Linking Hands: A Community-Based Family Mentorship Experience
The Boston LEND Program provides a family mentorship experience to all of our Fellows through a program we call "Linking Hands." This program helps raise awareness among Fellows about the impact of caring for a child with special health care needs on families. Directed by the Family Faculty member, we start their mentorship experience with an interactive training session where Fellows learn about the expectations and objectives for family visits. They receive a training packet (attached) and participate in a group discussion. Beforehand, each Fellow completes a pre-assessment so we can learn more about their opinions and beliefs on working with children with special health care needs. We stress how parents and their children are the teachers, and our Fellows are the learners. We also review the LEND objectives and how they can develop personal learning goals before this home visit based on those objectives.
The home visit is organized for the Fellow with trained, experienced families from diverse cultural, socioeconomic, and ethnic backgrounds. The children represent a great span of ages and special medical or developmental needs. The home visit is a one-time, two-hour experience that may take place in various settings (home, community, etc.). A fellow may attend a trip to a swim class and chat with the mom while the child takes a lesson. A fellow may pick up the child from school with the mom and do the visit at a local park.
After the home visit, fellows write a 1-2 page reflection paper submitted at the follow-up session. During that time, each Fellow shares what their visit consisted of, what lessons they learned, what messages were received, etc. We also have Fellows identify and present two resources that relate in some way to family support, family-centered care, or parent-professional collaborations. In the end, they fill out a post-assessment so we can see the impact of the visit on their opinions.
| Resource Topic(s): | Community Engagement, Family Engagement, Interdisciplinary Training |
| Resource Target Audience(s): |
LEND/DBP Faculty or Staff, LEND/DBP Leadership, LEND/DBP Trainees |
| Resource Format(s): | Curriculum/Educational Material |
| Resource Published: | 10/30/2015 |
