payingattention, or if they can't
necessarily hear, Meghan decidedthat she didn't want to be in
the meeting.
Meghan Smallwood (16:10):
Meghan's computer accidentally, like hit
the button. I told you,technology is not my friend
today.
Patrick Cadigan (16:16):
Ladies and gentlemen, Ms. Smallwood has
decided to join us once again.
Meghan Smallwood (16:21):
Had to make another grand appearance!
Patrick Cadigan (16:23):
And this is where we decided to pause the
discussion. So in two weekstime, come back and continue the
discussion with friend of thepodcast and support broker Jamie
Broadnax.
Meghan Smallwood (16:43):
As always, you'll find links to the
information from ourconversations in our show notes.
We would love for theinformation from this and all
our other discussions to reachas many families as possible,
and we need your help to dothat. You can find our
conversations atwww.p2transition.com, like,
follow, share out the podcast.
Our conversations are posted toall the major platforms,
(17:05):
including Apple podcasts,Spotify, YouTube music, and
that's just naming a few. Soplease share and share often.
Patrick Cadigan (17:15):
Please check out our YouTube channel. We've
done some of the legwork for youby curating videos of topics
that revolve around transition.
We have playlists forguardianship, alternatives to
guardianship, ABLE accounts, andthere's more to come. So please
be sure to subscribe there aswell. And finally, check out our
website, which is full ofinformation and links to
resources around the transitionprocess. Open your web browser
(17:36):
of choice and surf towww.postsecondarytransition.com.
We thank you so much for thetime that you've spent with us,
and look forward to talkingagain soon.
Welcome. This is the Post Secondary Transition
podcast where we haveconversations around the ins and
outs and everything in betweenof the transition process for
families of students withdisabilities. I'm one of the
hosts. My name is MeghanSmallwood, and I am a public
school transition coordinator.
And as always, I have my co hostwith me.
Patrick Cadigan (00:18):
My name is Patrick Cadigan. I am also a
public school transitioncoordinator, I feel like we've
been here before, but it'salways a good thing. Meghan and
I are back into our classicformat where we get to talk to
somebody. And as it turns out,Meghan, you want to tell
everybody who we're talking to?
Meghan Smallwood (00:39):
Yeah, we brought back one of our
favorites, Jamie Brodnax,because we figured self directed
and support brokers has beensuch a hot topic, and it's only
expanding. So it would be greatto hear from the source of
someone who lives it every dayand just found out it's a lot
that she's doing.
Jamie Brodnax (00:58):
Yes, yep, and it's constantly changing. So I'm
excited to share some of thisinformation with you guys.
Patrick Cadigan (01:05):
Quick update so that everyone knows what's going
on; because if I remember thelast time that we talked, you
were a Coordinator of CommunityService. So, Ms. Broadnax, what
has changed?
Jamie Brodnax (01:18):
So just over a year ago, I ended being a
service coordinator andtransition to a new role of
being a support broker, and havemy own support broker agency
now.
Meghan Smallwood (01:31):
And what is the name of that?
Jamie Brodnax (01:32):
It is Achieving Independent Support Services.
Meghan Smallwood (01:36):
Awesome.
Patrick Cadigan (01:37):
All right, no shameless self promotion here.
Meghan Smallwood (01:39):
I gotta throw it in there.
Patrick Cadigan (01:42):
Okay, so I love these kinds of conversations,
because Meghan knows so muchmore than I do. So I get to play
catch up. If you were asked togive a definition of a support
broker, Jamie, how would youdescribe it?
Jamie Brodnax (02:00):
I would say that a support broker is really a
role that is designed to provideassistance to the participant or
the individual, whatever theywould like to be called and
their team to just help themwith managing all of the
responsibilities that come alongwith choosing to self direct
their services.
Meghan Smallwood (02:20):
Now that is different than the coordinator
of community services or CCS,right?
Jamie Brodnax (02:25):
Yes, yep.
Meghan Smallwood (02:26):
...because I feel like a lot of families get
confused with so many differenttitles and acronyms that they're
not sure who does what, but thesupport broker is specifically
for self direction.
Jamie Brodnax (02:37):
Yes, and...
Meghan Smallwood (02:39):
In addition to the coordinator.
Jamie Brodnax (02:40):
Exactly. So every person that has DDA services
gets a coordinator. It istypically not a person that you
choose. It's someone that'sassigned to you based on the
agency that you choose to workwith, but a support broker, we
are interviewed, hired, chosenby the participant or their
representative, and not everyonehas to have a support broker or
(03:03):
chooses to have a supportbroker. Only people in self
direction, and then, even morespecific, only people that have
family and staff or a day to dayadministrator on their staff are
required to have a supportbroker. Anybody can have one
that's in the self direction,but it's not required unless you
(03:24):
fit one of those two things.
Meghan Smallwood (03:26):
I see. So a family is working for the
individual, then they arerequired to have it...
Jamie Brodnax (03:31):
Yeah.
Meghan Smallwood (03:32):
...always.
Jamie Brodnax (03:32):
Yeah.
And then you said the day to dayassistant, day to day
administrator, that's somethingnew.
It is. It's relatively new. Iwant to say it's been a thing
for about two years, but morepopular in the last year, year
and a half. And that's a rolethat is similar to support
(03:56):
broker and to the CCS. It's kindof like those three roles are
there as the support roles, butthe day to day administrator
takes on a little bit more ofthe daily management, so maybe
creating schedules, makingappointments, supporting the
person with their personalfinances, you know, the day to
(04:17):
day needs of the team in Thehousehold where the support
broker is more focused on theself directed aspect and the
budgeting and making sure thatthings stay compliant, and the
CCS really oversees a little bitof everything, but mainly
focuses on that person centeredplan and the services and the
(04:37):
implementation of those.
Meghan Smallwood (04:39):
So if the the family. I know a lot of parents
when when they're thinking aboutself directed it's an
overwhelming and daunting taskto think about a schedule and
trying to plan out what theindividual will do every day. So
it sounds like that day to dayadministrative assistant would
be very helpful.
Jamie Brodnax (04:56):
Yeah, it definitely can be. And even more
so, a lot of parents. Parentschoose to take on that role for
themselves and then have hiredstaff take on the role of being
the support staff, because a lotof times you know as mom or dad
or guardian, you're alreadydoing those things. You're
already making the appointmentsand helping with the finances.
(05:17):
You already know the dailyschedule and the things that are
happening. So it's easy to fallinto that role and then leave
the services to someone else, ordo a combination.
Meghan Smallwood (05:29):
So the day to day, if you were to have a day
to day administrative assistant,that's not required?
Jamie Brodnax (05:33):
It is not.
Meghan Smallwood (05:34):
...so you can potentially start with one, and
then over time, as you becomemore comfortable, kind of take
it out of the plan?
Jamie Brodnax (05:41):
Absolutely. And with day to day administrator
two, that is not a role that isfunded by DDA. So that's a role
that a person has to use costsavings in their budget to fund.
So it depends on, can you afforda day to day administrator, and
maybe that's one of the thingsthat I can help with, is
(06:02):
figuring out how to adjust thefunding and some of the other
services to leave money for thatrole.
Meghan Smallwood (06:08):
Ah, ok, whereas the support broker is
actually funded through theplan?
Jamie Brodnax (06:14):
Yes.
Patrick Cadigan (06:15):
So then Meghan and I have said it a million
times over, that all of thesethings, transition in general,
is very individualized. However,for you, Jamie, what does a day
look like for you?
Jamie Brodnax (06:31):
So it's funny you bring up the individualized
part, because it really isdifficult to say, because every
day is different, because everyteam is different, there are
some things that I would say Ido pretty commonly, maybe not
every day, but there's, youknow, I'm attending all of the
PCP meetings and helping withidentifying the best way to use
(06:53):
the funding that DDA provides intheir PCP. I'm also just helping
the teams with understandingtheir budget, because sometimes
they're confusing to look at,especially if you're not a
numbers person, or somebodywho's done a lot of budgeting
and then monitoring the spendingthat takes place throughout the
year. It's not always easy totrack payments in time sheets
(07:18):
and making sure that things aregetting paid the way that
they're supposed to, and thatthere's no errors. So I do a lot
of that on a regular basis. I'malso always assisting the teams
when problems come up, so ifsomebody doesn't get paid, or if
there's a document that needs tobe updated, or information that
needs to be updated with theFMS, I'm getting on top of that
(07:41):
as quickly as possible, just tokeep things running smoothly and
making sure there's nocompliance issues. None of the
staff are missing theirpayments. And then I'm also
helping with keeping the teamsinformed, especially now where
we're at a time where literallyweekly or monthly, we're seeing
changes regarding thegovernment, DDA, self directed,
(08:05):
the FMS is there's just so manychanges. It's it's really
difficult to keep track of allof that information. So I make
that a part of my job, to createmonthly newsletters and send
that out so that everyone isreceiving the same information,
and kind of understands when I'mcalling them asking about
something, they're notblindsided. But then, you know,
(08:28):
on other days, it could behelping somebody hire or
advertise for staff. Could behelping with completing the self
directed documents. And then Ialso do trainings for people
that are new to self direction,to help them understand all of
the things that they're going tobe expected to do on a regular
(08:48):
basis.
Patrick Cadigan (08:50):
And for the uninitiated or any new listeners
that we have, this is what weaffectionately refer to as
acronym vomit. FMS will beFiscal Management Services, PCP
being Person Centered Planning.
Always happy to help insituations like this, to make
everything that we're learningjust a little bit more clear. We
now join our regularly scheduledprogram already in progress.
Meghan Smallwood (09:14):
I love your idea of a newsletter and keeping
everyone informed of thechanges, because I know there's
a lot of worry around whatthat's going to look like moving
forward, but that is a goodquestion for a family to ask.
Then, if they're interviewing asupport broker, like, how do you
keep people informed what kindsof things you do? Because,
again, that's individualizeddepending on the support broker,
right?
Jamie Brodnax (09:34):
Yes, and it's not something that I think every
support broker does, maybe theexact same way that I do, I know
that there are some who mayexperience their support brokers
sending them the newslettersthat come out. DDA does have
their own DDA connection thatthey send out each FMS has their
own updates. So do the manyother advocacy groups, and, you
(09:59):
know, just groups that.
Following self direction, I justchoose to keep track of all of
those and put it together in onehopefully easy to understand
newsletter, and then send thatout to everyone that I support
and their teams at least once amonth, unless there's no big
changes, which, since I'vestarted, that hasn't happened.
Meghan Smallwood (10:24):
There's always big changes with the state
that'll never stop. I was justgonna add, I know we were
talking before we started, justabout, like families looking for
a support broker. And honestly,there's no early, well, there's
an early time, but you shouldn'tbe waiting until, you know,
right before exit, to come upwith one, right or interview
(10:45):
one.
Jamie Brodnax (10:46):
Absolutely. I mean, you know, things change,
and I have seen where somepeople maybe start out the
process not planning on goingself direction and then deciding
at some point that they do wantto go that route. So you can
always reach out whenever it isthroughout the year, and you
know your CCS can support you inidentifying a support broker,
(11:07):
but specifically fortransitioning youth, I
definitely suggest when youreally start that planning
process, include talking tosupport brokers in that early
part of the planning. It helpsnot only the support broker be
prepared, but it also allows thesupport broker to attend those
meetings. I've been to quite afew IEPs, quite a few early PCP
(11:33):
planning sessions, and that waythe support brokers get a good
idea of what the person islooking for, and can help make
suggestions, but also then theteam has the knowledge of the
support broker and identifyingdifferent things that they can
put into the PCP, helping tobuild that first budget, and
really just understanding what'sgoing to be required of them,
(11:56):
because going from The schoolsetting to DDA is already a big
transition. Deciding to go selfdirection adds a little bit more
responsibility to that, so it'sgood to have an idea upfront of
what you can expect.
Patrick Cadigan (12:13):
Jamie, you've mentioned this a couple of
times. Obviously, lately,there's been a lot of
discussion, both in the mediaand just in general, with all
these changes, as the SupportBroker, how do you find out
about the changes, and then howdo you know what is the correct
information to pass on?
Jamie Brodnax (12:33):
That is a great question, so it takes a lot of
patience and really payingattention to what is coming from
DDA, what is coming from theadvocacy groups I attend, all of
the webinars, all of thehearings, I read everything that
they send out, and sometimes itdoesn't apply, but a lot of
(12:57):
times it'll Be that lastparagraph that shares that
really important information. Ireally try to lean towards
transparency. So I shareinformation as I'm getting it,
and if I am not 100% or if thereare some, you know, some details
(13:17):
that haven't been shared, I willsay that because I think again,
just that early knowledge ofknowing what to expect is so
important, I don't want to waituntil I have every single detail
and then share it andsomething's happening in two
weeks where I could share it afew months in advance, people
can be prepared. They can askquestions. We can find out
(13:38):
together with the final detailsare going to be but yeah, really
just attending all of thehearings, listening to what's
being said, reading all of theinformation that comes out, and
then spending the time to putthat into understandable words.
Because unfortunately, sometimessome of the newsletters and
(14:00):
things that are released are invery DDA specific terminology.
And, you know, there are alldiffering abilities when it
comes to understanding, so Ijust want to make sure that I'm
as clear as possible and astransparent as possible.
Meghan Smallwood (14:18):
Yeah, that's definitely helpful, because I
even get all the emails and I'mlike, Oh my gosh, I don't even
know how to decipher this, and Iknow I have to go down the
rabbit hole, but I think of aparent and everything else they
might have on their plate, andhow, like, just overwhelming and
stressful that can be. So it'sso helpful to know that they
could have a support brokerhelping them through that
(14:41):
process.
Jamie Brodnax (14:41):
Absolutely, and their CCS as well.
Unfortunately, what I do seesometimes is specifically with
some of the social media groups,is that there will be a person
who doesn't fully understand andthen they may share information
that isn't a. Ways completelyaccurate. So I would definitely
(15:03):
say, if you are unsure aboutsomething, go to your CCS, go to
your support broker, they canhelp you in understanding what's
happening.
Patrick Cadigan (15:10):
Wait a minute! Are you intimating that social
media might not be correct..?!
Jamie Brodnax (15:16):
Sometimes.
Patrick Cadigan (15:18):
Ahhhh, now...
Meghan Smallwood (15:18):
Patrick's mind is blown.
Patrick Cadigan (15:20):
Now we're just getting political. Oh, this is
ridiculous. All right, I'mchanging...
Meghan Smallwood (15:23):
And its sooo...
Jamie Brodnax (15:25):
It's not always an intentional misunderstanding?
Some of it's just confusing.
Meghan Smallwood (15:30):
Yeah.
Patrick Cadigan (15:31):
Of course.
Meghan Smallwood (15:31):
And you're right. I mean, I think it's so
like, there's such a positive tohaving these groups so people
can lean on each other. Butyou're right, I always tell
families to take everything theyread with a grain of salt, and,
you know, do a little moredigging, or talk to your
resources and just make sureit's accurate.
Jamie Brodnax (15:48):
Absolutely.
Patrick Cadigan (15:49):
Well, as the transition coordinator, the
other thing that I've had to dois to tell people to to just be
patient, because you never know.
You never know what's going tohappen.
And for those who are not payingattention, or if they can't
necessarily hear, Meghan decidedthat she didn't want to be in
the meeting.
Meghan Smallwood (16:10):
Meghan's computer accidentally, like hit
the button. I told you,technology is not my friend
today.
Patrick Cadigan (16:16):
Ladies and gentlemen, Ms. Smallwood has
decided to join us once again.
Meghan Smallwood (16:21):
Had to make another grand appearance!
Patrick Cadigan (16:23):
And this is where we decided to pause the
discussion. So in two weekstime, come back and continue the
discussion with friend of thepodcast and support broker Jamie
Broadnax.
Meghan Smallwood (16:43):
As always, you'll find links to the
information from ourconversations in our show notes.
We would love for theinformation from this and all
our other discussions to reachas many families as possible,
and we need your help to dothat. You can find our
conversations atwww.p2transition.com, like,
follow, share out the podcast.
Our conversations are posted toall the major platforms,
(17:05):
including Apple podcasts,Spotify, YouTube music, and
that's just naming a few. Soplease share and share often.
Patrick Cadigan (17:15):
Please check out our YouTube channel. We've
done some of the legwork for youby curating videos of topics
that revolve around transition.
We have playlists forguardianship, alternatives to
guardianship, ABLE accounts, andthere's more to come. So please
be sure to subscribe there aswell. And finally, check out our
website, which is full ofinformation and links to
resources around the transitionprocess. Open your web browser
(17:36):
of choice and surf towww.postsecondarytransition.com.
We thank you so much for thetime that you've spent with us,
and look forward to talkingagain soon.
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