About Sandy Magaña

1. About Sandy Magaña Dr. Magaña is a Professor of Disability and Human Development at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the Director of the Family Support Research and Training Center. Email: maganas@uic.edu Website: Family Support Research and Training Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago http://fsrtc.ahslabs.uic.edu/ Dr. Magaña’s research focus is on the cultural context of families who care for people with disabilities and mental illness, and the experiences of parents who have disabilities. Her concentration is on health disparities of minority caregivers, and diagnosis and treatment disparities for Latino and Black children with autism spectrum disorder, and on interventions to reduce health and service disparities.

2. Assumptions often exclude race/ethnicity Sandy Magaña, PhD Professor, Disability and Human Development

3. Families of adults with developmental disabilities • More than half of adults with developmental disabilities live with their families • Latino and African American persons with developmental disabilities are more likely to live with their families • Service model is aimed at individuals and not families

4. Satisfaction with co-residency among mothers of adolescents and adults with ASD

5. Satisfaction with co-residency as a mediator of caregiver well-being

6. Caregivers’ health • Living with an adult with a disability may contribute to caregiver satisfaction • However this does not preclude the impact caregiving may have on caregivers’ health • Physical health may be more impacted among racial/ethnic minority caregivers

7. Older Latinas caregivers: physical health

8. Older Black American caregivers: physical health

9. Caregivers who have seen general practitioner

10. Conclusion • Assumptions made by policy and service systems include that independence for adults with disabilities is consistent with everyone’s values • The reality is that all of our lives are interdependent, and some cultural groups value this more • Assumptions about services for adults with disabilities ignore the health of family caregivers • Chronic conditions and disparities in services may be more prevalent among racial and ethnic minority caregivers