Center for Start Services logo and NH-ME LEND logo

DURHAM, NH – The Institute on Disability (IOD) at the University of New Hampshire is pleased to announce a unique graduate-level interdisciplinary partnership between the Center for START Services and the NH Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities Program (NH LEND).

“This relationship allows future leaders to develop a broader understanding of what is needed to promote positive health and mental health practices. We’re honored to be part of this important partnership,” says Dr. Joan Beasley, Director of the Center for START Services, a program within the IOD.

NH LEND program is an intensive, nine-month graduate-level training program focusing on neurodevelopmental disabilities in children and youth. The Center for START Services’ New Hampshire program provides technical support and frameworks to help better meet the mental health needs of individual with intellectual/developmental disabilities.

This partnership will provide the opportunity for NH LEND trainees and fellows to conduct clinical rotations with the NH START project, and provide an important introduction to the mental health needs of individuals with disabilities. The trainees and fellows will work closely with the NH START coordinators to help prepare for Clinical Education Team trainings as well as with referrals to the NH interdisciplinary consult team/clinic at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Hanover, NH.

“We are excited to be working with START this year,” states Betsy Humphreys, Training Director for the NH LEND program at UNH. “We hope that our successful partnership with the NH START program will serve as an example for future LEND/START partnerships across the country.”

The NH LEND program is a collaboration among the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, the IOD, and the Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies/UCEDD at the University of Maine. It prepares leaders to enter the field of maternal and child health with the overall goal of improving the system of care for children and youth with neurodevelopmental disabilities. Since 1993, the NH LEND program has trained over 300 leaders in the field of developmental disabilities. Learn more at the NH-ME LEND website.

The Center for START Services was founded in 2009 at the Institute on Disability at the University of New Hampshire to respond to a nationwide demand to develop START services and provide technical support, education, and guidelines to ensure model fidelity. Driven by a person-centered approach in the context of the system of support, the START model offers proactive, clinically based consultation and training for crisis prevention and intervention. For more information, visit www.centerforstartservices.com.