David Rintell, Ed.D., instructor

The psychosocial challenges of living with chronic medical illness could add to the disability of an individual or family, or in fact, account for much of that disability. Psychosocial intervention can support a patient and family’s innate adaptive ability and address and/or prevent maladaptive disabling patterns. A pilot intervention with families facing a new diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) in one of its members will be presented.  The intervention model focuses on collaboration and integrates elements of illness-narrative, crisis-intervention, psycho-education, and family-systems-illness approaches. The use of strength-based and solution focused approaches will also be discussed.  These approaches can be useful with individuals and families facing a range of medical conditions.

Upon completion of the program the participant will be able to:

·         Identify the common psychosocial sequelae of the diagnosis of a chronic medical illness

·         Understand the concept and use of the illness narrative

·         Increase comfort level utilizing collaborative and solution-focused approaches

·         Gain a greater understanding of the use of psycho-educationProgram Code: HP48
2 CE Credits
Location: at MSPP, Newton

David Rintell, Ed.D., is a psychologist who has worked with families living with neurological illness for over 25 years. Dr. Rintell is on the staff of the Partners MS Center at the Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston, the Partners Pediatric MS Center at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and the MS Clinic of Metro West Medical Center in Framingham, MA. He is a Clinical Instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and is an Adjunct Professor of the Practice at the Brandeis University Genetic Counseling Graduate Program.