The Institute for Community Inclusion Mourns the Loss of One of ICI’s Distinguished Founders, Dr. Ludwik Stefan Szymanski
Tuesday, December 3, 2024
Dr. Szymanski was a cofounder of the Developmental Evaluation Clinic (DEC) with Dr. Allen C. Crocker, which we know today as the Institute for Community Inclusion (ICI) at UMass Boston and Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH). He advocated for families and children, exploring and improving health and social outcomes for children with developmental disabilities at BCH.
In these earliest days at the DEC, Dr. Szymanski and his team took an interdisciplinary, family-centered, hands-on approach to child developmental evaluation, building the foundation of values the ICI and BCH advocate today. This approach was revolutionary for its time during the 1960s and 1970s. Going forward, Ludwik was always at the vanguard in the field of mental health for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and he became an international leader in developmental neuropsychiatry.
"I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with Dr. Szymanski during my career at BCH and ICI. While we still have much work to do to address the mental health needs of people with intellectual disabilities, Ludwik’s work was groundbreaking. He was an esteemed clinician, and a teacher and a student. He cared not just about his patients, but about those who supported them, whether they be family or professionals. He was kind and caring. We will miss him." – Cindy Thomas, ICI Director
Over the years, Dr. Szymanski served as a consultant to the US Department of Justice and to state governments on mental health care of persons living in institutions. He also worked as a psychiatrist for the mental health clinic of the Boston Juvenile Court and advocated to end atrocities in state schools that segregated people with disabilities. In 1990, Dr. Szymanski established and directed the Center for Autism and Related Disorders at the BCH.
Dr. Szymanski also devoted his time to teaching trainees at the Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and related Disabilities (LEND) program at BCH. He mentored students engaged in interdisciplinary projects related to mental health and developmental disabilities. He kept an open mind and wanted to learn from his LEND students.
