Aging, Disability, and the LifeCourse: Resources and Innovations from UMKC-IHD, UCEDD

As people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families age, planning for the  future, supporting changing family roles, and bridging the aging and disability systems become  increasingly important. This session will highlight resources and emerging work from the University of Missouri–Kansas City's Institute for Human Development (UMKC-IHD), University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UMKC-IHD) focused on aging across the life course.

Presenters will share three areas of work and resources from UMKC-IHD:

• Charting the LifeCourse (CtLC) Aging Resources: A brief introduction to the CtLC framework and resources designed to help people with disabilities and their families think about aging across the life course, anticipate future needs and transitions, explore changing
  roles and relationships, and identify supports for a good life as people and families age.
• Charting What’s Next: Futures Planning for Families with Members with Developmental Disabilities: An approach and set of resources designed to help families think proactively about the future, changing roles and supports, and what needs to be in place as both individuals with disabilities and their family members age.
• WE❤CARE: An eight-week curriculum designed for people with developmental disabilities who are in mutual caregiving relationships with aging loved ones. The curriculum builds caregiving confidence and skills while helping families connect with community resources and strengthen their capacity to age in place.

Throughout the session, presenters will share practical resources, lessons learned, and examples of how UMKC-IHD is working at the intersection of aging, disability, family caregiving, future planning, and systems change.

Speakers:

Britney Burkart, MSW, LCSW
Britney Burkart, MSW, LCSW is a Senior Research Assistant on the Health and Aging Team at the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s Institute for Human Development (UMKC-IHD), Missouri’s
University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD). Her work focuses on the intersection of aging and disability, with an emphasis on applied research, systems change, and improving access to person-centered supports across the lifespan. She is engaged in several statewide aging and disability initiatives, including Missouri No Wrong Door, Missouri’s Master Plan on Aging, and the Alzheimer’s State Plan Dementia Coalition, and serves on the Association on Aging with Developmental Disabilities (AADD) Conference Planning Committee. Prior to joining UMKC-IHD, Britney worked as a geriatric social worker in memory care, hospice, and palliative care, specializing in dementia care and non-pharmacological approaches to supporting people living with dementia.  Her experience included facilitating Cognitive Stimulation Therapy (CST) and support groups for people with dementia and their families. She brings both professional and lived experience to her work, including experience caring for a loved one with dementia and her own lived experience with disability. Britney earned her MSW and Gerontology Certificate from Saint Louis University and her bachelor’s degree in Community Health – Rehabilitation and Disability Studies from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Stacie Williams
Stacie works as a Senior Training Coordinator at the LifeCourse Nexus which is housed at the UMKC-Institute for Human Development. Stacie graduated from the University of Missouri, Columbia, and has an undergraduate degree in Human Development and Family Studies and a Master’s degree in Special Education. She spent the first 15 years of her career working in community-based nonprofits overseeing community living, day program and early childhood programs for individuals with developmental disabilities. For 9 of those years, she was a Carf surveyor. Stacie worked for the
UMKC- Institute for Human Development in the early 2000’s and supported the first Ticket to Work initiative. She later worked for the Family-to-Family Resource Center and helped the peer-to-peer parent network get started in Missouri.  In 2009, Stacie left the Institute and went to seminary and earned her Master of Divinity Degree. She then spent 15 years serving churches throughout Missouri, where she worked with many aging adults and family caregivers to navigate changing support needs and end-of-life journeys. Last summer, Stacie returned to the Kansas City area and went back home to the Institute for Human Development, where she now works for the LifeCourse Nexus. Stacie is a Mom of 7 and Gigi to 4, plus Dog Mom to 3 fur babies. She lives in Grain Valley, Missouri, with her husband and 4 of their sons. Her oldest son is Gabe, he is 22 and is dually diagnosed with Autism and a mental health diagnosis. Stacie tells people that she has been a mom in just about every way you can think of: adoptive, foster, step-mom, and biological. Stacie loves the Kansas City Chiefs, spending time with her family, especially her grandchildren, and likes to travel. This past winter, she entered her sourdough era and has become a little obsessed with her starter, Helma, and baking
bread.