Individual Speaker Recommendations

As organizations and institutions begin planning for workshops and conferences, good speakers are always a necessary requirement! Please add in your suggestions for speakers below. As more speaker ideas are added, we'll work on creating topics for the speakers to be placed in.

Safety

• Beth Kavy

Safety Specialist Guard-A-Kid LLC 860-877-4530

Medical Illness Counseling

We had a guest speaker from the Medical Illness Counseling Center in Chevy Chase, MD speak to our group many years ago. He talked about their approach to counseling families and individuals dealing with a medical illness. Quite a few of our members got really bad advice from general family counselors who didn't understand our disease and the impact on families. This speaker had taken time to learn the dynamics of our disease and tailored his talk to the types of stresses that our families experience (children with GERD sometimes experience such severe pain that they can't eat, sleep or interact with the world). He also did demos of relaxation and pain reduction techniques. Pediatric Adolescent Gastroesophageal Reflux Association - PAGER

Gastroenterology

There is a gastroenterologist who is a stand up commedienne. She does professional conferences and will fit non-profits into her schedule when possible. Her name is Patricia Raymond. She calls herself Butt Meddler and sings songs about endoscopy to the tune of popular Christmas Carols. She has a free newsletter full of gastroenterology humor. [1]

Board Retreat Facilitator

Gerry Donnellan, PhD Work: (781) 863-5354 gerryd@big-leap.com

Oral Health for the Special Needs Population

• Dr. Tegwyn Brickhouse, chair of the Department of Pediatric Dentistry at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Dentistry, studied factors that precluded dentists from treating special needs patients, including: lack of staff training; need for special office accommodations; disruption of normal office routines; concerns over financial compensation; perceived need for hospital access; amount of time needed to complete a procedure, and problems with Medicaid reimbursement.

• Dr. Steve Perlman is a faculty member at Boston University and also runs his own private practice. He works specifically with people with special needs and heads up Special Olympics Special Smiles, an international oral health program with Special Olympics.

• Children's National Medical Center employs dentists that are knowledgeable about dental care for children with special needs.

• The National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) websitehas useful information about providing dental care to people with developmental disabilities.