ELC: TRAINEE NEWS
4/1/2021
2021 Autism Acceptance Month Webinar Series
AUCD's Autism Special Interest Group (SIG) is sponsoring a series of three webinars for Autism Acceptance Month. Topics will range from telehealth to cognitive behavioral therapy to caregiver coaching strategies. We will also host an open house for AUCD network members to learn more about activities of the Autism SIG.
4/1/2021
April 2021: Autism Acceptance Month
April is widely recognized as Autism Acceptance Month. AUCD, our members, and partners have used this as an opportunity to share information relating to Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD).
3/24/2021
2021 AUCD Emerging Leaders Map Nomination Survey is Open!
Deadline: April 12, 2021
AUCD is excited to announce that recruitment is now open for the 2021 AUCD Emerging Leaders Map! This year's theme is "Promoting Health Equity: Identifying Access Barriers and Protecting Rights to Services for People with Disabilities."
3/5/2021
Two LENDS Collaborate to Help Trainees
By Jennifer Drummond
Striving to train the next generation of child and maternal healthcare leaders is more than a slogan for Va-LEND (Virginia Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities). It is an ideal, which includes innovative ways to make training more effective. One such example is the collaboration between another LEND program.
3/2/2021
Care Coordination Implementation and Best Practice: A Comparison of National and Nebraska Standards
Emily Costello, Munroe-Meyer Institute on Genetics and Rehabilitation
Emily Costello, a UCEDD Trainee from the Munroe-Meyer Institute in Omaha, NE outlines elements of best practice for care coordination, based on a review of recent literature, and compares national standards to that of Nebraska.
2/22/2021
Sharing Stories of Individuals with Disabilities: Vanderbilt Consortium LEND's Collaboration with Saddle Up!
By Tatum Gross, Family Discipline LEND Trainee at Vanderbilt
Vanderbilt Consortium LEND's trainees have been split into groups to work on interprofessional collaboration group projects. My group is working with Saddle Up!, a therapeutic horseback riding program in the Nashville, TN, area. Saddle Up! provides Adaptive Riding, Therapy Services, and an Equine Assisted Learning Program to individuals with disabilities ages 2-26.
2/16/2021
MN LEND Fellow Brings Trauma-Informed Care to Children
Alice Kraiza (MN LEND Fellow, 2017-18) is a project coordinator for the Child Health and Development Institute of Connecticut, Inc., where she is helping bring evidence-based children's mental health treatments to schools to improve the quality of care for students who are recovering from trauma
2/3/2021
2021 EHDI Conference Scholarships for LEND Audiology Trainees
Application deadline: February 22, 2021
AUCD has made available 25 scholarships of up to $225 each to support LEND audiology trainees in attending the Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) Virtual Conference on March 2-5, 2021. All current LEND audiology trainees, including those in their externship year, are eligible to apply. However, priority will be given to trainees from programs that do not currently receive supplemental funding and trainees that have not attended the EHDI Conference in previous years. Application deadline: February 22, 2021.
1/13/2021
Homeless Heroes?
By Hibo Omer, University of Maine UCEDD Trainee and Rafia Tisha, New Hampshire-Maine LEND Trainee
As a newcomer to America, I always wondered how America could have homeless people? I imagined America as a heaven on earth, where everyone is well off and poverty is seen only in museums. Unfortunately, what I learned, and saw was beyond my expectation and left a scar in my heart. When I first moved to the state of Maine, my eyes caught a white woman who was, and still is, homeless. Throughout each season I encountered this woman pushing her belongings in a buggy. During the winter, I helped her to pull the buggy until I reached my destination, always wondering and asking myself many questions. How could this happen in America?
1/11/2021
A Virtual Mock Developmental Assessment: Interdisciplinary Collaboration and Leadership During COVID-19
The Alaska LEND Without Walls is a program that has embraced video teleconferencing as a method to reach faculty and fellows across the geographically vast state. During the current pandemic, the Alaska LEND program utilized a virtual environment for all activities. As part of the annual fall semester "face to face" seminar, interdisciplinary faculty and fellows participate in a mock developmental assessment.
1/8/2021
Disability Reads
Wendy Spoon, Oklahoma LEND Trainee, Parent/Family Discipline
Reading is something my family enjoys. Having a family member with a disability means that we enjoy seeing representation in our book choices. There are a lot of great disability reads out there. Here are just a few that we added over the holiday season.
1/4/2021
MN LEND Fellow Challenges Disability Stigma in Zambia
More than 7 percent of Zambia's children have disabilities, and nearly half have never attended school. Many lack health services and experience isolation and stigma in their communities. Four the last four years, however, Renee Hepperlen (MN-LEND 2011-12) has been part of a multi-disciplinary team working to train local nurses, therapists, and other professionals in infant and child development, early intervention, daily living skills, positive language around disability, and disease prevention.
12/16/2020
MN-LEND Fellows Climb a Virtual Hill
Better pay for direct support professionals, more post-secondary educational opportunities for young adults with disabilities, and continuing funding for interdisciplinary programs that promote the inclusion of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) were among issues on the table as a group of fellows from the Institute on Community Integration met this month with members of Minnesota's congressional delegation.
11/23/2020
Former Trainee- Making A Difference in the Latinx Community
Recent Va-LEND graduate Fiorella Carrillo-Kimbrough volunteers with Caminos, a Richmond-based support group that works with Spanish-speaking families with children who have autism or other neurodevelopmental disabilities. The group incorporates the use of cultural brokers and provides culturally appropriate education and support.
10/3/2020
MNLEND Trainee jumps into coordinating a public health response to COVID with community partners
Whitney Terrill typically supports Minnesotans living with disabilities to access home and community based services through her role at the Minnesota Department of Human Services, Disability Services Division Fiscal Policy Team. Whitney is deeply interested in value and outcomes based payment design, and currently works on a legislatively mandated project to explore options for how Minnesota might pay for disability services in the future.