Mission: To bring together professionals and individuals in the local region interested in improving health and quality of life of individuals with cerebral palsy.
We had our first collaborative meeting was on June 23 2017 at Shriners Hospital for Children, Springfield Massachusetts. Clinicians and researchers concerned with the health and wellbeing of children and adults with CP in the Western New England area discussed strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to providing optimal care. It was decided that for our next meeting we will invite more families and adults with CP to hear their perspectives and decide upon goals and actions. Executive summary of the meeting can be found here.
Our first step after the meeting was to gather information about resources available for community fitness for individuals with disabilities. See listings gathered to date here.
The National Center for Health, Physical Activity, and Disability (NCHPAD) maintains directories of programs, orgranizations, equipment vendors and more organized by state at:
https://www.nchpad.org/Directories
We encourage facilities and programs in Western New England that provide services to individuals with CP to register with NCHPAD at: https://www.nchpad.org/requestForm/Programs
Our next meeting is June 8, 2018!
The plan is to hear from families and consumers their issues and concerns and formulate a strategic plans and actions to further our mission.
We plan on a movie night “Including Samuel” in April at Shriners Hospitals, Contact Mary Gannotti Gannotti@hartford.edu if you are interested in showing it your hospital or organization.