Serenity Steps Interview
Tell me about yourself.
I’m a military spouse in the US, mom of 2, entrepreneur, recovery coach, and published author. I enjoy crocheting, baking and writing in any spare time I may find.
What inspired your book “The Pam Family?”
I think in the field I work in with people who struggle with addiction, there's value in starting at a young age in teaching medication responsibility. Two experiences along the way showed me how much a book like this is needed. The first one was when I worked at a children's psychiatric hospital. Every morning the residential kids had the choice of whether or not they wanted to take their medicine for the day, which was within their rights. Penny Pill offered up a way to connect with these kids in that decision. At the hospital we taught behavioral skills in addition to the kids getting the medicine. One of the more important decisions they made every day was whether or not they wanted to take their meds. If they didn’t, we needed to look at the reason and the impact on them and their peers this could potentially have. Are they going to have to go into the safe room, are they going to go into self-harm behaviors, etc. I felt that before I could even get kids to understand that, I had to first start with the basics of medicine and that they are there for when we really need them, such as in cases of physical illnesses. The second inspiration came from my own family experience in which I do share towards the end of the book. Long story short, my youngest had had a cold and my oldest decided to give her some medicine he had seen me give to her earlier in the morning. I had just randomly left a daytime and nighttime out on the counter not even really thinking anything of it. He ended up giving her daytime medicine and underdosing her. We were blessed in that turn out because it could have been so much worse. I thought I couldn’t possibly be the only parent that does this and so the story took on a life of its own.
What kind of impact do you see “The Pam Family” having?
The impact that I hope “The PAM Family” makes is in educating children about medication responsibility. What that means is that we have to be responsible about where medicine is kept, we have to teach our children not to take anything that even looks like medicine unless it's given to us by a trusted adult, we NEVER share medicine and we ALWAYS take it as prescribed. Teenagers are experimenting more and more with all kinds of drugs and other substances. The teenage overdose rate has decreased in the past few years but honestly, that shouldn’t even be a thing we need to worry about. By educating these things early enough, maybe later our teenagers realize that using medicine isn’t a way to escape our lives and become a coping skill, leading to a life of addiction. Medicine is there as a way to help us when we are really in need for whatever that may look like for an individual whether for physical or mental health.
You are running a Kickstarter! Please explain what a Kickstarter is for those who don’t know.
A Kickstarter is a crowdfunding platform that helps creators raise money to bring their ideas to life.
Instead of one person or company funding a project alone, people from all over can support it by pledging money. Kickstarter campaigns run for a limited amount of time, often around 30 days.
During that time, supporters can pledge money to help reach the funding goal.
One unique aspect of Kickstarter is that it works on an “all-or-nothing” model—if the project doesn’t reach its funding goal by the deadline, the pledges aren’t collected and supporters aren’t charged.
What Kickstarter tiers are available for people to support you on?
My Kickstarter tiers range from $2 as a pledge of support to $300 as a pledge of donating products to a local pediatric/school/recovery facility. It just depends all on what the pledger is looking for and what fits within their budget.
Why develop a plushy?
I developed Penny Pill as a comfort tool when kids are sick or just to hold when medicine time comes in general.
Taking medicine isn’t always fun and Penny Pill along with The PAM Family can at least make it more enjoyable through an interactive experience.
My 6 year old daughter makes medicine time a breeze now when it comes to any form of medicine. Recently we had to use nose spray and that’s not fun, even as an adult I hate it sometimes
just because it can be uncomfortable. She breezed through it when we talked about Suzie Spray and
how she helps clear up our nose so we can breathe.
Tell me about the writing process, how long did it take to write your book, and what steps were involved?
The writing process in general can be very exciting. Timelines and other people can make it a little overwhelming. This particular project took me about two years from the time I wrote it to hiring an editor and illustrator to getting storyboards, illustrations and final editing done.
What’s next for “The Pam Family?”
Not really sure what is next for “The PAM Family”. A few of them will be mentioned in our mental health book that I just finished the manuscript on.
How can people connect with you?
People can connect with me via any one of three platforms:
Our Website: www.serenitystepsrecovery.com
Facebook: Serenity Steps Prevention and Recovery LLC
Instagram: Serenity_Steps_P&R24
Is there anything else you would like to add?
Just a thank you to you for letting me share “The PAM Family” and our mission in helping our communities.
Notes:
All Images are property of https://www.serenitystepsrecovery.com/ .
Kickstarter Logo is property of Kickstarter.