Writing on the Wall: Spring 2022

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ABA Center Opens This winter, Wall Residences opened it’s doors to a brand new ABA Center. The center is part of our Clinical and Therapeutic Services department, providing Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) to children and teens with autism and other developmental disabilities. Located in Salem, Virginia, the center includes multiple treatment rooms, a sensory room, a group therapy space, and an observation suite with two-way window/mirror. The center currently serves 11 clients and continues to grow. Some of these clients come to the center Monday through Friday from 9:00am until 3:00pm, while others come 2-3 times per week for therapy sessions and receive the rest of their services within their home. At the center, Licensed Behavior Analysts assess both the client’s and the family’s needs, develop treatment plans, and oversee implementation. Behavior Technicians support clients one-on-one to meet their treatment goals. The ABA team works on a variety of skills ranging from reductions in interfering behaviors and/or repetitive patterns of behavior to increasing functional communication and social skills. Parents and caregivers receive on-site training so that they can actively participate in their child’s treatment and planning. Parents John and Kate shared, “We cannot say enough good things about Wall Residences ABA program. Our son began attending Wall Residences ABA program after a terrible experience with another ABA provider. The ABA Team at Wall Residences is kind, friendly, professional, and they genuinely care for the children and families they serve. In the short time that we have been working with Wall Residences ABA Therapy Team, we have seen so much growth in our son and we know it is, in part, because of the amazing team at Wall Residences ABA Therapy.” ~Heather Cromer www.wallresidences.com ABA Therapy can look a lot like play, but Behavior Analysts and Technicians use these interactions to work with the child and to collect data to help with their treatment plan. 4
Better Care Through Communication Since 2020, our nursing team has been involved with a project to improve hospital care for people with developmental disabilities in partnership with Augusta Health hospital in Fishersville, VA. A local coalition of six agencies who serve this population was formed to do a comprehensive assessment of needs and collaborate with the hospital for better care and communication. I had the opportunity to meet the MD leader of the Vulnerable Populations Committee of Augusta Health at a COVID vaccine clinic and introduced the coalition’s concerns. He immediately responded positively and assured he would pave the way for contacts in the hospital. The collaboration was born! The DBHDS/Office of Integrated Health (OIH) Registered Nurse Care Consultants team was asked for their support with the hospital project. We discussed how their office plans to better support providers to advocate for the best care and clinical outcomes for the people we all serve within the current broken health system. All recognize that regulations often do not match the reality of the difficulties providers face when trying to get proper care and treatment. OIH had already begun the process of considering supports, so the Augusta Health project fueled their intentions! The OIH team, local coalition, and Augusta Health staff began working together to develop meaningful dialog and determine the first best steps to meet the most significant needs.Our meetings brought to light the hospital staff’s desire to provide the best care, but that many had not been trained in medical or nursing school curricula to provide care to this population. They were eager to improve their knowledge and be more aware of an individual’s true needs. The outcome of this group exploration work is a set of advocacy documents, which also serve as teaching tools to start the journey to improved care. Deanna Rennon, Wall Residences QA Director, and I, Lead RN Care Manager, had the privilege to join with experts from OIH and the hospital MD to develop: • My Care Passport • Consent Tip Sheet • Medicaid Waiver Tip Sheet • Discharge Tip Sheet For more information about My Care Passport and the Tip Sheets, please contact Kevyn Burn, Lead RN Care Manager at 540-250-7832 or kburn@wallresidences.com. My Care Passport is the central document. Designed to be easy for the Provider to fill out, it describes the needs of the individual for medical staff in an easy to reference format. It covers who they need at bedside, who can speak for them, feeding needs, how they show pain, what comforts them, and more. At Augusta Health it is now posted at bedside and part of the record. It is encouraged that it be shared widely with all health care providers caring for the individual. The Consent Tip Sheet was specifically requested by hospital medical staff so they could know clearly who could give consent, with whom they can discuss care, and who they need to listen to... the Provider, of course! The Discharge Tip Sheet clearly tells hospital medical staff what DBHDS requires at discharge. It is an attempt to solve the problem of Providers trying to describe what is needed and being challenged about the validity of their requests by equipping them with a document that shows, “DBHDS says so!” The Medicaid Waiver Tip Sheet gives a short explanation of what the waiver is and how it impacts the individuals. Likely it will mostly be used with Social Workers or Discharge Planners and Case Managers to assist understanding the support needs and how those needs are funded. The pilot at Augusta Health began in January 2022 after training the medical and nursing staff on the new documents. The grand plan includes assessing the effectiveness of the pilot at Augusta Health, then utilizing the assistance of our Augusta Health MD colleague to encourage other hospitals to adopt these tools. The four documents are now being distributed, talked up, trained on, and utilized throughout the State. The OIH February Health Alert is about the documents. Trainings are available through our agency, the OIH site, and other coalition agencies. We request you obtain and use the documents far and wide to teach our health care providers about the needs of people with developmental disabilities and the systems that serve them. Together, we can advocate for improved care outcomes for the individuals we serve. ~Kevyn Burn 5
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Writing on the Wall: Spring 2022

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