Primary Children’s Hospital launches Adaptive Care Program to provide children with developmental disabilities, including autism, with a better hospital experience — and the health outcomes that result.

Some of the program’s guiding principles can help people better understand, accept, and consider children with autism in their schools, workplaces, and communities.

“Research shows that parents of children with autism and other disabilities often report that their children have difficulties in the hospital. We wanted to change that,” said Emmy Minges, a child life specialist at Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital, who co-led the pilot with Dr. Paul Carbone, medical director of the University of Utah Child Development Program at Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital. “The adaptive care program is in the pilot phase and we hope this could be a game changer for patients and families.”

Child Life Specialists are child development experts dedicated to ensuring that children’s lives remain as normal as possible in the healthcare environment.

Minges has worked for several years as a child life specialist in the emergency department and has found that a varied approach to care, communication and support often helps children with disabilities to cope. you and dr Through the adaptive care pilot, Carbone hope to identify and standardize best practices.

The pilot project aims to help patients from the age of 3 who have difficulties coping and working together in clinics and hospitals due to their disability.

Healthcare providers are given tools to identify how children with disabilities communicate and learn about their stressors and how to support them. An adaptive care plan is created by the family and shared with the health care team to support the child throughout the…