Kaitlin Roh—2010 Fellow
For my summer project, I worked with PACER Center, a non-profit resource center for families of children and young adults with any disability or special health need that provides individual assistance, workshops, publications, and other resources about a variety of issues. The majority of my summer was spent helping the Family-to-Family Health Information Center, which helps families navigate health care systems and provides professional development opportunities for health care providers. During the summer, I learned about how federal, state and county health service systems operate. I used all this information to update the website and 12 publications, create 4 new resources, and personally assist 55 families through phone and email.In addition, I began the groundwork for a sibling project through brainstorming sessions, collecting resources, and conducting interviews. Siblings of people with disabilities often get lost in the shuffle, even within an individual family, and more resources need to be put in place to support parents in helping siblings as they transition into caring for their brother or sister who has a disability.