SPREADING OUR TCFD KNOWLEDGE AND COMPASSION ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD

The comprehensive whole-person health model that is at the core of The Center for Discovery® is garnering increasing praise and attention around the world.

TCFD’s Director of Adult Psychology, Jenny Foster, recently traveled to India to present The Center’s HealthE6™ Model to a cohort of colleagues. Her focus was the ongoing TCFD study into stress, and creation of a real-time “Lab School” to study the stress response in a class-room setting. Jenny said of her experience, “It was so inspiring to be there and share how we help people so complex.” “The participants were hungry for knowledge and eager to hear about our data and how at The Center we have a multi-pronged focus which also involves the environment, diet and means of bodily regulation.”

The 2020 International Conference on Autism, “Autism: Diversity and Integration,” held at Amity University in Kolkata, India, included experts from around the world including: The United Kingdom, Italy, Israel, Peru, Canada, India and a video presentation from professor and autism advocate, Temple Grandin.  It was sponsored by the India Autism Center which is working to build an educational and residential “inclusive village without borders” for children and adults with autism and their families there.

“This conference was a platform for cross-pollination with all countries,” Jenny added, “I was so grateful to be a part of all of the discussions.” She was particularly impressed with a program in Peru where children and adults with complex conditions are being trained and placed in jobs in top companies. Liliano Mayo, a professor at Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, and the University of Kansas, also outlined how the children and adults with complex conditions are being taught to care for their elders, even giving insulin shots to parents and grandparents, because elder care is the responsibility of the youth in Peruvian culture.

Another speaker, Antara Banerjee of India, told a personal story of having to search by herself for her son with autism in the crowded streets after he had run away from school.  Later, she went building-to-building to find space and help start a school for her son and other children with autism. “It was so striking. These are tough women rolling up their sleeves and getting it done with very little,” said Jenny, “In many ways, her struggles in India and those of my colleagues in their respective countries parallel and mirror the struggles for acceptance, inclusion, diversity and compassion of our families at The Center and around the rest of our country.”

The 52-acre inclusive community will be the first of its kind in India, where there are limited resources. Jenny feels confident the experts at the conference helped lay some important groundwork of best practices and treatments for the new “village.” “I am so proud and excited that we have had a hand in making such change in an area that needs it,” she said. She looks forward to sharing more of The Center’s knowledge and compassion with the Indian Autism Center and her new friends from around the world.

For more information on the conference or The Center’s HealthE6® model, please reach out to the Office of Strategic Outreach and Partnerships at StrategicOutreach@tcfd.org.