with Mother's Day coming up on Sunday one organization's turning the spotlight on moms of kids with special needs and the additional support that these special women need her name is Cherie Castellano and she started the non-profit Mom2Mom a 24/7 helpline for parents with kids of special needs she joins me now Cherie Castellano thank you so much for being with us today I want to just first start with what is Mom2Mom and why did you start this organization Mom2Mom is a peer support helpline it's at Rutgers University Behavioral Health Care and part of our national Center for peer support I think we found over the last decade that there are people who support others and in supporting others need help themselves and share lived experience to get through the stress and challenge of being a mother of a special needs child or adult you had an event this week to bring together moms other experts in in a wellness event just talk to us about what that event was and what you were looking to get out of it yeah so every Mother's Day we sort of reflect on how blessed we are as mothers of special needs children but really the ability to serve others and use that gift of shared lived insight and and resilience to help somebody else and so when we pay it forward we find it's reciprocal we sort of feel better ourselves so we brought together mothers from across New Jersey who are mothers of special needs children and adults but also providers of care to that population so our mom to Mom peer counselors on the Mom to Mom line people from the family service organization the children's system of care women who are supporting other women during this time to be strong and resilient you know the world's really changed a lot in the last 10 years since you started the organization there's been a lot more focus on the needs of kids with special needs has that also translated to more support for moms and parents of kids with special needs yes absolutely I think we understand that the pandemic and the Mental Health crisis really leaves us with the situation where someone with special challenges or developmental disability or special need is complicated or you know it gets more difficult when in addition there is a mental health crisis which we're seeing in our country for youth with all kinds of challenges so we see moms coming together we see resources expanding we understand that we need to come forward and combat stigma and work together because we're stronger together to be able to have our families whole and our children's our children Thrive not just sort of survive during these times I find it interesting that you didn't start an organization that paired a mom with a mental health professional or a counselor but it's Mom2Mom Mom2Mom just help us understand why that peer support is a really critical piece yeah I mean I think there we have found in our research after doing this work for 20 years at the national Center that sometimes people do need professionals um that mental health professionals who are licensed and treatment and therapy is very important to our Behavioral Health Care needs but that sometimes we really need in addition to or maybe just to be able to speak to someone who shares that lived experience understands our cultural competence sort of understands what we go through day to day and can listen to us and provide peer counseling so the way our programs work and many of these programs work is it's not just one phone call after that initial call where you might need help or a referral we assign a peer counselor and that person then calls you every week and says how are you doing you're caring for everybody else who's caring for you so we are and what we found is that it really helps people feel lifted and stronger and able to be the best moms they can be and keep their families whole Cherie Castellano you are doing great work program count program director of Mom2 Mom thank you so much thank you [Music]