|
|||||||||||||||||||||
The Lectureship The Garrett Andrew Helms Memorial Lectureship was established by the PPAG Board of Directors in 2015 in honor of the life of Garrett Helms, the son of PPAG Executive Director, Matthew Helms. The Lectureship is dedicated to topics which touched Garrett’s life: autism, childhood cancer, pain and palliative care, quality of life, complex patient care, and sibling care. The first Garrett Lecture was given at the Annual Meeting of the Pediatric Pharmacy Association in April 2017. Sarah Elizabeth Friebert, MD, the Director of Pediatric Palliative Care at Akron Children’s Hospital, presented “A Zero Tolerance Policy for Symptoms and Suffering in Children and Families: Together, We Can!” The Garrett Andrew Helms Memorial Lecture is supported annually with a grant provided by the Garrett Andrew Helms Memorial Fund at the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis. The Fund was established by his grandparents, Susan and Richard Helms. Garrett Andrew Helms (2003-2015)
Most of us think that communication requires verbal language, but we learned from Garrett how wrong that assumption is. He taught the people that knew him a vibrant language of action, manor, and will. Most of us think learning comes in a predictable pattern, reaching milestones at certain times, but Garrett taught us it could work differently. His receptive language accelerated at great speed. Many may have assumed that Garrett did not understand, but provided us with many of examples of how wrong we could be in making assumptions from the "neuro-typical perspective.”
The Garrett Andrew Helms Memorial Lectureship hopes to continue this teaching and learning process through a lectureship in Garrett’s name. The Garrett Lectures
|