VCU’s Partnership for People with Disabilities receives grant for new genetic counselor training program

By Sathya Achia Abraham

Virginia Commonwealth University’s Partnership for People with Disabilities has received a grant to develop a leadership-training program for genetic counselors who work with children with special health care needs and their families.

The program, SYNERGY, is a collaborative effort between the Virginia Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (Va-LEND), a training program of the VCU Partnership for People with Disabilities, and the Genetic Counseling Program in the VCU School of Medicine.

“The grant allows the Va-LEND Program, which is already highly effective in preparing leaders, to extend its reach by more fully integrating the genetic component of health and well-being in our own program, and leadership training programs nationally,” said Fred P. Orelove, Ph.D., executive director of the Partnership for People with Disabilities.

“SYNERGY is in keeping with the Partnership’s charge to provide interdisciplinary training and to disseminate effective practices, models, and products.”

The grant provides supplemental funding to support genetic counselor training in leadership and disabilities and to enhance multicultural recruitment to LEND training. In addition, SYNERGY will allow for the national dissemination of learning modules in genetic awareness, family history and newborn screening, and will provide a focus for enhancing the genetic component of LEND programs. The grant is approximately $48,000 for the first year and renewable for a total of three years.

“Linking leadership training in genetic counseling with interdisciplinary training in childhood neurodevelopmental disabilities has not been systematically done before,” said Joann Bodurtha, M.D., M.P.H., professor in the VCU Department of Human Genetics, director of LEND and primary investigator for this project.

“Incorporating the nurturing, environmental and genetic aspects of child health in the training of future leaders supports family-centered care for children with special health care needs,” she said.

SYNERGY is funded by the Association of University Centers on Disabilities through a contract with Maternal and Child Health Bureau, Health Resources and Services Administration.

Bodurtha is collaborating with Lauren Vanner-Nicely, director of genetic counseling in the VCU Department of Human Genetics and project director for SYNERGY. 

The Va-LEND program’s mission is to eliminate health disparities, to assure quality health care and to facilitate coordination and access to care for children with neurodevelopmental and related disabilities.

The Partnership for People with Disabilities, affiliated with the VCU School of Education, is Virginia’s only federally designated university center for excellence in developmental disabilities education, research and service.  It maintains an interdisciplinary approach to all its activities, allowing the organization to explore a wide range of professional services and community interests and opportunities for assisting people with disabilities and their families.