News from the Shriver Center

Throughout its 50 plus year history, the Shriver Center has been at the forefront of improving the lives of individuals with disabilities, their families, and caregivers through education, research, and service.  Two innovative projects advance that tradition, and the leaders for each project recently spoke about the impact and long-term goals of their work addressing gaps in autism care.

Remember what it was like to be a kid and needing to get a shot at the doctor’s office? Chances are, it was probably not your favorite activity.

For many people with disabilities, especially children, getting a shot can become so traumatizing that it prevents the individual from becoming vaccinated. Often parents don’t know where to turn when the usual vaccination channels don’t address sensory issues and other challenges faced by individuals with disabilities and their families.

Dr. Sarabeth Broder-Fingert was recently promoted to Deputy Director of the Shriver Center.  In this new role, Dr. Broder-Fingert will assume more supervisory responsibilities, help with new faculty recruitment, support fundraising efforts, and collaborate on increasing the Center’s overall visibility through an enhanced public relations strategy.

Congratulations to Sue Swanson, Project Coordinator for Pathways for Inclusive Health Care at the Shriver Center! Sue was nominated by State Rep. David LeBoeuf and selected by the Mass Commission on the Status of Women to be a Commonwealth Heroine Class of 2022. She was recognized for her efforts to get the city of Worcester to construct Coes Park, the first multi-generational and universally accessible playground.

The 5-year grant will be used to conduct the largest ever research study to understand the barriers to care for limited English proficiency (LEP) families with children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

The Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center is pleased to announce the renewal of its Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (LEND) Program for $3.1M over the next five years.

Funded by the Health Resources Services Administration’s Maternal & Child Health Bureau (HRSA/MCHB), the purpose of LEND program is to provide graduate-level interdisciplinary training to improve the health and well-being of children and youth with neurodevelopmental disabilities and their families. The LEND program prepares trainees from diverse professional disciplines and backgrounds to assume leadership roles in their respective fields, to serve as agents of systems change, to conduct research in the field, and to provide responsive and exceptional interdisciplinary clinical services.

The Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center at UMass Chan Medical School is extremely pleased to announce the renewal of its five-year University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD) grant.  Providing $3M over the next 5 years, this award continues a decades-long funding source of support to further the Shriver Center’s mission to conduct education, research, and services to improve the lives of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) and their families and caregivers.

As part of our Employee Spotlight series, Sarabeth Broder-Fingert, MD, MPH recently sat down with us to discuss her professional responsibilities at the Shriver Center, and what makes the Shriver Center such a special place to work.

UMass Medical School’s Sibling Support Program encourages siblings of children undergoing inpatient mental health treatment to talk about what is happening at home, Emily Rubin, MA, creator and director of the program, told New England Psychologist.

Congratulations to the Shriver Center’s own Amy Weinstock and her amazing dedicated team at the Autism Insurance Resource Center on the success of their annual “Insurance Update and Celebration of Champions.”