The Boggs Center (NJ UCEDD) Featured in Television Episode about Healthcare Needs of People with Developmental Disabilities

June 26, 2013

The Boggs Center on Developmental Disabilities at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and its collaborative programs with the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health and the Department of Pediatrics are featured in an episode of HealthBeat with Sara Lee Kessler which aired on WHYY (the Philadelphia PBS station) and NJTV in April and May. The episode about health care needs of people with developmental disabilities profiles The Boggs Center's unique training programs for medical students in the pediatrics rotation and family medicine residents, which focus on developmental disabilities, family-centered care, and treating all patients with dignity.

At Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Alfred F. Tallia, MD, MPH, Professor and Chair, and Matthew Mitschele, MD, Resident Physician, Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, were filmed providing healthcare to three patients at Family Medicine at Monument Square. Interviews with Deborah M. Spitalnik, PhD, Professor of Pediatrics and Executive Director of The Boggs Center, and Dolores Matlock, LPN, Primary Care Manager, Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, were also filmed. The Department of Pediatrics Seminar on Developmental Disabilities and Family Centered Care for 3rd year medical students, including a visit to a family's home, was also filmed. The Seminar was taught by Deborah M. Spitalnik, PhD and Sheryl White-Scott, MD, along with parent educator Kathy Gabry and her son Jon.

Later in the program, host Sara Lee Kessler speaks with a panel of experts in an in-studio discussion about important issues surrounding medical care for individuals with developmental disabilities. This episode of HealthBeat with Sara Lee Kessler was made possible through funding by the New Jersey Council on Developmental Disabilities. Additional funding provided by Global Underwriters Agency.

Copies of the Healthbeat episode are now available on DVD free of charge from The Boggs Center. Please contact [email protected] if you would like a copy for your UCEDD.