Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

1007 Mumma Road, Suite 100 Lemoyne, PA, 17043

Contact Us  |    Board Members
The Arc of Pennsylvania
DONATE NOW

(717) 234.2621

« All Events

  • This event has passed.

2024 Disability Health Action Summit

March 6 @ 8:00 am - 3:30 pm

Free – $75.00

“The Arc of Pennsylvania is excited to announce the 1st annual Disability Health Action Summit. The event is taking place on March 6th, 2024 at the Sheraton Harrisburg Hershey hotel and registration is now open! The theme of the day will be Advancing Health Equity for People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.

People with disabilities have long been experiencing health disparities. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, came worsened health outcomes for people with disabilities. It also brought about much needed attention and funds to research the emerging health disparities. The Arc of Pennsylvania was provided funds through the Pennsylvania Department of Health to do just that, and the results of the three-year long project are what prompted this summit. Years of previous research on this topic was further reinforced by the findings from the Arc of PA’s Initiative to Address COVID-19 Health Disparities Among People with Disabilities. Consequently, the need for a conference dedicated exclusively to addressing health equity for people with disabilities became apparent. The Disability Health Action Summit was made possible by a grant from The Foundation for Enhancing Communities – Pennsylvania Disability Advocacy Fund.

This conference seeks to dive deeper into four major focus areas: (1) Education of Medical Professionals, (2) Elevating the Voices of Self Advocates, (3) Policy Changes, and (4) Advancing Dental Care.

This is an in-person only event at the Sheraton Harrisburg Hershey hotel, with no option to attend or present virtually.

Purchase tickets at the bottom of this page.  Registration closes February 16, 2024!

Disability Health Action Summit Schedule

Wednesday March 6, 2024:

8:00 am – 8:30 am       Registration

8:30 am – 8:45 am       Welcome

8:45 am – 9:00 am       Opening – Keynote Speaker – Meghna Patel, Deputy Secretary of Policy and Planning, Office of the Governor

9:00 am – 10:00 am     Breakouts

Session A – Education of Medical Professionals: Session will include speakers from The Arc of Philadelphia, Shane Janick and Valerie Chadwick, a medical student speaker from Penn State College of Medicine, Lydia Smeltz, and speakers from Thomas Jefferson University, Dr. Mary Stephans and Karin Roseman.  Learn about inclusive practices, accessibility, communication techniques, and the importance of a person-centered approach in healthcare.”

Session B – Elevating the Voices of Self Advocates: Session will include a speaker from Achieva- Arc of Greater Pittsburgh, Sally Jo Synder, speakers from Jefferson Health- Center for Autism and Neurodiversity, Jane Tobias and Dr. Wendy Ross, and advocates from the Arc of PA, Alexa Brill, Jessica and Caden Capitani. We’ll explore the importance of recognizing the value of individuals with disabilities and their family member’s experience, knowledge, and providing them opportunities to participate in their own healthcare and make healthcare decisions.

10:00 am – 10:15 am    Break

10:15 am – 11:15 am     General Session – Tine Hansen-Turton, President and CEO of Woods Services.

During this session, attendees will learn how to seek out and establish innovative partnerships that benefit both partners and clients. You will also hear how Woods’ expertise in I/DD services has enabled the organization to lead the way in incorporating the healthcare side into its array of direct services as the industry moves into valued-based and managed care.

11:15 am – 11:45 am   Speaker – Dr. Maulik M. Trivedi , StationMD

StationMD is focused on telemedicine for individuals with I/DD. StationMD’s service provides on demand access anytime, anywhere to doctors who specialize in treating the I/DD community. Our doctors all complete extensive training that is specific to conditions and situations associated with I/DD. Our telehealth platform brings access and equity by addressing medical questions and conditions while that individual remains in the home and/or community. Our technology is specifically designed to be utilized by individuals with I/DD therefore providing a service that has been historically available to individuals without I/DD. Our doctors treat thousands of individuals with I/DD each year and are able to treat over 90% in place therefore assisting in avoiding unnecessary Emergency Room visits.

11:45 am – 1:00 pm     Lunch

1:00 pm – 2:00 pm      Breakouts

Session C – Advancing Dental Care: Session will include a speaker from University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine, Dr. Alicia Risner-Bauman and speakers from The Arc of Indiana Michelle Jordan, Executive Director and Amy Pesci, Licensed Dental Hygienist and Parent Advocate.  Our speakers will discuss their innovative approaches to ensuring that people with disabilities receive adequate access to dental services.

Session D – Policy Changes: Session on policy changes will include speakers from The National Task Group on Intellectual Disabilities and Dementia Practices, Dr. Seth Keller and Nancy Murray, and a speaker from the Disability Healthcare Initiative, Vanessa Rastovic. We will hear about how disability health equity intersects with policy changes at both the state and the federal level.

 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm     General Session – Shaleea Shields, CEO and Andrea Palmer, Awake Labs

LumiCare is excited to invite you to a panel discussion exploring the impact of technology in the state of Pennsylvania. Join us as our panel shares insights on technology development and its role in promoting sustainability. Gain valuable perspectives on how various states across the country are addressing their technology needs. Don’t miss this opportunity to engage in a meaningful conversation about the evolving tech landscape and its implications for the Keystone State and beyond.

3:00 pm – 3:30 pm     Closing

      Venue:

      Sheraton Harrisburg Hershey Hotel
      High Pointe Commons – 4650 Lindle Rd, Harrisburg, PA 17111 ($169 per night)

      Click here to reserve hotel rooms.  The group rate link has been extended to 2/9/2024. 

    • Accommodations:

      The Arc of Pennsylvania will provide accessibility accommodations requested at least 20 days in advance.

      Questions:

      Email Emma Nolan at [email protected] or call 717-234-2621 Ext 116 with questions regarding registration or the summit.

      Email Susan WoskaBond at [email protected] or call 717-234-2621 Ext 107 with questions regarding the hotel information.

      Request for refund must be requested by 2/21/2024 

Tickets

The numbers below include tickets for this event already in your cart. Clicking "Get Tickets" will allow you to edit any existing attendee information as well as change ticket quantities.
Tickets are no longer available

Details

Date:
March 6
Time:
8:00 am - 3:30 pm
Cost:
Free – $75.00

Venue

Sheraton Harrisburg Hershey
4650 Lindle Rd
Harrisburg, PA 17111 United States

NEW Module Just Arrived - Trauma-Informed Care. Visit our E-Learning Module Series. This series provides information and strategies for teachers, families, and paras to support the education of all students.

The Arc of Pennsylvania’s Making Employment Work course is an ACRE Basic Certification Training. In order to receive certification, participants must attend a 3 day, in-person training and then complete a self-paced, online curriculum. Completing this certification course will qualify individuals to provide Supported Employment services with Pennsylvania’s Office of Vocational Rehabilitation and Office of Developmental Programs. Our training combines lessons learned from traditional Supported Employment and Customized Employment techniques.

Arc Discovery Employment Transitions (ADEPT) is The Arc of Pennsylvania’s customized employment program. The Arc of Pennsylvania supports individuals with significant impact of disability to seek and maintain customized employment in their community. As a result, The Arc of Pennsylvania’s consultants are trained and nationally certified by Marc Gold & Associates, a national leader in customized employment, to provide Discovery, Customized Employment Job Development, and Systematic Instruction to individuals with disabilities in Pennsylvania who are seeking employment. In addition to providing customized employment services, The Arc of Pennsylvania hosts several certification courses with Marc Gold & Associates for individuals and organizations interested in national certification in Discovery, Job Development, and Systematic Instruction.

Include Me is a new model for inclusive education and gaining meaningful employment for Pennsylvania’s students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The Arc of Pennsylvania and Include Me believe all individuals with significant impact of developmental and intellectual disability deserve equal educational and competitive employment rights. Our mission, build and strengthen the inclusive education capacity for all public-school students, and discover meaningful employment opportunities meeting Pennsylvania employee and employer needs. Include Me strives to ensure all impacted students have equal access to all aspects of life and the community throughout their lifespan.

Include Me is an initiative that was part of the agreement on final terms between the plaintiffs and the Pennsylvania Department of Education in the Gaskin Settlement Agreement. We were initially assigned to work with school districts with the lowest inclusion rates. After the initial success, we have grown in reputation among school districts. Currently districts voluntarily chose our services, which are provided free of charge to the district. In addition to our School Age services, we offer transition-age services to help teams plan a path to customized employment for students transitioning from high school.

Donation Refund Policy

We are grateful for your donation and support of our organization. If you have made an error in making your donation or change your mind about contributing to our organization please contact us. Refunds are returned using the original method of payment. If you made your donation by credit card, your refund will be credited to that same credit card.

Automated Recurring Donation Cancellation

Ongoing support is important to enabling projects to continue their work, so we encourage donors to continue to contribute to projects over time. But if you must cancel your recurring donation, please notify us.

Privacy Policy

  1. What Information Do We Collect?
    When you visit our website you may provide us with two types of information: personal information you knowingly choose to disclose that is collected on an individual basis and website use information collected on an aggregate basis as you and others browse our website.
  2. Personal Information You Choose to Provide
    We may request that you voluntarily supply us with personal information, including your email address, postal address, home or work telephone number, and other personal information for such purposes as correspondence, placing an order, requesting an estimate, or participating in online surveys.
    If you choose to correspond with us through email, we may retain the content of your email messages together with your email address and our responses. We provide the same protections for these electronic communications that we employ in the maintenance of information received by mail and telephone.
  3. Website Use Information
    Similar to other websites, our site may utilize a standard technology called "cookies" (see explanation below, "What Are Cookies?") and web server logs to collect information about how our website is used. Information gathered through cookies and server logs may include the date and time of visits, the pages viewed, time spent at our website, and the sites visited just before and just after ours. This information is collected on an aggregate basis. None of this information is associated with you as an individual.
  4. How Do We Use the Information That You Provide to Us?
    Broadly speaking, we use personal information for purposes of administering our business activities, providing service and support and making available other products and services to our customers and prospective customers. Occasionally, we may also use the information we collect to notify you about important changes to our website, new services and special offers we think you will find valuable. The lists used to send you product and service offers are developed and managed under our traditional standards designed to safeguard the security and privacy of all personal information provided by our users. You may at any time to notify us of your desire not to receive these offers.
  5. What Are Cookies?
    Cookies are a feature of web browser software that allows web servers to recognize the computer used to access a website. Cookies are small pieces of data that are stored by a user's web browser on the user's hard drive. Cookies can remember what information a user accesses on one web page to simplify subsequent interactions with that website by the same user or to use the information to streamline the user's transactions on related web pages. This makes it easier for a user to move from web page to web page and to complete commercial transactions over the Internet. Cookies should make your online experience easier and more personalized.
  6. How Do We Use Information Collected From Cookies?
    We use website browser software tools such as cookies and web server logs to gather information about our website users' browsing activities, in order to constantly improve our website and better serve our users. This information assists us to design and arrange our web pages in the most user-friendly manner and to continually improve our website to better meet the needs of our users and prospective users.
    Cookies help us collect important business and technical statistics. The information in the cookies lets us trace the paths followed by users to our website as they move from one page to another. Web server logs allow us to count how many people visit our website and evaluate our website's visitor capacity. We do not use these technologies to capture your individual email address or any personally identifying information about you.
  7. Notice of New Services and Changes
    Occasionally, we may use the information we collect to notify you about important changes to our website, new services and special offers we think you will find valuable. As a user of our website, you will be given the opportunity to notify us of your desire not to receive these offers by clicking on a response box when you receive such an offer or by sending us an email request.
  8. How Do We Secure Information Transmissions?
    When you send confidential personal information to us on our website, secure server software that we have licensed encrypts all information you input before it is sent to us. The information is scrambled en route and decoded once it reaches our website.
    Other emails that you may send to us may not be secure unless we advise you that security measures will be in place prior to your transmitting the information. For that reason, we ask that you do not send confidential information such as Social Security, credit card, or account numbers to us through an unsecured email.
  9. How Do We Protect Your Information?
    Information Security -- We utilize encryption/security software to safeguard the confidentiality of personal information we collect from unauthorized access or disclosure and accidental loss, alteration, or destruction.
    Evaluation of Information Protection Practices -- Periodically, our operations and business practices are reviewed for compliance with organization policies and procedures governing the security, confidentiality and quality of our information.
    Employee Access, Training, and Expectations -- Our organization values, ethical standards, policies, and practices are committed to the protection of user information. In general, our business practices limit employee access to confidential information, and limit the use and disclosure of such information to authorized persons, processes and transactions.
  10. How Can You Access and Correct Your Information?
    You may request access to all your personally identifiable information that we collect online and maintain in our database by emailing us using the contact form provided to you within the site structure of our website.
  11. Do We Disclose Information to Outside Parties?
    We may provide aggregate information about our customers, sales, website traffic patterns, and related website information to our affiliates or reputable third parties, but this information will not include personally identifying data, except as otherwise provided in this privacy policy.
  12. What About Legally Compelled Disclosure of Information?
    We may disclose information when legally compelled to do so, in other words, when we, in good faith, believe that the law requires it or for the protection of our legal rights.
  13. Permission to Use of Materials
    The right to download and store or output the materials on our website is granted for the user's personal use only, and materials may not be reproduced in any edited form. Any other reproduction, transmission, performance, display or editing of these materials by any means mechanical or electronic without our express written permission is strictly prohibited. Users wishing to obtain permission to reprint or reproduce any materials appearing on this site may contact us directly.