ASD & Hospitals: Modeling Caring

Our friends with autism experience a unique suite of experiences in the medical health odyssey. Not every provider is trained on ASD, and those that are aren’t necessarily in every environment. No one sees an emergency coming, so when a person with autism needs help at the hospital, it behooves providers to at least have a foundational knowledge of how to help these individuals get the support they need.

The ASD & Hospitals blog post series is aimed at healthcare providers in hospital, inpatient, or outpatient settings. It details ways that individuals with ASD can be supported.

Team leaders are the soul of the treatment apparatus. If you are calm, your team will be calm. If you are losing it, your team is falling apart. This is why it is so important that you model the caring attitude you want your team to display.

• Accept the autistic person as they are. Ignore atypical movement or sounds, do not force eye contact, and support them in using comfort or sensory items to remain regulated.

• Give praise and encouragement.

• Use a calm, steady voice. Avoid medical jargon and long, complicated sentences.

• Allow extra time for the patient to respond. Pause between requests. They may need time to process or to express themselves.

• Minimize touch wherever possible.

• Tell the patient in terms they can understand what the medical team is doing or will be doing next. If possible, allow them to hold or touch the medical equipment so it can become for familiar to them. Use pictures, if it seems appropriate.

• Meet the patient where they are, physically. That may mean working from the floor or the caregiver’s lap.

As always, go out there and do good.