Brandi Allen
Diagnosis & Healthcare Advocate
Illinois
10 yrs experience
Remote
Hello! I’m Brandi. Almost my whole life has been spent helping with, working with, or parenting children with various types of special needs, starting as a 4th grader when I was chosen to help in the special needs classroom. This was in the early 80’s when these kids were pretty segregated with little to no socialization with all of the other kids in the schools. This is when my interest was sparked. My first “real” job was at a residential center for kids and young adults with a variety of needs. I was a teenager and could only work as a “feeder” so I would go in the evening after school, around dinner time, and feed the kids who were able to eat orally.
I went about my life after that volunteer position was done away with and did all the typical life things, and had my daughter in the early 90’s. I then married a man who had custody of his son. He did not have any physical special needs but did have many extra needs emotionally and psychologically. I spent many years learning about all things emotional and mental “illness” and once he was grown and my husband and I divorced, I guess I felt like I needed more studies because I married a man with five kids! He also had custody of his children and there were many needs there, similar to my step son from my previous marriage. They are all adults now. When the youngest three were teenagers My daughter had a son who was born with a variety of extra needs. Epilepsy was the biggest issue at that point, along with a brain malformation and many other issues, many of which are still a mystery at 11 years old. He has level 3 autism and is such a light in our family.
When that grandson was a few months old, my husband and I adopted a baby who had HIE- Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy, due to a lack of oxygen just before and during birth. He is now 10 years old. He has Cerebral Palsy and many associated diagnosis, including having a feeding tube. And he is also a big light in our family!
Along the way we also became foster parents and I am now also mom to a 3 yr old and 1 yr old, born exposed to a plethora of substances that have caused a variety of physical and mental issues.
I truly understand the many issues, good and bad, that go along with a variety of medical needs children may have. I love doing this, I love being mom to all these children, and I also absolutely know the exhaustion- physical and mental- that goes along with it all. I love to help anyone I can along their journey!
Diagnosis & health
Early intervention
Peer support
Advocacy