Verity Rodrigues, M.S., Ph.D., associate director of the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center’s Mental Health Initiatives and part of the TRIAD Outreach Program, has been named co-chair of the Mental Health Aspects of IDD Special Interest Group (SIG) of the Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD).
“The intersection of mental health and disability has been a strong focus in my career, so when I learned AUCD was looking for a mental health SIG co-chair, I thought it would be a great opportunity to serve AUCD in an area I am passionate about,” Rodrigues said. Rodrigues, a licensed clinical psychologist, supports school psychologists and speech-language pathologists in autism evaluation through TRIAD. She has also served as an advisory board member on the Mental Health and IDD National Training Center and worked as the Tennessee Children’s Mental Health Champion through AUCD, American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She currently is leading a project to boost the use of the IDD Toolkit, www.iddtoolkit.org, among health care clinicians, self-advocates, and families and support persons.
Rodrigues serves on the mental health SIG with co-chair Meg DePasquale, the division chief of Behavior Services for Maryland’s Developmental Disabilities Administration. In addition to Rodrigues and DePasquale, Julie Lago, the executive director of the National Center for START Services at the University of New Hampshire’s Institute on Disability, and Andrew Cope, Public Health and Disability Fellow for AUCD, serve as the Mental Health Leadership Committee.
“We have been organizing webinars for the AUCD Network on topics related to the intersection of mental health and IDD,” Rodrigues said. “Our first webinar was this past April on dual diagnosis, where Julie Lago and Meg DePasquale presented.”
She said the second webinar, on Sept. 10, focused on the intersection of autism and emotional regulation, and featured the lived experience of autistic individuals.
“This topic came out of the work of TRIAD’s recent postdoctoral fellow, Sam Johnston, who developed an online course and printable LEND booklet that addresses many of the issues covered in this webinar,” she said. “Much of Sam’s content incorporated the lived experiences of autistic adults, and we wanted to be able to share this information with a broader audience. The AUCD mental health SIG seemed like a wonderful opportunity to do just that.”
Johnston’s booklet, which includes a link to the online course, can be accessed here.
Rodrigues was also excited that one of the VKC educational consultants, Richelle Hurtado, Ph.D., BCBA-D, served as a panelist for the autism and emotional regulation webinar, sharing her experiences as an autistic adult and a BCBA.
Rodrigues sees the AUCD SIGs as a wonderful avenue to network with others and spark collaborative projects. She said one of her group’s goals this year is to increase and support cross collaboration.
“The SIGs are a great way to meet other professionals and self-advocates with similar interests from across the country,” she said. “Our hope is that we can help foster connections and increase dissemination across the AUCD Network to continue to strengthen disability research and advocacy.”
The Mental Health Aspects of IDD SIG has about 50-75 active members currently. The SIG meets quarterly, and discussion topics are compiled from the leadership team and from suggestions gathered from SIG members. AUCD’s SIGs are open to all AUCD Network members, external partners, and constituents. Rodrigues said the group welcomes anyone with interests in mental health and disability to become involved in the Mental Health Aspects of IDD SIG. If individuals are interested in joining the listserv, they may do so by using this link: AUCD | Mental Health Aspects of IDD Listserv.
She noted that the group will be having an in-person mental health SIG meeting in November at the AUCD Conference in Washington, D.C.
“I am really excited for some of the ideas and goals Andrew, Meg, and I have for growing the mental health SIG and increasing engagement and integration across the AUCD Network,” she added. “Andrew, who is our AUCD liaison, is a wonderful partner and has some amazing ideas for supporting cross-SIG collaboration. I look forward to increasing the reach and impact of the mental health SIG this coming year.”
