Special Olympics creates a welcoming space
to provide health education for families
of those with intellectual disabilities
through Family Health Forums.
Family Health Forums are designed
to offer an environment where parents and caregivers
can gain direct access to health information, resources,
and support.
Family Health Forum is an event
that Special Olympics will put on
to bridge between our families and our athletes
to the services, the providers, the resources that exists
within the community.
When people think of Special Olympics, they think sports
but for like any other athlete or athlete organization
we have to make sure
that our athletes are physically capable of training
and competing for the sports that they're in.
We screen our athletes for health conditions.
We provide them with health education
so that they can train and compete at their highest level.
There's always a specific health topic.
We've done nutrition presentations,
we've done COVID presentations,
we've done mental health presentations.
You teach these things to their families.
You teach these things to them and they're healthier.
I'm not necessarily as concerned about,
okay, you shaved all four seconds off your a 100 meter run.
Yes, this athlete is able to compete better
because they're healthier and they're fitter
but now they're gonna live a better quality life.
Someone might learn something from a Family Health Forum
and then they take that home.
They might say, "Hey, I was at this event.
I got these resources, or I learned this material."
And then they can spread that throughout the community
whether that other family or individual participated
in the event or not.
The biggest impact I've seen is the families connecting
with other families.
When these families start to ask questions
and start to talk about these particular topics
they're really making connections with one another
and that's where you see a lot of the great exchanges
between parents.
Now these families have a network of individuals
that they can ask
if they're going through specific challenges
within maybe a health system.
When you see those families, talking with each other
and athletes smiling and playing with each other
and talking and having fun,
again you think back to those moments
where, man, this athlete five years ago
may not have had many friends
and may have been almost nonverbal
and now I see that he or she has 20 friends
and they're out there running around playing
with the other athletes and the quality of their life
has improved so much.
I think these opportunities that Special Olympics
offers with these health forums it's so important,
especially as this population
starts to live more independently.
I imagine that initial feeling
of "I can be myself here and I belong here."
That's why they don't leave.
That's why we have people that,
we have athletes that compete for 40 years.
We have coaches that stay on just as long.
They can learn new things
and ultimately it sort of becomes their family.