Training, Research and Family Perspectives to Address Issues of Social Justice in Disability

This was the 7th Annual McGinley-Rice Symposium which focuses on Social Justice for Vulnerable Populations with this years' focus was on "The Face of the Person with a Disability".  Here is the link to Duquesne University's write up on the symposium:

    http://www.duq.edu/news/mcginley-rice-symposium-focuses-on-the-person-with-a-disability

The link below lists the previous McGinley-Rice Symposium topics and includes the program:

    http://www.duq.edu/academics/schools/nursing/mcginley-rice-symposium/agenda

Title of LEND Presentation: Training, Research and Family Perspectives to Address Issues of Social Justice in Disability

Presenters:

Cheryl Messick, LEND Co-Director, discussed LEND training as a model for key areas to teach professionals who will be working in the areas of disabilities.

Robert Noll, LEND Psychology Faculty, discussed the model of treatment which has been implemented for children with cancer internationally, which is an evidence-based approach for determining dosage and treatment variables and which has significantly increased survival rates for children with cancer. If we use this model for treatment/services for other populations we may have better outcomes.

Mary Bryant, Practicing Caretaker and Parent in the LEND Families as Mentor Program, is the grandparent of a child with severe disabilities including intellectual impairment, motor control, communication.  She and her husband have been the primary caretakers of their grandson since he was 6 months old. Mary shared a parent's perspective of working with professionals across the years and what is important to their family in terms of how they prefer to be treated and how their knowledge of their grandson provides a context for best identifying priorities in programming for him. 

Rebecca Kronk, PhD, MSN, CRNP (Previous LEND Trainee, Faculty Member, and present member of LEND Community Advisory Board), moderated the session. She is presently at Duquesne as an Associate Professor of Nursing and Chair of Undergraduate Program.

Audience participants included: nursing, SLP, people from the VA, parents of children with disabilities, advocates, community health professionals, etc