April 2023 - I was invited to teach about Autism and the decals to the security teams at Tanner Health Systems in West Georgia.
They were really interested in the information shared, and had tons of questions, many of which were specific to the hospital or medical side of things. Of course, I told them that I was unsure, but added advice or suggestions where I could. They asked about facilities or resources that could help when parents or caregivers dump Autistic individuals off at the hospital for days. They asked how that would effect the person, being that their entire home routine is thrown off, being in a loud, sterile, active hospital for days. It made me so sad to hear how often that occurs, and how little assistance is available for Autism families. Then, during the discussion a new idea was born. A way to make the decals relevant, and effective for the hospital setting. MAGNETS ! I turned the decal into magnets so that they could be used as needed at the hospital. All-in-all, it was a great experience and I was so happy to be able to help outside of my normal first responder audience.
In May, I got invited back, to speak to more Tanner people. I thought it was going to be the security officers who couldn't make the original meeting. It wasn't until I had started to the Teams meeting, centered around me and my presentation, that I learned it was for several different Vice Presidents and Department Heads of the medical facility. They truly appreciated the information shared, and some of the suggestions offered as far as catering to patients with Autism. I think my favorite question boiled down to asking for suggestions of how medical personnel should interact with a more high-functioning Autistic person properly. I explained that for the most part someone High-functioning would not be put off by actions of medical staff, but encouraged them to announce touches / actions before they do it and give the patient time to process and to turn off as much audible stimuli as reasonably possible to still be effective at their jobs. They were encouraged to extend this behavior to other patients on the spectrum, with other suggestions for the more severe patients. Despite being winded the entire time, with a quivering voice like I was about to cry at times, it went really well ! Thankfully I addressed that in the very beginning telling everyone that I was 8.5 months pregnant and to disregard me struggling to fill my lungs.
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