Center for Family Intervention Science

Dedicated to the development, testing and training of behavioral treatments for adolescents struggling with depression and its co-occurring problems.
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Upcoming Events

The Center for Family Intervention Science is excited to kick off its second annual speaker series with two lectures this fall. The mission of our Center and these lectures is to promote family-centered healthcare approaches across all disciplines and domains of research, education and practice. This year, the Center will host a simulcast room where students, staff and faculty can come, hang out and watch the lecture. We will then host the videos on our YouTube channel and website for later viewing.

Intervening Early with Vulnerable Infants and Parents: The Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up Approach

Speaker: Mary Dozier, PhD
Professor and Unidel Amy Elizabeth du Pont Chair in Child Development, University of Delaware

• January 24, 2019
• Noon to 1:00 p.m.
• RSVP

Mary Dozier, PhD, and members of her lab study the development of young children who have experienced adversity. Together they have developed an evidence-based intervention, Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up (ABC), that is intended to enhance children’s ability to regulate behavior, emotions, and physiology. Each of the three components of the ABC intervention targets a specific issue that was identified as critical through more basic studies of attachment and stress neurobiology. Mary and the lab have conducted a series of randomized clinical trials to assess the effectiveness of the intervention. ABC has proven successful in enhancing attachment, cortisol production, emotion expression, and executive functioning.

Bio: Mary Dozier, PhD, is Professor and Unidel Amy Elizabeth du Pont Chair in Child Development at the University of Delaware. Mary has been Associate Editor of Child Development and is on several editorial boards. She is a regular member of an NIH grant review panel, and frequently serves as ad hoc member on additional panels. She was a member of the Institute of Medicine Committee on Maltreatment. She was awarded the Ainsworth-Bowlby Award for her research on vulnerable families, and an NIMH FIRST Award. She has been funded continuously by NIH since 1989.

For a full listing of speaker from the summer series and and to watch the Center's videos, check out our YouTube channel.

For questions about our current videos or future talks, please contact Cameron McConkey.

Past Speakers

Lifecourse Health Development for Individuals with Neuodevelopmental Conditions: Visualizing a Preferred Future

Speaker: Robert Palisano, PT, ScD
Associate Dean and Distinguished Professor of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences

• November 15, 2018
• Noon to 1:00 p.m.
• RSVP

Lifecourse health development (LCHD) is a biopsychosocial model that conceptualizes health development as a nonlinear, adaptive process that occurs through person-environment transactions that change over time. Planning for the future, beginning in childhood and the timing and social structuring of experiences in “real-life” settings enable desired social participation and prepare children and adolescents for successful transition to adulthood. The perspective that modifiable environmental factors often restrict health development and implications for policy and coordination of services and supports are discussed.

Bio: Robert Palisano, PT, ScD, FAPTA is associate dean and distinguished professor of physical therapy and rehabilitation sciences at the College of Nursing and Health Professions. He is a scientist at the CanChild Centre for Childhood Disability Research at McMaster University, Ontario, Canada. His current research includes a family-centered intervention to prepare children with physical disabilities for successful community participation and promoting capacities for future adult roles and healthy living using a lifecourse health development approach.

The New Normal: Family Caregiving in the Context of an Aging Society

Speaker: Laura N. Gitlin, PhD
Distinguished University Professor and Dean

• October 25, 2018
• Noon to 1:00 p.m.
• RSVP

Although families have always cared for and supported older adults, the landscape of caregiving is dramatically changing due to unprecedented changes in population dynamics, more people living longer, rise of chronic diseases versus acute care issues and the absence of a long term care system. Families must assume more care responsibilities than ever before and juggle multiple demands including employment, child rearing and their own health conditions as they, too, age. In addition, the number of families available to provide what in many cases is extraordinary care is shrinking, thus presenting a critical societal challenge as to who will care for an aging and highly diverse population. Laura N. Gitlin, PhD, distinguished University professor and Dean of the Drexel University College of Nursing and Health Professions, explores the implications of the demographics of an aging society on family caregiving, roles that families assume and the challenges and consequences for health care and preparation of a health care workforce.

Bio: Laura N. Gitlin serves as distinguished University professor and dean of Drexel University College of Nursing and Health Professions. Her research specializes in developing, evaluating and implementing nonpharmacological approaches in dementia care to support family caregiving, reduce functional disability and enhance aging in place. Her research also examines adaptive processes in chronic illness and aging, including the use of assistive devices and environmental modifications as well as health disparities in depression and mental health care. She continues to serve as an adjunct professor, Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. Prior to joining Drexel, Gitlin served as distinguished professor in the departments of community public health (School of Nursing) and psychiatry and division of geriatrics and gerontology (School of medicine) at Johns Hopkins University. Gitlin serves as chair of the Advisory Council on Alzheimer’s Research, Care and Services which was established by the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. She received numerous awards including an honorary fellowship by the American Academy of Nursing and the M. Powell Lawton Gerontological Society of America award.