Elwyn is an unincorporated community located in Middletown Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, USA. Elwyn has a latitude of 39.907N, longitude of -75.41W and an elevation of 253 feet above sea level.Elwyn is home to Elwyn Inc., a facility caring for the needs of the developmentally disabled and disadvantaged.Elwyn is named for Dr. Alfred L. Elwyn, a physician who founded The Pennsylvania Training School for Feeble-minded Children in 1852 with teacher James B. Richards..
Despite legislative advances, women in high profile, public facing roles continue to face systemic, cultural, and structural barriers that can compromise career progression and mental health. I embarked on an MSc Psychology (Conversion) after a career in corporate and wanted to investigate adversity in the workplace. Having completed my thesis in which I undertook research with high-profile, public-facing women, and on winning both the Outstanding Academic Achievement Prize for coming top of my year at the University of Liverpool and the inaugural QMiP Postgraduate/Master’s Excellence Award, I detail below my journey of undertaking my first qualitative project. Using grounded theory, I analysed 10 semi structured interviews to examine the adversities faced by senior, public facing women and the consequences for mental health and wellbeing. The emergent theory, Embracing Feminine Authenticity to Overcome Adversity, captures a shift from scrutiny and self silencing to reflection, reframing, and authentic leadership. Vulnerability was redefined as a leadership strength, enabling women to navigate systemic barriers and foster more inclusive leadership models; this shift paved the way for building authentic relationships, fostering resilience, creating supportive environments, and, most importantly, overcoming adversity by redefining conventional notions of leadership and public facing roles for women.
New school transitions can be challenging for students on the autism spectrum. No published, evidence-based interventions exist to support families and teachers of students transitioning to elementary and secondary school during this critical period. Using Community Partnered Participatory Research, we developed Building Better Bridges (BBB), a caregiver coaching intervention that includes training on effective school communication, educational rights, advocacy, and child preparation strategies. We compared BBB (n = 83) to a module/resources-only comparison (n = 87) in a four-site randomized controlled trial in racially and ethnically diverse, under-resourced communities. In our intent-to-treat analysis, caregivers and teachers in BBB rated students’ transitions to the new classroom as more positive, relative to the comparison group. Results suggest this low-cost intervention can improve the transition process for families and students at high risk of poor transitions.
Throughout history, humans have utilized technology to stay connected. A specific application of technology and connectedness is providing care, education, and administration across distances. This general application is referred to as telehealth, and professionals from many disciplines utilize telehealth models (e.g., telemedicine, telepsychology). Behavior analytic professionals are no exception. This chapter provides a broad overview of telehealth, identification of some telehealth service delivery models, considerations of telehealth service delivery, and concludes with examples of behavior analytic applications via telehealth. The applications are discussed in the broad domains of severe and challenging behavior, skill acquisition, feeding and nutrition, clinical behavior analysis, and education and professional development. Each domain provides example research, application, and discussion of future needs.
