LAREDO, TX.- The holiday season is a time to recognize the outstanding work that different community members do to help others and raise awareness about important causes. One of these acts of kindness and mutual collaboration is the new partnership between Laredo College Health Sciences Division and Families for Autism Support and Awareness (FFASAA), a local non-profit organization.
This semester, Laredo College Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Program and Occupational Therapy Assistant (OTA) Program students joined forces with FFASAA to bring autism families together for training and awareness events and interactive skills sessions.
Through this partnership, Laredo College health sciences students learn how to develop and apply safe patient assessment techniques for interaction with patients diagnosed with autism. This serves as a hands-on learning experience for LC students and an opportunity for children in the autism spectrum to interact with healthcare practitioners and learn about their services. It also educates families with individuals in the autism spectrum on the strategies implemented by first responders for proper patient assessment during emergency situations.
This collaboration was proposed by EMS student Sean Soria, who came up with the idea after witnessing the need for more training and educational resources on treating patients with autism. He took the initiative to reach out to FFASAA and work together with his instructors to bring this project to fruition.
Emergency Medical Services Program Director Manuel Ramirez said that although only EMS and occupational therapy students and instructors were part of this initiative, they plan to branch out and offer services from other nursing and allied health programs offered at the college. He hopes to do this every semester and expand their reach by offering these services and workshops through the local schools and other non-profit organizations.
“Our students get to interact and learn what to look for, such as signs, clues and behavioral patterns that they can pick up when the patient is autistic,” the program director said. “This is important because they get hands-on exposure. It’s not on the book; they experience it firsthand. They get to interact with the children and learn how to approach them and connect with them”.
Ramirez added that the faculty and students worked together to create social stories, or detailed illustrations showing emergency services procedures, such as checking their heart rate or blood pressure. The children can see these beforehand and be prepared for what they will encounter once these situations happen.
This collaboration has been impactful for the health sciences students involved. EMS student Daryana Garza Saldivar said these interactions with patients on the autism spectrum are great learning experiences that help students see things from a different perspective. Getting to speak with the families and getting their input about the subject helps them gain a better understanding of the subject.
“We get to experience the way they live and the way they respond to seeing people in uniform and with equipment that they have probably only ever seen in a doctor’s office,” she said. “This will help us guide the way we are going to care for them and the way we are going to treat them and handle them.”
Veronica Orduño, FFASAA president and founder, is thrilled to team up with the college and continue having these sessions in the future and wants more autism families besides those in their organization to participate in these sessions.
WE RECOMMEND YOU: Laredo City Council Recognizes Medline for Their Generous Donation
“For us as parents, it means the world. I will never be able to repay this,” she said. “I feel so blessed. Imagine the quality of life that we are giving to our parents and our kids. That is why we’re here. It’s a win-win because the students are getting hands-on experience, and our kids are also learning at the same time.”
Orduño also noted that this is the first partnership of its kind at the local level, and she hopes it encourages more organizations and families to get involved and create these types of outreach events for the community.
LC and FFASAA hope to expand this partnership to include more health sciences programs and provide services to more people in Laredo and surrounding areas. For additional information about these sessions, please contact the Laredo College Emergency Medical Services Department at lccemsp@laredo.edu.
COMENTARIOS