Transitions, whether from hospital to home or from one stage of care to another, can be daunting for families. This episode explores how healthcare professionals can guide and ease these transitions for medically complex children and their parents.

Join us in discussion with Nikki Montgomery, MA, MEd, GPAC, the Director of Strategy and Communications for Family Voices. Nikki’s passion for empowering youth and families spans the last two decades, during which she has been an educator, a health literacy specialist and a patient advocate. Nikki identifies as neurodivergent and is the parent of a child with autism, complex health care needs, and a rare and disabling genetic condition which her late sister also had (RYR-1 congenital fiber-type disproportion myopathy).

In addition to a graduate certificate in Patient Advocacy, for which her research focused on increasing engagement and safety for parents of medically complex children, Nikki has master’s degrees in English and in educational psychology, with thesis research on health literacy and critical thinking for parents of medically complex children. She is the author of the Super Safe Kids pediatric patient safety books and two books for caregivers of children with special health care needs. Nikki currently serves on the Patient Engagement Advisory Panel for the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI); the Board of Directors for The Superhero Project; and the Patient Experience Policy Forum and Global Patient and Family Advisory Boards for The Beryl Institute, and many other health advocacy roles.

View the transcript.

Music: Daylight by JayJen

Sponsored by the West Virginia Department of Human Services, Office of Maternal, Child, and Family Health/Children with Special Health Care Needs Program and the West Virginia Family 2 Family Health Information Center and Produced by the West Virginia University Center for Excellence in Disabilities.