To Connect and Educate: Why Families Engage in Family-Professional Partnership Training Experiences.
Family mentors stay in LEND when programs treat them as teachers and remove practical barriers like travel and child care.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team asked family mentors why they keep showing up for LEND training. LEND is a big leadership program for disability professionals.
They ran small group chats and one-on-one talks. The mentors shared what helps them stay and what pushes them out.
What they found
Mentors said they come back because they feel useful. They like teaching trainees and linking families to real help.
They also named clear roadblocks: short notice, no child care, and long drives. Programs that fix these bumps keep mentors longer.
How this fits with other research
Christensen et al. (2024) asked self-advocate trainees the same kind of questions. Both studies found that warm, steady support keeps people in the program.
Burney et al. (2025) looked at BCBAs who are also parents. Their big tip—stay humble and value parent voice—matches what LEND mentors want: to be seen as experts of their own lives.
Maniezki et al. (2021) used numbers to show that when staff and families treat each other fairly, service quality jumps. Kremkow et al. (2022) adds the mentor side of that story.
Why it matters
You run parent training or team meetings. Use these take-aways: ask mentors early what support they need, give ride or child-care help, and always introduce them as teachers, not just volunteers. Small fixes keep the people with lived experience at your table.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Successful family-professional partnerships (FPP) have been shown to positively impact both satisfaction with care and health outcomes for children with disabilities and their families. Many healthcare training programs have recognized the benefit of FPP training and often include learning experiences that feature families as teachers or mentors. However, most research on FPP training has focused on professionals' experiences, and not on families' experience in the roles of mentors and experts. The Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (LEND) program is a graduate-level interdisciplinary training program with sites across the country. LEND programs train future healthcare and service professionals in the disability field and often utilize a Family Mentor Experience (FME) as one aspect of their training. This study used qualitative interviews to examine the experiences of eight family mentors who worked with trainees in one LEND program. Overall, the family mentors expressed positive views regarding the FME, describing how it allowed them to connect with trainees, other families, and community resources, as well as educating trainees. Family mentors also identified several facilitators and barriers to participation. Study findings provide information on the FFP's impact on family mentors and guidance on how programs can support sustainable, effective FPP experiences.
Intellectual and developmental disabilities, 2022 · doi:10.1352/1934-9556-60.4.316