We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Dana Spradling a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Dana, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Was there a moment in your career that meaningfully altered your trajectory? If so, we’d love to hear the backstory.
Yes, and the defining moment didn’t happen in the career for which I planned. It happened in the moments our family’s life changed forever.
Before “Just in Time Adaptive Wellness” ever had a name, I was doing what so many of us do: building a life based on what made sense on paper. I had a plans, goals and loved watching the lives my children were creating for themselves. I was planning what life was going to look like for my husband and I, as empty nesters, and our hopeful, future roles as grandparents. And then the unimaginable happened in my family, the kind of moment that doesn’t just interrupt your schedule, it redraws your entire map and the trajectory of your daily existence and life.
On February 4, 2021, my then 29-year-old son, who was otherwise healthy, successful, and thriving, experienced a life-changing event. As result of an unknown genetic mutation impacting his heart, he suffered a spontaneous cardiac arrest, resulting in an anoxic brain injury, leaving him to then need around the clock, full care. After 204 days in the hospital, we brought him home to care for and start the plan for his recovery, whatever that was going to be. I believed everything was possible and there were no limits to what he could regain, relearn, rebuild and strengthen.
However, overnight, I became a full-time navigator in a world I didn’t even know existed: medical jargon, equipment needs, insurance everything, therapy systems, discharge plans without the actual plan, medications, side effects, accessibility barriers, GJ tubes, nutrition poles, multiple medical providers and appointment scheduling, canceling and rescheduling. All of that just scratched the surface, never mind the constant pressure of trying to make the right choice when you’re exhausted and terrified.
Not long after being home and trying to normalize our world again in any small way I could, I quickly learned that families like mine weren’t just looking for services, we were looking for trusted connection. Someone who can help us filter through the noise and find what’s safe, reputable, inclusive, accessible, adaptive and actually workable in real life. Not clinic driven living, but real life living.
And that’s where the defining moment crystallized.
It wasn’t one lightning bolt of inspiration — it was the repeating pattern that kept hitting me like a tidal wave:
• A provider would recommend something… but not know what existed outside their lane.
• I’d find a great resource… but only because I happened to meet the right person at the right time or overhear a conversation in a waiting room.
• We’d lose weeks (sometimes months) to trial-and-error… when what we really needed was a clear path forward, the right next step. We needed someone with lived experience.
• And every “simple” wellness need, not luxury, a need, like haircuts, massage, mobility-friendly fitness, adaptive recreation, transportation, alterations, mobility van cleaning, in-home and nutrition help, etc became a project, a time consuming project. And Google could not clearly answer anything for me.
At some point, I remember thinking: Why is this so hard to connect? Why does everything depend on happenstance?
And right behind that thought came the one that changed my trajectory.
If I’m having to build this web of trusted people for my own family to survive and heal… then other families need it too.
That was the pivot. The moment my purpose found me and took over my way of thinking and planning.
Just in Time Adaptive Wellness was born from that gap — the space between what families are told or not told, exists and what families can actually access.
It’s why my work is built around connection as an anchor: less overwhelm, more trust, and ongoing progress. Because when life changes in an instant, you don’t have time, energy, or bandwidth, to become an expert in a dozen or more systems. You need a guide, a bridge-builder, and a network that’s already been there and is paying attention.
The lesson (the wisdom I didn’t ask for, but got anyway)
1. Your “why” gets louder than your résumé.
The strongest work often comes from the thing you never would’ve chosen — but you can’t ignore once you’ve lived it.
2. When support isn’t coordinated, families pay the price.
In time, in money, in health, in marriages, in mental load. Connection isn’t a “nice-to-have.” It’s a protective factor.
3. Trusted connection is a form of care.
Not just referrals. Not just a list. Real relationships, vetted providers, inclusive spaces, and people who get it.
4. You don’t have to do everything — but you do need to know who to call.
That’s the heart of Just in Time Adaptive Wellness: helping families move from overwhelmed to supported, one right connection at a time.
5. Find businesses that want to partner because they “get it” and want to be part of the overreaching concept of inclusive and accessible services for whole person/every person wellness.
6. Create pathways to share the information to the community at large through speaking engagements, social media, personal family coaching and business coaching.
And if I’m being honest, I didn’t choose this path, but I choose it every day now. We believe our son is a miracle of God and the people who were put on his medical path were done so purposefully. We believe it is our responsibility to tell the story of God’s amazing grace. Because turning our story into a bridge for other people feels like giving the unimaginable a direction. Like taking our faith and resilience and turning them into action words….. with legs. And we believe it is happening, Just in Time.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I’m Dana Spradling, founder of Just in Time Adaptive Wellness, a referral-resource and coaching network built on one core truth: when life changes in an instant, trusted connection becomes an anchor.
I didn’t plan this career. It found me after the unimaginable happened in my family; when my 29-year-old son, otherwise healthy, successful, and thriving, experienced a life-changing event. Overnight, I became a full-time caregiver trying to make impossible decisions while learning a system I never expected to need or wanted to know. I became a navigator and organizer of medical systems, multiple Dr. appointments, therapy schedules, equipment needs, insurance frustrations, prescriptions, side effects and accessibility barriers… all while trying to keep hope alive and life moving.
What surprised me most was how hard it was to find support that was not only available, but actually accessible and inclusive in real life. There was an enormous gap between medical care and what was available when you came home, with the intent of recovery and not just surviving, but thriving. Even “simple” wellness, not luxuries, just basic wellness needs like haircuts, massage, movement, community, transportation, a place that truly knows how to welcome disability, became complicated projects. Too much depended on luck and trial-and-error and there was no Googling an answer on how to do it, either.
That’s when the mission became clear: if my family needed a trusted network just to function and heal, other families did too. Just in Time Adaptive Wellness connects individuals with disabilities and caregivers to vetted, adaptive, accessible and inclusive wellness providers and resources, so families experience less overwhelm, more trust, and ongoing progress.
A big part of my work is also public speaking and business training. I share practical ideas and a family’s perspective with community groups, medical teams, and service providers on how to turn awareness into action, because accessibility isn’t just a ramp. It’s communication, flexibility, dignity, and the systems that make people feel safe and seen.
What I’m most proud of is the ripple effect: caregivers who can finally breathe, families who regain momentum, and finding service partners, providers and businesses that become the kind of place individuals with disabilities can enter with confidence. This work is personal—but the impact is meant to be shared.
Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?
Beyond knowledge, the most helpful thing in this business is using my lived experience as fuel, building trust and developing relationships. Families come to us overwhelmed and exhausted so being relatable, reliable, communicative with consistent follow-through and realistic next steps, makes all the difference. We feel like we are most always, Just in Time.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
One day, about 2 months after we came home, I decided, on a whim, to do something “normal”—a simple outing so my son could be out in the world as himself, not as a diagnosis. But “simple” turned into a full operation: phoning ahead, accessibility checks, transportation, timing around fatigue, space to maneuver, backup plans, and the emotional weight of not knowing how others would respond when we arrived.
Parts of it were awkward. Some things didn’t work. We had to problem-solve on the fly and make a few tough calls. But we did it—and afterward I realized resilience wasn’t the outing itself. It was the choice to keep moving forward even when everything in me wanted to pull back. I was proud of us.
That moment also clarified my purpose. Families like mine don’t just need encouragement. We need **trusted connection**: people and places that understand accessibility, dignity, and real-life caregiving. Resilience, for me, has become building that bridge while still walking across it, turning what we learned the hard way into a pathway that helps other families take the next right step with less overwhelm and more trust.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.justintimeadaptivewellness.com
- Instagram: Just in Time Adaptive Wellness
- Facebook: Just in Time Adaptive Wellness
- Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/dana-spradling-8292b0323
