Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (LEND)

Core Curriculum

The following topics are addressed in courses offered as seminars, didactic presentations and case-based interactive learning methods:

The LEND Faculty represents a broad range of health care professions and includes members with appointments in the University of Pennsylvania and its Schools of Medicine, Social Work, Nursing, and Education, as well as individuals with leadership roles within The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. The faculty also includes Family Faculty, who have first hand experiences with the challenges encountered by children with special needs. Guest speakers from The Disabilities Law Project, Philadelphia Department of Public Health, The Education Law Center, and other community-based organizations present regularly.

Course descriptions

Course I. Overview of Neurodevelopmental Disabilities

Course Director: Judith Silver, PhD
This course provides an interdisciplinary faculty lecture and seminar series, designed to provide an overview of key concepts, current best practices, and illustrations of interdisciplinary applications on a wide range of topics relevant to the care of children with neurodevelopmental and related disabilities. Topics range from brain and CNS development, early child development and various neurodevelopmental disorders, systems issues (e.g., criminal justice system; child welfare system), pediatric ethical issues and advocacy tools.

Course II. Introduction to the Interdisciplinary Team and Interdisciplinary Care Conferences

Course Directors: Symme Trachtenberg, MSW, ACSW, LSW, Nathan Blum, MD, and Jonathan Pletcher, MD
This course represents a collaboration among the LEND Program, the Division of Adolescent Medicine, and the Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. It is designed to familiarize fellows with the roles and responsibilities of professionals from a variety of disciplines who are involved in assisting children and youth with special needs and their families. Through this course fellows will explore the challenges to harmonious interdisciplinary team functioning and address the knowledge and skills necessary to promote positive team communication and practice. Cases from clinical practice will be integrated into the sessions, and fellows will address the cases from their respective fields of practice. Principles of providing family-centered and culturally competent care will be highlighted in the discussions.

Course III. Family — Professional Collaboration

Course Director: Karen Garner
This course is designed to introduce the fellows to the core concepts related to providing leadership in family-professional collaboration. Sessions will address collaboration among family members and health care professionals in the care of children with special needs, including parents' emotional responses, practical needs, and family members' perceptions of effective teamwork. A systems approach for addressing these issues, the Family Centered Care Initiative, will also be presented.

Course IV. Building Towards Culturally Competent Care

Course Directors: Karen M. Hudson, MSW, LSW & Noel Rosales, MD
Our society is becoming increasingly diverse. The children we serve, the families with whom we work and the composition of personnel within health care institutions and community-based agencies reflect increasing racial and cultural diversity. This course will offer an overview of health disparities. Fellows will be invited to explore the roles and responsibilities of health care professionals in enhancing service delivery for children and families from diverse backgrounds. It will include information on ways to improve cross-cultural interactions that promote the delivery of health care; discussion of conflicts that can arise when children and their families' health practices clash with standard medical care; and exploration of ways to improve communication with children and families of different cultures.

Course V. Coordination of Services in a Managed Care Environment through Interdisciplinary Case Management

Course Directors: Joan Jenaway & Monica Kondrad, RNC, BSN
This course will familiarize the fellow with interdisciplinary approaches to comprehensive case management and service coordination of care delivered by interdisciplinary teams within a managed care framework. Case management is presented as a process for coordinating interdisciplinary services, with both internal care teams and with those at the managed care organization. Different mechanisms and models of case management will be discussed from the institutional perspective and in terms of interagency collaborations will be addressed. Fellows will explore family and health care perspectives on managed care and its impact upon service coordination through an interactive case-based scenario.

Course VI: Health, Educational and Family Policy/Laws and Children with Developmental Disabilities and Special Health Care Needs

Course Director: Annie Steinberg, MD
Public policy represents an important mechanism which can be used to counteract the negative effects of societal obstacles encountered by individuals with neurodevelopmental disabilities and special health needs, such as inadequate education or health services, environmental barriers, and discriminatory employment practices. Given recent fiscal, political and social developments, it is incumbent for professionals in the field of neurodevelopmental disabilities to understand, monitor, and influence policy developments. This course focuses on trends in disability-related legislation and current policy issues, which have profound implications for individuals with disabilities and special health needs, their families and for the professionals who work with them.

Course VII. Leadership

Course Director: Leslie Norton
This seminar will provide fellows with the opportunity to examine the theory and individual practice of leadership in today's rapidly changing health care environment. The facilitator will provide a framework for discussing leadership-in-action, with particular emphasis on the identification and development of one's interpersonal influence in a variety of transactions. This seminar series assumes that leadership is practiced daily. It postulates that the development of one's interpersonal abilities to influence and elicit change is as important as the imperative to develop professional discipline knowledge.

Course VIII. Conducting Research in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities and Related Disorders

Course Director: Stephen S. Leff, PhD
The purpose of the course is to provide fellows with a basic understanding regarding the development of a systematic line of scientific inquiry through the use of participatory-action research and/or ethnographic methods. As such, the course emphasizes beginning the research process through partnership and collaboration with subjects. Fellows are encouraged to utilize both qualitative and/or quantitative methods. The course opens with discussion on how research is conceptualized through a combination of theory, prior empirical research, and key stakeholder input. Throughout the year the course emphasizes developing relationships with the research subjects, including methods for obtaining their input into the design, implementation, evaluation, and dissemination of research.

Course IX: Health Care Administration

Course Director: Drew Nagele, PsyD
This course provides an overview of several administrative issues that leaders in the care of children with neurodevelopmental and related disabilities inevitably encounter as they seek to organize and manage programs that deliver health care services. Administrative issues pertinent to leadership and management in the health care setting will be reviewed, including resource allocation, prioritization, staffing, reimbursement, and the measurement of quality. Discussion of actual programs in operation at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, with which many fellows may be involved, will enhance the relevance of the course content. Practical examples of various ways in which clinical leaders can collaborate with administrative leaders to design, implement and evaluate programs that deliver health care services to children with special health care needs and their families will be discussed. The current realities of service delivery and program evaluation, in which competing interests vie for limited resources, will be examined within the context of the market place and organizational environment. The aim of this course is to balance the challenges inherent in providing services to children with special needs and their families with a sense of optimism regarding the positive potential to develop welldesigned, well-run programs to effect positive outcomes for these children.

Course X: Use of Assistive Technology for Functional Gain

Course Directors: Jennifer Burstein, CCC/SLP & Louise Wolfsohn, OTR/L
This course combines lectures introducing assistive technology and assessment considerations with hands-on experiences in which fellows will learn how to work with and program electronic writing tools and augmentative communication devices. Topics include pertinent legislation, funding issues, integrating the acquisition and use of these materials in developing goals for children's IFSPs and IEPs.

Course XII: Feeding Disorders in Infants and Young Children

Course Director: Sharon M. Greis, MA, CCC/SLP
This course will focus on the complex factors contributing to pediatric swallowing and feeding disorders. An overview of the anatomy, physiology, and development of feeding will provide the groundwork for understanding the assessment and management of pediatric dysphagia. Discussion will address the developmental, medical, behavioral, and nutritional issues that impact a child's feeding skill progression, weight grain, and growth. The course will introduce an examination of feeding disorders as well as current methodology and treatment approaches. Case presentations will be the basis of discussion with videotaped illustrations.

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