Building and Strengthening Parent Professional Partnerships

Friday, March 17, 2006
With Shelley Cohen-Konrad, Ph.D

Friday, April 7, 2006
With Robert Brooks, Ph.D.

Location:

Harraseeket Inn 162 Main Street Freeport, Maine

Program Description: Research indicates that parents find positive relationships with professionals invaluable for coping successfully with the stresses of caring for vulnerable children. Parents look to professionals not only for guidance with the pragmatics of care but also for validation of their emotional response to the caregiving experience. The importance of developing a shared vision of the needs of families and children with medical, learning and behavioral challenges has several significant implications:

1. Professionals are often the first to people to usher parents into the unfamiliar world of illness or disability and these initial experiences have far reaching effects on future parent/professional relationships.Understanding the range and continuum of parents' expectable responses to having a child with challenges promotes parent/professional partnerships that are effective, respectful and better meet the needs of both children and families.Understanding the subjective experience of parents establishes the foundation for an emotional orientation to childhood illness and disability. When the inner experience of parents remains unacknowledged or is harshly judged by professionals, parents respond with both shame and anger.All parents want the very best for their children. Parents of children with illnesses and disabling conditions are faced with advocating for children in a world geared for the able-bodied and neurotypical. Such advocacy requires certain vigilance that is often misinterpreted and pathologized by professionals. Building empathic pathways that lead to appreciation of parental vigilance reduces stigmatization and improves overall care.There is a growing body of research that indicates child well-being and recovery are associated with the capacity of parents to manage the rigors of day-to-day care. Parents need the support of well-informed and compassionate professionals to sustain ongoing care for chronically affected children.
2. Evidence-based knowledge promotes the development of programs that effectively and efficiently serve the needs of families and children.

This workshop brings together knowledge and experience from both sides of the parent/professional alliance with the intention of informing effective and compassionate methods with families of children that have medical, learning and behavioral challenges.

About the Speakers: Shelley Cohen Konrad Ph.D., LCSW has been working with families and children for thirty years. She is a founding member of the Kids First Center, a nonprofit program serving children and parents in separating and divorcing families. Shelley is also founder of Touchstone Psychotherapy Associates, an interdisciplinary mental health collaborative that specializes in child and family-centered practice. Although she maintains a small clinical practice, Shelley's current focus is on teaching graduate students at the University of New England's School of Social Work and on conducting co-research with parents of children with chronic illnesses and disabilities. Her published work concentrates on the parental experience of raising a child with illness/disability and on building compassionate and productive parent/caregiver relationship.

Learning objectives:

1. Participants will identify qualities that promote successful parent/professional relationshipsParticipants will identify barriers that impede the formation of positive and productive alliancesParticipants will learn about and practice skills that contribute to developing positive parent/professional relationshipsParticipants will be presented with contemporary research that informs theory and practice with families of children with chronic illness, physical disability, learning disabilities and behavioral disordersParticipants will understand the benefits of client-centered practice with families of children with chronic conditionsParticipants will understand ways in which parents of children with illnesses and disabilities are stigmatized in this culture
2. Participants will develop a compassionate conceptual framework for working with parents, children and families affected by illness, physical disability and learning/behavioral challenges