University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center Oklahoma LEND’s Innovative Approach to Family-Professional Partnerships Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and related Disabilities (OKLEND) University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center Megan Peters, DSc; Wanda Felty; Mark J. Fisher, PhD; Mary Hudson, PhD; Sharyl K. Kinney, DrPH; Katerina Ntourou, PhD; Mark Wolraich, MD Purpose This presentation describes the educational methods used in OKLEND to impart the value of family-professional partnerships and the impact this process has had on OKLEND trainees. OKLEND Structured Experiences with Family Mentors in Family Life and Advocacy Family mentors are intentionally assigned to provide a Family Life experience or Advocacy experience Family Mentors are paid for their time and expertise through a partnership with the Center for Learning and Leadership/UCEDD Impact of Family Members as Trainees, Mentors, and Faculty on Long-term Trainees (2015, 2016) Background Family-Professional partnerships are vital to effective health, education, and community services1,3 Partnerships develop out of mutual respect for the unique strength, culture, and expertise of families and professionals2 OKLEND has developed an innovative approach to building family-professional partnerships through evolving program components Impact: Family Members as Trainees Family Mentor biographies are presented in a publication Trainees write reflections on the two experiences Family Mentors participate in a de-briefing on the process and offer recommendations to assure the growth of the Trainees in developing parent/family-professional partnerships Impact: Family Members as Mentors Family Involvement Expanded in OKLEND Family as Faculty: Faculty guiding Trainees’ discovery process Family as Trainees: Side-by-side learning, shared expertise, partnerships Family as Mentors: 1) Provide unique experiences to Trainees focused on Family Life 2) Family Advocacy focused on Parent-Professional Partnerships Impact: Family Members as Faculty Data Based on Responses to LEND Surveys from 2015 and 2016 Next Steps Explore methods of family involvement across LEND programs Examine the impact of involving self-advocates on OKLEND Trainees Investigate the influence of OKLEND training on leadership and advocacy in Trainee Graduates from Parent/Family and Self-advocate disciplines Reflections from OKLEND Trainee Graduates Family members provided a strong and unique perspective that I feel contributed to the quality learning we experienced in this course. This helped me understand what it looks like to be really family centered. It will have a huge impact on how I include families in my future services. It helped me learn how to better serve families and to make them equal partners in their care. Having a LEND trainee representing family issues on our team was greatly influential in shifting the way the entire team viewed the role of the family. I will always have our Family Mentor's voice in the back of my mind when talking to the individual with the disability and their family. I don’t think there is a way to have person-centered, family-centered practices without having that voice in the conversation. References MCH Leadership Competencies at https://www.mchnavigator.org/trainings/competencies.php Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD) at http://www.aucd.org/template/index.cfm Goldfarb F, Devine K, Yingling J, Hill A, Moss J, Ogburn E, Roberts R, Smith M, & Pariseau C. (2010). Partnering with Professionals: Family-Centered Care From the Parent Perspective, Journal of Family Social Work, 13:2, 91-99. Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB) Family Involvement 1998 MCHB adds Parent/ Family as LEND discipline 2004 First Family Faculty meeting at AUCD Annual Conference 2011 MCHB guidance includes individuals with developmental disabilities in Family Discipline 2016 MCHB guidance acknowledges Individuals with disabilities as potential Trainees Oklahoma LEND Maternal and Child Health Bureau Grant T73MC00033 Health Resources and Services Administration U.S. Department of Health and Human Services