KATC Partners with the Commission for Children with Special Health Care Needs

By Michelle Antle, Ed.S

The Kentucky Autism Training Center is proud to announce a blossoming partnership with the Commission for Children with Special Health Care Needs.  The Commission for Children’s vision is to enhance the quality of life for Kentucky's children with special health care needs through quality service, leadership, advocacy, education and collaboration. They want to be a visible leader in supporting Kentucky’s children and their families through collaboration and creation of a more accessible community based system of support. The Commission offers a wide array of services to children and young adults (through age 21) as well as to their families.  Some of those services include Care Coordination, Lab Tests, X-rays, Medication, transition planning, occupational therapy, speech therapy, and hearing tests.

Many children who have been diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder see physicians and professionals within the Commission, but under the primary diagnosis of something else.  For example, they may see a neurologist for concerns with seizures or sleep apnea, but may also see speech and language pathologists for their receptive and expressive language delays.  The Commission recognized the similarities of these individuals and their need for multi-disciplinary treatment teams.  Therefore, an autism “pilot” program is being modeled at several location sites throughout the state.  The Commission decided to pilot this clinic by pulling individuals with a secondary diagnosis of Autism from the neurology clinic patient list to participate in a separate clinic in which a wide variety of professionals could see and assess them on the same day. The idea behind these pilot clinics is to provide more comprehensive treatment to patients closer to their homes.

The KATC became involved with this project during the planning stages of this pilot clinic to ensure that all Commission for Children staff are knowledgeable about the use of evidence based practices.  In addition, the staff could also model these strategies and thus, become a resource for parents of children with Autism.  The KATC has provided Commission staff with several trainings as well as additional resources and support services.  The KATC looks forward to future endeavors with this amazing community partner!

Michelle Antle, Ed.S. ia a School Field Training Coordinator for KATC.  She provides direct training and technical assistance to education staff, social and community personnel, counselors, job coaches and families.

KY Autism Training Center Spring 2015 Newsletter (April 2015)