Project Description:
GOALS AND OBJECTIVES:
Goal 1: Provide outstanding interdisciplinary didactic and experiential education and training that improves the relevant clinical knowledge of clinical trainees.
Goal 2: Provide outstanding didactic and experiential training that improves the interpersonal relationship skills of LEND Fellows.
Goal 3: Provide outstanding didactic and experiential training that improves the analytic and systems strategic skills of LEND Fellows.
Objectives: The curriculum offered by the Alliance faculty, core as well as off site, will provide LEND Fellows with training in: advanced clinical interdisciplinary skills; understanding the barriers to quality health care confronted by culturally/linguistically diverse populations; the design and delivery of culturally appropriate services; interpersonal skills, negotiation, conflict management; communicating to different audiences; systemic thinking and analysis; understanding and designing health care systems at all levels; understanding and using managed care and other payer systems; formulating public policy, with attention to its social and economic influences; evaluating and improving the quality of services; various state and federal legislative, policy and program initiatives, including Healthy People 2000.
METHODOLOGY: The Alliance Leadership Training Program provides at least ten Fellows annually with opportunities to develop skills requisite to leadership in the field of neurodevelopmental disability. Fellows in the Program have terminal degrees in their disciplines and come to the program with community based clinical experience. The curriculum includes class work, family experiences and field-based projects and addresses the concepts of interdisciplinary services, research and its application, systemic thinking and analysis, system change, and the influences of policy and politics. Fellows may choose to enroll at Suffolk University to receive a Masters Degree in Health Administration upon completion of the Alliance Leadership Training Program. Preservice interdisciplinary training takes place at the Center for Children with Special Needs in Boston where 3000 children are served each year, and at the University of Massachusetts Medical School Early Intervention Program, which serves 750 children from central Massachusetts. Trainees are involved in team evaluations, attend seminars presented by the different disciplines, accompany faculty to school meetings and into homes, and are expected to give oral presentations.
COORDINATION: The Alliance collaborates with a wide range of state and national organizations. These include a number of state agencies (DPH, DMR, DMA, DMH), other MCHB funded training programs, advocacy organizations, and universities both here and in other states. In addition to its affiliations, the Program includes on its Advisory Board and its committees staff from local, regional and national agencies and two of the other MCHB funded programs in the area.
Fellows completing this program describe this program as a ?catalyst? and a ?stimulus?. LEND fellows are involved in a number of activities they feel would never have developed but for their participation in this program. LEND Fellows have obtained grant funding for new programs for Children with Special Health Care Needs, are providing technical assistance to DPH and DMH, are presenting papers at national meetings, and have organized a curriculum on developmental disabilities for physical therapy at UMass Lowell, and others have developed research projects.
Keyword(s):
Leadership, Fellowship, Developmental Disabilities,
Area of Emphasis
Quality Assurance, Education & Early Intervention, Child Care-Related Activities, Health-Related Activities, Quality of Life, Other - Cultural Diversity, Other - Leadership
Target Audience:
Students/Trainees (long or intermediate trainees), Professionals and Para-Professionals, Family Members/Caregivers, Adults with Disabilities
Unserved or Under-served Populations:
Racial or Ethnic Minorities, Disadvantaged Circumstances, Limited English
