At a recent conference focused on advancing care for individuals with autism through scientific research, Thomas Frazier II, Ph.D., a respected researcher and current Chairman of the Board of Directors at Autism Speaks, responded to a participant’s question about how to justify needed outpatient services for children who also attend school full-time. This concern is familiar to many of the families we serve at Navesink Psychological Services, who are often juggling full-time schooling alongside essential therapeutic supports.
Dr. Frazier emphasized that outpatient services remain crucial for children, as they frequently target skills and areas of functioning that fall outside the scope of school-based supports. For example, children may require community-based interventions to help them successfully participate in extracurricular activities, or families may encounter behavioral challenges at home that school providers cannot directly address.
In his response, Dr. Frazier expressed hope for more integrated, coordinated, and collaborative models of care, with outpatient providers taking the lead in supporting children across environments, including sharing information back into school settings. His comments immediately resonated with the model of care used at NPS, in which we aim not only to deliver effective interventions to families, but also to connect these interventions to the broader contexts in which children live and learn. Providers who do this work effectively need both a solid understanding of school systems and strong consultation skills. While only one small part of this workshop, it was encouraging to hear our model of practice at NPS, highlighted in a positive way!
-Dr. Johanna Strobel, BCBA