News from the Shriver Center

For the past 15 years, the Insurance Resource Center for Autism and Behavioral Health (formerly the Autism Insurance Resource Center) has been working tirelessly on the front lines to break down barriers and help individuals with autism or behavioral health conditions get the services they need to thrive.  The program is located inside the EK Shriver Center at UMass Chan Medical School.

The Chancellor’s Medal for Distinguished Service was awarded to Jean Frazier, MD, the Robert M. and Shirley S. Siff Chair in Autism, professor of psychiatry, and executive director of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center.

The Shriver Center is pleased to announce that the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) program has expanded and is now known as the Program for Improving Public Health Systems (PIPS)! The newly named initiative represents an expansion and continuing evolution of CANS, which originally launched in 2009 when the Commonwealth was required to implement a single assessment tool for all young people receiving outpatient and in home behavioral health care.  

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.

The UMass Medical School Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center’s Center for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders (CANDO) clinic, in partnership with the Division of Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics, has joined the Autism Learning Health Network of Autism Speaks. The network convenes academic leaders in autism and other neurodevelopmental and intellectual disabilities nationwide to standardize and share clinical data collection and outcomes research to improve care for children and families affected by autism spectrum disorder.

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.

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.