The international use of the materials of the Informing Families Project, and its evidence-based learning on how to communicate with and support families when their child has been diagnosed with a disability, continues to grow.

We have been delighted to share our learning with our colleagues from Bulgaria, and recently had an opportunity to meet with clinical psychologist Ms. Sevdzhihan Eyubova, from the Medical University of Varna, to hear about how the Informing Families research and materials have been useful in training professionals who communicate with families about the news of their child's disability in Bulgaria.

In 2014 and 2015 a mobile team of 13 psychologists from the Karin Dom Foundation visited 32 hospitals across Bulgaria. They met and provided 36 training inputs for more than 290 medical specialists across the country – neonatologists, gynecologists, nurses and midwifes who work in delivery rooms and Neonatology units.

The training took place as part of a wider major national project for social inclusion and aimed to increase the knowledge and skills of specialists who work with families with children with disabilities. The 2-day training consisted of 6 educational modules – Communication, Stages of Grief, Family-Centered Approach, Management of Work-related Stress, Early Intervention, and How to tell parents that their child has disability - functional approaches.

All of the trainers were carefully selected and equipped with manuals and contemporary tools including the “Safe Cross Code” which was developed by the Informing Families Project in Cork, and which was translated and used with the permission of National Federatıon of Voluntary Bodies, Ireland.

You can click here to download the Bulgarian version of the poster that prepares professionals to communicate with families whose child is diagnosed with a disability.