303. Building Digital Villages to Support Children with Special Needs with Dr. Crystal Morrison
Are you a parent or guardian of a child with special needs? Do you struggle to communicate and collaborate with the various providers involved in your child's care? Dr. Crystal Morrison, executive advisor, strategist, leader, scientist, and tech entrepreneur, has a solution for you. She's the founder of Meerkat Village, a digital platform dedicated to improving outcomes for children with special needs by building collaboration and communication among adults providing care.
Dr. Morrison's personal experience parenting a child with special needs and her own struggles with mental health inspired her to create Meerkat Village. The platform allows parents to invite their child's treatment providers, extended family members, and community leaders into a digital village to communicate, create strategies, and track the child's response over time.
The success stories of parents who have used Meerkat Village are inspiring. One parent got her child's entire treatment team in the digital village within an hour, while another is using it to help her adult son stay focused on his schoolwork. Meerkat Village is currently involved in two studies with the University of Pittsburgh and a county in Western Pennsylvania.
Dr. Morrison's ultimate goal is to empower teams and foster village-driven care so that people can receive the care they need at any stage in life. She believes that status quo is a bigger risk than the unknown, and wishes for people to take that away from the conversation. Meerkat Village provides resources for parents, guardians, and treatment teams, as the number of people with a child with autism or learning differences is growing exponentially.
If you're a parent or guardian of a child with special needs, don't miss this episode. Listen in as Dr. Morrison shares her inspiring journey and provides actionable advice on how to improve outcomes for your child. Learn how to leverage technology to build collaboration and communication among adults providing care, and discover how Meerkat Village is transforming the way we care for children with special needs.
The Biggest Helping: Today’s Most Important Takeaway
“The status quo is a bigger risk than the unknown. That's something that I I live by. It's a very big risk for me to step out and do the work that I'm doing today, but it's a bigger risk to not do anything and to accept the status quo and the system for the way it is today.”
--
Thank you for joining us on The Daily Helping with Dr. Shuster. Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or Google Podcasts to download more food for the brain, knowledge from the experts, and tools to win at life.
Resources:
-
Learn more at meerkatvillage.com
-
Follow Meerkat Village on Instagram: @meerkatvillage
-
Connect with Dr. Crystal Morrison on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/drcrystalmorrison
Produced by Nova Media