The director of the Sibling Support Program: A Family-Centered Mental Health Initiative will discuss the role of families and siblings in the behavioral health experience at a live networking event sponsored by the Massachusetts Association of Healthcare Quality (MAHQ) Oct. 19 at Newton-Wellesley Hospital.
Emily Rubin, MA, creator and director of the Sibling Support Program at UMass Medical School’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center and a lecturer in psychiatry at UMass Medical School, and Susan Swick, MD, MPH, chief of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and director of the PACT Program (Parenting At a Challenging Time) at Newton-Wellesley Hospital, are the guest speakers. The event will be held from 5 to 8 p.m.
Rubin developed the Sibling Support Program at the Shriver Center to address the complex needs of families during a child’s psychiatric crisis. The program aims to build resiliency and decrease trauma for siblings, stabilize families by teaching parents strategies to support siblings, educate clinicians and trainees about best practices for providing family centered mental health care and reduce hospital readmissions.
The Sibling Support Program has been running at the Franciscan Children’s Hospital since December and Cambridge Health Alliance since November 2011.
Rubin also is president and co-founder of the Massachusetts Sibling Support Network.