Center on Down Syndrome offers webinars on Navigating Life Changes

Edmeston, New York, October 2, 2024 … The Kennedy Willis Center on Down Syndrome has opened registration for its annual fall Lunch & Learn webinar series.  This year’s course, Navigating Changes of Life, will focus on helping people with intellectual disabilities cope with grief, loss, and other difficult transitions. The webinars will be held on four consecutive Wednesdays, Oct. 23 & 30, and Nov. 6 and 13, starting at noon. Registration information is at the Center’s website at kwcdownsyndrome.org.

 “People with intellectual and developmental disabilities experience loss in similar ways to you and I but can also face unique challenges of unrecognized or prolonged grief. This may result in complex reactions as they cope with different losses throughout their life,” said Brittany Goodrich, Director of the Kennedy Willis Center on Down Syndrome. “These losses are not just the deaths of people close to them, but can be smaller experiences such as adjustments to their daily routines, the loss of previously learned skills, changes to people filling volunteer or paid employment positions, or transitions to a new home or program that diminish connections with existing social supports.”

This webinar series will explore the components of the grief process and include age-appropriate strategies that support children, teens, and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities through challenging life experiences. Arlen Grad Gaines and Linda Clark, expert presenters and career counselors, will share resources and inclusive, practical techniques that help build awareness and address the complicated impact of grief. Registered participants will receive the recorded webinar links, an electronic tool kit of resources, and a digital certificate for three Ongoing Professional Development Hours from the Center following the conclusion of the series.

The $30 registration fee covers all four webinar sessions. The webinars will be on the Zoom meeting platform and facilitated by E. Adel Herge, OTD/OTR/L, FAOTA, Jefferson Elder Care, Thomas Jefferson University, and Director Goodrich.

Featured Presenters Include:

Arlen Grad Gaines, MSW, LCSW-C, APHSW-C is the Director of Social Services with JSSA Hospice in Rockville, Maryland, where she leads the social work, chaplain, and volunteer teams, as well as the bereavement program. With nearly 20 years of experience in hospice social work, Ms. Gaines developed a specialization in supporting individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities in their grieving processes. She is the co-author of the award-winning I Have a Question book series which addresses complicated topics for children, including those with developmental disabilities.

Linda Clark, LCSW, is a former bereavement counselor at Hospice and Palliative Care, Inc. in New Hartford, New York. Linda provided individual bereavement counseling and also facilitated bereavement groups for young widows, spousal loss, and adult parental loss. She has led workshops and community education on grief and loss and has shared her knowledge and experience with individuals, families, and the greater community for over 25 years. Linda’s youngest daughter, Theresa, has Down syndrome and lives in a supported apartment in upstate New York.

To learn more about the Kennedy Willis Center on Down Syndrome and its outreach initiatives, visit kwcdownsyndrome.org. The Center was established in 1996 at Pathfinder Village with a three-fold mission: to provide education opportunities for families and the community at large regarding best practices in developmental disabilities, to serve as an information and life planning resource, and to host and support studies by accredited research organizations related to Down syndrome and related disabilities.

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Pathfinder Village is an internationally respected livable community and services provider in upstate New York that was founded in 1980 to provide people with Down syndrome and related disabilities an independent, engaging, and fulfilling lifestyle. As it works to provide quality supports for older individuals, the Village also offers successful educational and pre-vocational services and community-based day service options. To learn more, please call (607) 965-8377, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., visit pathfindervillage.org, or visit our social media on Facebook and Instagram.