LoneStar LEND Conference set for May 30-31

By Roman Petrowski, Office of Communications

LoneStar LEND Logo***The LoneStar LEND Conference has been postponed until January 2025***

The Department of Pediatrics will host the 2024 LoneStar LEND Conference May 30-31 at the Denton A. Cooley, MD & Ralph C. Cooley, DDS University Life Center (7440 Cambridge St.).

The two-day event is themed around “Self-Care: Effective Strategies for Caregivers and Professionals Caring for those with ASD & IDD” and is designed to develop leaders in the field of autism spectrum disorder and other neurodevelopmental disabilities using an interdisciplinary training model focused on leadership, cultural competence, and evidence-based practices.

Healthcare professionals and service providers who attend the conference will be able to:

  • Identify self-care challenges specific to being a service provider for individuals with ASD/DD
  • Determine the steps needed to create a healthy work-life balance while continuing to care for and advocate for families
  • Better recognize the signs of burnout and be able to implement steps to address it
  • Cultivate and utilize both ongoing professional and personal circles of support
  • Enhance their abilities to promote adequate self-care in their patients and their caregivers

Families and caregivers who attend the course will be able to:

  • Identify self-care challenges specific to being a caregiver for individuals with ASD/DD
  • Recognize the components of Self-Care for Now most important to each of them, e.g., to determine the steps necessary
    • To build an ongoing circle of support
    • To relieve stress relating to the day-to-day care of individuals
    • To foster and maintain a healthy relationship with significant others
    • To understand the need for and to identify access to education and advocacy
  • Recognize the components of Self-Care for the Future, including building a circle of support for your child with ASD/DD
  • Determination of guardianship, estate planning, wills, and trusts to support your child in your absence

Additionally, all attendees will be able to define self-care, identify common and uncommon challenges to effective self-care, recognize the potential impacts of failure to care for one’s self, and discuss practical ways of addressing challenges to achieve effective self-care.

LoneStar LEND, or Leadership Education in Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disabilities, promotes training that produces future leaders equipped to best serve underrepresented and underserved children with ASD/DD across Texas.