Family Support 101: Understanding Policies that Support Family and Family Caregivers for Trainees.

Webinar Description:

AUCD hosted a webinar for trainees to learn about policies that support family and family caregivers. The participants learned:

• Overview and history of family support,
• Current needs of families and family caregivers and
• Policies and practices of Respite.

Presenters:

Sheli Reynolds is the key developer of the Charting the LifeCourse framework and tools and provides overall direction to the LifeCourse Nexus. Her passion, knowledge, and experience come from growing up as a sibling of a brother with developmental disabilities. She is committed to research, demonstrations, and implementation of evidence-based practices that enhance person- and family-centered organizational, policy, and systems change. She currently serves as the Associate Director at UMKC Institute for Human Development, where she has worked for over 20 years. Throughout her career, she has had the privilege of advocating alongside, and for, people with disabilities and their families. Sheli has served on the President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities and as the co-director of the National Community of Practice for Supporting Families of Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. She has her Masters in Occupational Therapy from Rockhurst University and earned her doctorate in Public Administration and Sociology from the University of Missouri, Kansas City, with a focus on family support research and policy for families of individuals with disabilities across the lifespan. Sheli’s good life involves spending time and traveling with family and friends.. You can often find her on the sidelines of sporting events watching her two favorite high school athletes, Preston and Brayden, or traveling to St. Louis, MO, to visit her extended family. She lives in Leawood, Kansas, with her husband, 2 sons, and dog, Zoey.

Tamar Heller is the distinguished professor and head of the Department of Disability and Human Development at the University of Illinois at Chicago. I direct its University Center of Excellence in Developmental Disabilities, Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Developmental Disabilities and Health, Developmental Disabilities Family Clinics, and TAP autism program. My research focuses on policies and practices to support individuals with disabilities and their families across the life course. Specific research projects focus on self-directed and family support, managed care, and health promotion interventions for individuals with disabilities. I have written over 200 publications, including 5 books. I am a founding member of the National Sibling Leadership Network and Bridging Aging and Disability International.

Jill Kagan is the Program Director for the ARCH National Respite Network and Resource Center. The Resource Center houses the Lifespan Respite Technical Assistance Center, which is funded by the U.S. Administration for Community Living and the National Respite Coalition, ARCH’s policy division. She has served on numerous national advisory boards, including her most recent role on the National Advisory Council of the Family Support Research & Training Center and her current role on the Duke-UCLA National Child Traumatic Stress Network Advisory Committee. She also recently served as co-chair of the Respite Impact Council for the Elizabeth Dole Foundation’s Hidden Heroes Military Caregiver Campaign and now serves on the National Advisory Committee to the Campaign. Ms. Kagan represents ARCH on several prominent national and international coalitions, including the core Advisory group to the bicameral ACT Family Caregiver Congressional Caucus, the National Alliance for Caregiving’s Advocacy Collaborative, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Caregiver Workgroup, the National Child Abuse Prevention Partners of the U.S. Children’s Bureau, the National Child Abuse Coalition, and the International Short Break Association, of which ARCH is a founding member. She is also co-chair of the Autism, Developmental Disabilities, and Family Support Task Force of the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities, and facilitator of the national Lifespan Respite Task Force.

This event is sponsored by ITAC and 
Brandeis University Community Policy Living Center.

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