Advances in medicine, technology and genetics have given our children and our families’ new hope for the future. A growing population of children with chronic illness and developmental disabilities is living at home and actively participating in our communities. Through a generous grant from the Texas Council for Developmental Disabilities, Texas Parent to Parent (TxP2P) is pleased to offer a medical residency educational opportunity that will provide Pediatric and Family Practice Residents and other medical professionals a comprehensive understanding of life with a child with chronic illness or disabilities. We will accomplish this by widening their perspectives from hospital/office to home and community, and by presenting the benefit of a partnership between the physician and family to improve the quality of life for our families and communities, and the educational opportunities for our children.

To provide a glimpse of family-life, a diverse group of trained volunteer parents invite residents into their lives to experience first-hand how they meet the challenge of raising a child with special health care needs. Simultaneously, our volunteer families learn more about how doctors develop early in their careers. Through this opportunity, we hope to foster communication skills that create collaboration and mutual respect between patients, families, and doctors.

We can individualize the curriculum to benefit participants from a variety of training backgrounds including medicine, nursing, education, psychology, social work, allied health, home-visiting programs and others. Although the program is primarily composed of home visit opportunities, additional educational formats are available:

Lectures / Noon Talks / Informal discussions: Topics include but are not limited to:

• accessing community resources
• awareness of cultural diversity
• negotiating special education
• financial and legal issues
• delivering sensitive news
• interviewing skills
• understanding stages that parents experience
• coping with grief
• personal parenting experiences
• the Medical Home concept
• Transition from Pediatric to Adult-Centered Health care

Topics can be presented by an individual parent or a panel of parents as desired.

Family Visits: We match residents with volunteer families for in-home visits. Our staff is available to manage all aspects of coordination and feedback requiring minimal effort on your organization’s part. We can customize the number of home visits. Some programs choose for their trainees to make a one-time visit. Others have opted for several visits to occur at each subsequent level of training. Longitudinal visits with one family over several years can also be arranged. Family visits enhance the resident's understanding of the impact a child with a chronic illness or developmental disability has on family dynamics. They will quickly understand how a physician's referral for nursing care or a feeding pump can help a family stay home together, rather than having one parent in the hospital with the child, and one at home trying to be both parents.

Communication Skills: Resident interviews a parent using suggested questions covering funding sources, discussing difficult topics, and fostering family-centered relationships. Parents provide insight from their personal experiences such as receiving a diagnosis, struggling to understand resources, etc.

Early Intervention or Multidisciplinary Team Process : Residents observe an assessment or therapeutic intervention (PT, OT, ST, Audiology, Parent training, etc.) These visits can be arranged in conjunction with or in addition to home visits. They can also occur at a school, a therapy center or a medical facility.

Educational Process: Resident accompanies a parent to observe their child’s elementary, middle or high school classroom, or attend a parent-teacher conference or special education eligibility meeting (ARD/IEP)

Advocacy/Legislative Process: Resident, accompanied by a parent, observes a legislative session, public hearing, or task force meeting

Texas Parent to Parent has had two very successful years with the pediatric residents at Children’s Hospital of Austin and the family practice residents at Blackstock Family Clinic in Austin. In our second year, we started MEd. at Scott and White Hospital in Temple, and began collaborating with the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center which increased us by two new sites: Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children and Children’s Medical Center at Dallas. The Osteopathic Department at the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth also began their MEd. program in January of 2004.

If you are interested in adding MEd. to your residency program, contact Debbie Wiederhold or Laura J. Warren at 512-458-8600 or 866-896-6001 or email at Debbie@txp2p.org or Laura@txp2p.org
If you are a parent who would like to become a volunteer to train residents through MEd., contact Debbie Wiederhold at 512-458-8600 or 866-896-6001 or email at Debbie@txp2p.org

“I have been impressed with the delivery of chronic care program (MEd.- Austin) in terms of the volunteers who make up the speakers panel and do the presentations. They present in an effective articulate manner and clearly reached the medical care providers in gaining their interest in this area.”

Dr. George Sharpe, Neonatalogist

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