WAILUKU - Retired pediatrician Dr. John Briley will be honored next month by an agency he helped to establish more than 35 years ago.
During its "Black Tie & Slippers Gala" on Nov. 15 at the Hui No'eau Visual Arts Center, Imua Family Services will pay tribute to Briley as a tireless advocate for children. The event opens with cocktails at 5:30 p.m. and a silent auction. Dinner will be provided by Catering From Soup to Nuts. Hapa will entertain.
Eight years into retirement, Briley still stays active in the medical community by providing pediatric consultations and writing pieces for organizations and publications looking for expertise in forensic pediatrics, child abuse and neglect. This week, he continued to encourage health care professionals and physicians to consider referrals into Imua's early-intervention program, a project many pediatricians doubted would work but he says has proved otherwise.
Briley, 68, of Wailuku, estimates that at least 50 of his pediatric patients have benefitted from Imua's early-intervention program, an attempt to give a child the extra care to overcome or adapt to developmental delays identified after birth through 3 years old.
These children may have low birth weight, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, expressive language delays, visual or hearing impairments, autism or other developmental problems. Imua works to devise programs tailored to meet the child's needs.
Briley said he has heard countless testimonies from families reporting marked improvement in their children and crediting early intervention. In addition, local educators have told Briley that they find that children with Down syndrome who get early intervention are likely to talk more and be more expressive at school than those who receive no services.
Imua also offers an Early Childhood Development Program for ages 3 to 5 who do not meet age appropriate developmental milestones and fall outside the scope of state Department of Education services. The program offers speech, occupational and physical therapies. The project addresses each participating child's needs so that he or she is better prepared for kindergarten and beyond.
The "Black Tie & Slippers Gala" is Imua's annual signature event to support the organization as a whole and help fill the gap between public funds received and total revenue needed to keep the agency's programs and services running.
Imua Family Services Executive Director Karen Jayne said the gala will acknowledge Briley's service as a long-standing board member and founder of the early-intervention program.
"His life's work and all that he has given through his practice, his volunteerism and other outreach projects, has surely touched the lives of many," Jayne said. "We are grateful for his selfless work and cheerful demeanor that has so enriched Imua."
Briley said the honor from Imua was unexpected.
"I think they got the wrong guy," he said.
He credits his wife, Ilona, and family for being supportive of his work with Imua for so many years.
"I couldn't have done it without their support," he said.
As an advocate of early intervention with infants, Briley said he's learned that it doesn't hurt to make a referral and check what might be causing a developmental delay, if there is even one.
"Some parents don't even know there's a problem," he said.
Briley said that not all of his referrals for early intervention pan out, but in all cases families have been thankful for the opportunity to evaluate whether their child needs professional help in the early years.
"You reassure the parents and pediatricians reassure themselves," he said.
Briley said the early-intervention program has grown along with research-based strategies and therapies children with developmental delays.
"It's a terrific program," he said. "I now just stand aside and let them do the work. We have such dedicated and committed people who do this."
Briley is a 1964 cum laude graduate from Harvard University and a 1967 graduate of Columbia Medical School where he earned the Perry Watson Prize in pediatrics. He spent his internship and residency at Boston City Hospital and then spent a year and a half at a medical clinic in Sierra Leone, West Africa.
He set up his medical practice at Maui Medical Group in 1970, and then retired in the year 2000. Briley has been previously honored as a recipient of the March of Dimes Lifetime Achievement Award.
Imua Family Services helps young children with special needs on Maui and Lanai. More than 2,300 children and their families are served each year.
For more information or to request an invitation to the gala event, call Imua Family Services at 244-7467 or visit its Web site at www.imuafamilyservices.org.
* Claudine San Nicolas can be reached at claudine@mauinews.com.
