Related Centers, Divisions and Programs
The Caring Connection offers support for parents and families in the tri-county area who have children with physical, developmental, or emotional conditions. This program provides information, a newsletter, Peer Parent Support program, share-groups with speakers, telephone support, Mom’s Night Out, family bowling, a holiday social, and forum, networking and volunteer opportunities. The Caring Connection is supported by the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC), Children’s Rehabilitative Services (CRS), and the MUSC Children’s Hospital Fund.
The Parent Training and Resource Center features a free lending library containing more than 800 titles. Resources also include a quarterly newsletter (The Coalition), an annual disabilities conference, parent training workshops, and a peer-parent mentor program that partners parents with trained mentors to assist in special education services. This program, which is supported by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education, is a partnership between the Advocacy Coalition for People with Disabilities and the MUSC Division of Genetics and Developmental Pediatrics.
The South Carolina Birth Defect Surveillance and Prevention Program is a statewide project to identify pregnancies affected by specific types of birth defects. The aim is to gather detailed information on pregnancies complicated by structural birth defects, enroll mothers of these pregnancies into a primary prevention program, and evaluate the effectiveness of the prevention protocol(s).
Health-Related Outcomes in Epilepsy is a collaborative effort with the MUSC Department of Biostatistics, Bioinformatics & Epidemiology that is funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The study examines health-outcomes, including quality of life, social support, stigma, and depressive symptoms in children and adults with epilepsy.
Health Education for Lupus Patients (HELP) is a collaborative effort among MUSC, Duke University School of Medicine, and Emory University School of Medicine. The study involves cognitive behavioral interventions designed to improve the adjustment and quality of life in adolescent African American females with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).
Cognitive Aspects of Pediatric Sickle Cell Disease is an ongoing investigation examining the relationship between neurocognitive functions and other indices of disease progression, including brain imaging and transcranial Doppler ultrasonography, in children and adolescents with sickle cell disease. Efforts are currently underway to study the effectiveness of stimulant medication for the treatment of attention problems in this population.