by James Coulter
Do you have a child or person in your family with autism? Do you suspect your child may have autism? Do you want to learn more about autism in general?
The Winter Haven Hospital Foundation will be hosting a free educational series to educate the community about Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and how Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) can help families and caregivers better cope with it. The series is being funded with donations provided by Rockin’ on the Chain, a local organization that raises funds for ASD and developmental disabilities.
Through this three-day series, hosted over three weeks, attendees will be able to better understand ASD and other intellectual and developmental disabilities. They will also learn the basics of ABA and how its methods can be applied to help families and caregivers improve their experience with healthcare services.
“Attendees will learn to use ABA to teach skills to children and adults with ASD to communicate levels of pain and discomfort, preferences for medical procedures, and approaches to build tolerance for medical procedures in general,” a press release explained. “Attendees will practice problem-solving using ABA to manage aggression, self-injury and non-compliance with medical procedures during physical exams and increased comfort during vaccine administration.”
The series is hosted by the Winter Haven Hospital Foundation, a local not-for-profit organization that seeks to “to provide patients with state-of-the-art medical care, cutting-edge technology and equipment, and the best educated and trained personnel.”
This education series is part of the foundation’s overall efforts to help improve access to mental health and primary care services in the community. Their strategy has included partnering with two universities to help bring mental health and primary care professionals to the community.
John Straughn, founder of the “Rockin’ on the Chain” organization stated he’s proud to partner with the Winter Haven Hospital Foundation. “I think the Foundation does a good job of improving our community’s quality of life,” Straughn said.
“Our philosophy in terms of improving access to any particular health service is that…if you want to improve access to primary care services, your focus should be on improving access to physicians, primarily primary care physicians; and if you want to improve access to mental health services, you should be working on improving access to mental health professionals,” said Joel Thomas, President and CEO of Winter Haven Hospital Foundation.
The Florida Institute of Technology (Florida Tech) is one of the two universities the Foundation has formed a partnership with to help with their endeavors. Specifically, they have collaborated with the university’s Scott Center for Autism Treatment and Research, which aims to “provide gold standard diagnosis and treatment services for children with autism spectrum disorder.”
Florida Tech’s College of Psychology faculty recommended the community education series, which was created not only to educate the public about ASD and ABA but also to provide an opportunity to bring some of the university professors to the Winter Haven community to further improve access to mental health services.
“We know that there is a significant relationship between mental healthcare and physical health,” said Dr. Nathan Falk, program director of the Florida State University College of Medicine Family Medicine Residency Program in Winter Haven. “We want to try and take care of the whole person. And so, to do that, not only do primary care physicians need to know a lot about mental healthcare, but we also want our physicians to know the impact that mental health has on physical health and other conditions…So, as part of this partnership with Florida Tech, our medical residents see patients alongside Florida Tech doctorate-level clinical psychology interns and provide care in an interdisciplinary manner.”
Through partnerships with Florida Tech and the Florida State University and other regional colleges and universities, the Foundation has been able to achieve its goals. They have been able to incorporate more physical and mental health professionals in the community. Through their upcoming educational series, they hope to further their goals and benefit everyone, both professionals and residents alike.
“We are excited to continue our partnership with Florida Tech and utilize it to expand into the community and continue the benefits that we have been proud to offer here in Winter Haven. This helps us continue to educate and expand services to our community,” Dr. Falk said.
The free autism spectrum community education series will be hosted on May 29, June 5, and June 12 from 5 PM to 7 PM. The series will be hosted at the Winter Haven Family Health Center, located at 1201 1st Street South, Suite 100A, Winter Haven, FL 33880.
To register for the series, call 863-297-1781. For more information, visit: https://whhfoundation.org/
