A Call to Advocacy: The Past, Present, and Future of Child Well-Being

  The Future Child Advocates of Fordham presents:

A Call to Advocacy: The Past, Present, and Future of Child Well-Being

Wednesday, April 23, 2014  |  8:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

1st Floor Auditorium | Keating Hall | Rose Hill Campus
441 East Fordham Road | Fordham University | NYC

Join members of the Future Child Advocates of Fordham (FCAF) for a multi-disciplinary conference with some of the country’s renowned childcare professionals who will discuss and examine the intersection of social, legal, psychological, and medical approaches to protecting vulnerable youth. Speakers will include:

•    Michael Menconi, FCRH ’15, Founder, President, Future Child Advocates of Fordham, Co-Founder, Future Child Advocates of America

•    Joshua L. Brown, PhD, Faculty Advisor, Future Child Advocates of Fordham, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, Fordham University

•    Bernard P. Dreyer, MD, FAAP, Professor, Director of Behavioral Developmental, Pediatrics, NYU Langone Medical Center, Director of Pediatrics, Bellevue Hospital Center, Co-Chair of the Academic Pediatric Association Force on Child Poverty

•    Linda Cahill, MD, FAAP, Medical Director, J.E. & Z.B. Butler Child Advocacy Center, The Children’s Hospital at Montefiore, Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine

•    Christine Deyss, MS, Executive Director, Prevent Child Abuse New York

FCAF is a collaboration between J.E. & Z.B. Butler Child Advocacy Center of the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore and Fordham University’s Department of Psychology uses a social justice approach to ending the vicious cycle of child abuse in the Bronx and across America. As a completely student-run organization, FCAF’s primary goals include fundraising for local child advocacy centers, and providing direct emotional and social support to child abuse victims throughout New York City.

The conference is open to the public. A Q&A session will follow the speakers.
RSVP to the event at futurechild@fordham.edu
Facebook.com/FCAFordham | Futurechildadvocates.org

Fordham Coalition Forms to Advocate for Better Understanding of Autism

By Chris Gosier

A coalition of Fordham professors, students, and administrators has come together around the goal of improving the lives of autistic people by changing the way they're treated in American society.

It’s a long-brewing effort that made strides in November 2013 with a conference among Fordham researchers, educators, and representatives of advocacy groups from outside the University. Next up are more conferences, research, and efforts to change policies and attitudes surrounding the capabilities of autistic people and how they can best be helped.

The full article can be read here on Inside Fordham.

Applied Developmental Psychology Student Interviewed for Psychology Today

Amanda Leeder, Applied Developmental Psychology, was recently interviewed for an article entitled “Quantifying Engagement in Autism Education Models,” published online on the Breaking Barriers blog of Psychology Today magazine. Amanda was one of several experts invited to contribute to an article focusing on the use of empirical data to evaluate and improve current teaching methods, educational programs, and therapeutic interventions developed for students with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Amanda was interviewed about her expertise with researching and implementing therapeutic interventions for ASD in home and school settings. She discussed the necessity for the fields of psychology and education to rely on the integrity of scientific research for evaluation of the utility and efficacy of therapeutic interventions and education programs. However, the development of evidenced-based practices for ASD has been limited.

“While it is no surprise that the term ‘evidenced-based practice’ holds a lot of weight, the evaluation of educational interventions for the ASD population is still in its nascent stages, partly due to the challenge of quantifying implementation practices and goals for these learners.”

Amanda said the paucity of research that is considered valid and reliable can be a problem and misguide families seeking effective treatment and education programs for a child with ASD.

“Many families of individuals with autism assume that a particular approach will be successful for their child, based on anecdotal evidence, case studies, or because an approach is ‘evidence based’. While in twenty years this term will be a reliable indicator of which school parents should enroll their child, the current state of research on autism education does not allow for this approach.”

She concluded the interview with a recommendation for families with a child who is currently in need of these services.

“The best bet for families right now is to comprehensively research what therapies and educational approaches are out there, and try to seek out professionals and experts in the field who will give them unbiased answers about autism education.”

Amanda came to Fordham after obtaining a Masters degree in general psychology from New York University. She plans to complete her dissertation on the role that non-ASD siblings play in ASD children's development. She is also completing her practicum at Emerge & See Education Center in Manhattan, where she works with therapists to develop new methods to teach basic conversation skills to children with ASD.

The full article can be read on the Psychology Today website.

Clinical Psychology Student Wins Diversity Scholarship

Jeremy J. Eggleston, Clinical Psychology, has been awarded a Michael Sullivan Diversity Scholarship by the Ohio Psychiatric Association. The scholarship is intended to support research, training, and community projects in the area of diversity.

Jeremy’s research focuses on minority-identified populations living in the inner city who have been diagnosed with HIV/AIDS and often face stigmas of both ethnic minority status and sexual orientation. He is currently writing his dissertation with the mentorship of Kathleen Schiaffino, Ph.D., Chair of the Department of Psychology, which focuses on gay and bisexual men of color and the various psychological, spiritual, and physical-health related outcomes of their post-traumatic growth. He is interested in the effects of personal spirituality and religious engagement in this population, and hopes to shed further light upon its role in empowering minority-identified populations.

For more information, please visit Fordham Notes 

An Assessment of the Mental Health Care Needs and Utilization by Families of Children with a Food Allergy

 Dr. Annunziato was interviewed by www.dugdug.com, a website that aims to make scholarly work more easily available to the general public, for their series on health care needs and utilization. She shares recent findings showing that although they recognized their mental health care need, service utilization was poor among families of children with food allergies. In medical populations, offering mental health services within the context of routine care may be needed. The full interview can be read here:
http://www.dugdug.com/dr-rachel-annunziato-discusses-mental-health-care

Centenarian researcher honors 100th birthday of West Berlin City Hall

Dr. Daniela Jopp gave a presentation on the Second Heidelberg Centenarian Study at a reception celebrating the 100th birthday of the former West Berlin city hall, Rathaus Schoeneberg, and also served as an expert at a following round table discussion.  Findings from the recently completed study highlight that although all centenarians have multiple health conditions, about 80% of them are satisfied with their lives. Also, centenarians have an accepting attitude towards death, but do not long for it. Instead, 72% have a strong will to live and value their lives highly.

The Second Heidelberg Centenarian Study is part of an international network of studies which also includes the Fordham Centenarian Study. Study findings from the network will help to create a more realistic and positive view on very old age and will allow better planning for the support needs of very old individuals and their families.

Dr. Daniela Jopp

Dr. Daniela Jopp

Fordham Memorializes Former Psychology Chair Marvin Reznikoff

With golden leaves serving as backdrop beyond the gothic windows of Duane Library, family, friends, colleagues of the late Marvin Reznikoff, Ph.D. celebrated his memory on Sunday, Nov. 3.

Reznikoff, who died on June 20, began his tenure in Fordham in 1968 and was chair of the psychology department from 1981 to 1985. He was appointed professor emeritus in 1994.