Team Approach to Services for Parents with Intellectual Disabilities

Sinergia’s “We Are Parents Too” and “Healthy Families” programs use a trans-disciplinary team approach to enhance the service spectrum for parents that are intellectually disabled. This approach capitalizes on the myriad of talents and skills of specific staff members from our organization. It results in powerful teamwork that provides creative solutions to very challenging circumstances that families can find themselves in. Staff expertise is also utilized in the training and education component of both programs. For example, recently the Nursing Department offered a workshop on Personal Hygiene. During this presentation the Nurse offered strategies on how parents can enhance their personal appearance as well as use and teach good hygiene to their children at home. The presentation was interactive and the participants were able to take part in the dialogue and share their own views about personal hygiene. The parents were very complimentary of the presentation. The follow-up survey results indicated that the participants learned new ways to approach this subject.

Another example is the collaboration with the Dental Hygiene Program at Hostos Community College of the City University. This presentation, given by the senior students under the supervision of a faculty member, dealt with the issues of good dental care and proper tooth brushing techniques. The session encouraged routine visits to the dentist by their children and the importance of general cleaning. The parents can now visit the Hostos Community College Clinic and receive free services at the dental clinic for themselves and their children.

The Mount Sinai Hospital School of Medicine, Department of Preventive Medicine, is now one of our collaborating partners. They have provided a workshop entitled, “Eating Disorders: Anorexia and Bulimia” and will present another workshop in July. They will also provide us with interns from their graduate program that will conduct focus groups and needs assessments.

One unique service that Sinergia provides is supervised visits requested by the courts and/or ACS. They are held onsite at our facility and directed by an instructor that teaches about the parent-to-child interaction between parents and their babies and/or young children. This is an important step in the bonding and connection of parents and children which is significant to the reunification goal of families who have been separated by the child custody system.

Our programs evolve. They are a work in progress and require the contribution of every member of the team.

Sinergia’s Healthy Families Collaborative: A Team Approach to Service Delivery

“IT TAKES A VILLAGE TO RAISE A CHILD”

Sinergia’s Healthy Families Collaborative has been moving towards a comprehensive team approach to assist parents with developmental disabilities, which involves bringing together many experts from a wide variety of areas. There is the Intake specialist, nurses, Family Support staff, Medicaid Service Coordination, home visitation by special educator and infant teacher, Program Coordinator and administrative staff. Parents with developmental disabilities need much support if they are to become the parents they hope to be and secure the myriad of services that will help them reach their goals. In this approach the nurses make an assessment of the medical needs, the educator and family support staff make home visits, and the entire team works in a person-centered manner to find individual solutions and services to help the consumer to become a more effective, nurturing parent as well as to meet their own individual needs. It really does take a village in the form of a very committed team to help parents with developmental disabilities to develop a circle of support and find the services they need.

Case in point is that of a 15 year old female with developmental disabilities and her infant. They reside with her mother, who found herself as their sole support system. As a result of the pregnancy, she dropped out of a special education high school. After various meetings and home visits, team members were able to convince her that it was important for her to return to the last school placement although she wished to attend a “regular” school.  Today is her first day of school and we are now helping her in the process of registering the infant in a NYC/DOE day care program in the neighborhood where they live. This will allow the grandmother to return to work or receive training to prepare her for alternative job opportunities. The team’s commitment and caring fostered a trusting relationship between its members and the family. This allowed for the development of a circle of services and supports that includes family members, the principal, the teacher, and the health and day care services in the neighborhood in which she lives. Without the trust, hard work and belief that this young mother could succeed, she would remain home without an education or the prospects of a better future for her and her daughter.  Her mother would be overwhelmed and frustrated without the time or outlets for her own betterment.

The team will continue to offer parent training and visits to the home to assist and monitor the infant’s and the mother’s progress as well as connect them to needed services. A beautiful handmade quilt made by parents hangs in one of Sinergia’s offices and on it is embroidered, “It Takes a Village to Raise a Child”.  This particular case is a living example of that axiom.

Sinergia's Quilting Tradition Continues

 
Sinergia has developed a tradition of quilt making by parents who have participated in various programs throughout the years.  The first quilt, pictured above, was made in 1997 by parent groups that assisted in the formation of advocacy groups of parents with children with disabilities in the boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx. A parent, Cynthia Wallace, took the lead in the design and sewing of the quilt. There are 48 patches surrounding a large square denoting the theme, “It Takes A Village”. The parents embroidered poems, messages in Spanish and English, paintings of flowers, the sun, shooting stars, houses, names of their children and parent groups. A poet, Jean Wood, also inscribed one of her poems, From A Sermon, which reflects on the importance of each one of us and how we are interwoven and inextricably linked with each other. Each patch in this original quilt became a shared message of love for one’s children, home and family and the enveloping circle of community. The quilt is displayed  at the Christine Cuadra Conference Room on the 4th floor of Sinergia.

The second quilt (immediately above and below) was started a decade after and was created by  fifteen parents with developmental disabilities who participated in the “We Are Parents Too” program, as well as others attending the Day Habilitation and Residential Programs. Under the guidance of Maria Torres Bird, a staff member who is a quilter, the parents created a colorful quilt that focused on parenthood. The project gave parents an artistic and creative expression, allowing them to relive loving memories with stories and pictures, regardless of whether they have custody of their child(ren) or not.  This has been especially important for those parents who have lost custody since it is an acknowledgment of their parenthood and their hopes of one day achieving reunification. After completion the participating parents will decide where it will be displayed.

We hope that the quilting tradition at Sinergia will continue for many decades to come since it is a visual representation of stories of families, love and community.

You might also want to read our post last year: "We Are Parents Too" quilt project.