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Family Connection of SC, MUSC partner for FREE by Maggie Diebolt Public Relations Many people can not truly comprehend the struggles and rewards related to raising a child with a disability or special health care need until they experience those moments firsthand.    In an effort to provide residents at MUSC with a family perspective on caring for children with special needs, Family Connection and MUSC are partnering to implement Families and Residents Education Experience (FREE), a yearlong program that will match second-year pediatric residents with local families who are raising a child with a disability or special health care need.   Designed to teach residents the knowledge and skills needed to provide family-centered care for children with special needs, the program involves 15 residents and 15 families. Second-year pediatric residents will observe and interact with a child’s family in different environments during several visits throughout the year. The visits will take place at the child’s home, in the community and at a family-fun outing. The diversity of locations is intended to broaden the residents’ understanding of non-clinical issues.   “FREE is unique in that it allows residents the opportunity to understand families and children on a different level and in a different capacity than what they are taught as medical students,” said Molly Jones, Charleston area coordinator for Family Connection. “Residents will learn about what it is like to raise a child with special needs; what it was like for a parent to learn of a child’s diagnosis; what daily life is like for a family raising a child with special needs —school, dinnertime, bedtime, frequent medical appointments, social events, juggling the needs of a special child with the needs of other children; and what residents, as medical professionals, can do to help these families excel to the best of their potential, both medically and as a family unit.”   FREE started in Columbia in 2001 as a program for medical students who chose to specialize in pediatrics or in family medicine, and Jones hopes it will eventually be offered in every teaching hospital in South Carolina.   Sandra Oberman, Child Life coordinator, supports the implementation of the program, and said, “The establishment of the FREE program is a great addition and tool in resident education and for our Family Centered Care Initiative. Physicians will be able to have a better perspective into the lives of their patients—the concerns, stresses and complexities of a child with a chronic long-term illness or special needs. This first-hand knowledge, out of the hospital setting, should prove to be invaluable. Participating in even a small part of a family’s life will provide the opportunity to see their patients as part of a family system, and not just as a diagnosis.”   Family Connection of SC is a statewide organization that provides parent-to-parent support to families raising a child with a special health care need or disability. In addition to the FREE program and parent-to-parent matches, Family Connection offers an asthma management program, a program designed to teach elementary school children about life with a disability, and workshops for children who have a brother or sister with a disability.   For more information, call 740-5500 or visit the Family Connection Web site at http://www.familyconnectionsc.org.     Friday, Dec. 15, 2006 Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Island Publications at 849-1778, ext. 201.