Project Description:
The Families as Mentors (FAM) Program enhances the trainee s understanding of the family experience of raising a child with a neurodevelopmental disability. Typically trainees learn directly from families through extended interactions and experiences that take place in the family s home and community. Starting March 2020, COVID 19 recommendations and restrictions disallowed these direct experiences. We consciously chose not to add to community mentor family responsibilities during stressful times. Our 2020 21 FAM curriculum has been expanded to include all 2020 21 trainees with required participation in quarterly and ongoing activities:
Fall: UW LEND All Reads Book Club on the Parent Professional Partnership.
Winter: Viewing/discussing video interviews on the intersectionality of disability and culturally/linguistically diverse family experience LEND seminar focused on relating family experiences to policy.
Spring: Viewing/discussing Intelligent Lives.
Ongoing: Bimonthly small interdisciplinary group squad meetings with designated family/self advocate trainee bringing forward a personal lens.
Trainee learning objectives include:
To view families as teachers
To appreciate the realities of raising a child with a disability;
To develop leadership skills in promoting systems change among professional peers regarding family centered care
To recognize that services or recommendations that may appear to be critically important from a professional perspective may decrease in importance when viewed within the context of the family s daily routines
To recognize and acknowledge biases, beliefs, and attitudes and how these may affect the client/family clinician relationship. Discussion sessions are also held with fellows and faculty mentors to share and reflect on the FAM Program experiences and discuss readings.
Core Function(s):
Training Trainees
Area of Emphasis
Education & Early Intervention, Other - Cultural Diversity, Other - Leadership
Target Audience:
Students/Trainees (long or intermediate trainees), Family Members/Caregivers, Children/Adolescents with Disabilities/SHCN
Unserved or Under-served Populations:
Racial or Ethnic Minorities
Primary Target Audience Geographic Descriptor:
Single-County
COVID-19 Related Data:
N/A
