PhD Student, Research Associate
Memorial University of Newfoundland
Amie F Richards, Master of Arts, PhD Student at Memorial University, Research Associate with Inclusive Design for Employment Access (IDEA) Social Innovation Laboratory.
Mrs. Richards has four children, one of whom had complex medical needs and died at 11 years old in 2020. Since then, she has used her personal experiences to support other parents in similar situations and to advance the academic understanding of their challenges. Amie was finishing her Honours BA when her daughter passed away, and at that point, she decided to continue her studies with an MA that focused on the lived experience of parents of medically fragile children. Her main data collection for her masters degree led to the new concepts of the social identity of "the medical parent" and the frame analysis for coping with stress that she calls "functional trauma." The parents that Amie interviewed for her research all talked about their difficulties getting adequate care and support for their children, which motivated Richards to send a white paper to the government that outlined their issues and her suggestions for change and was the trigger for her current advocacy work.
Amie has co-created a small group of parents with lived experience who are in the early stages of planning and preparing for group activities. To date, the group has developed and administered a feedback survey for parents to make sure such activities are responsive to parents' concerns. This survey also provided useful demographic information about the families and their circumstances.
She is currently completing her PhD at Memorial University while working part-time as a research associate with the Inclusive Design for Employment Access (IDEA) Social Innovation Laboratory based at McMaster University, which focuses on improving employment outcomes for persons with disabilities.
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Sunday, October 20, 2024
10:10 AM - 11:40 AM NDT