Expanding Autism Care

A shortage of highly qualified centers to diagnose autism spectrum disorder (ASD) motivated the Women’s Hospital Foundation to make a significant grant to launch Sheppard Pratt’s Center for Autism. The center, which opened in 2022, increases access to evaluations and treatment and offers diagnostic services and subsequent autism case management for individuals throughout their lifespan.

The grant helped provide start-up funding to recruit and train staff prior to the center’s opening. “We were delighted to be part of the creation of the center. Supporting programs that benefit children’s health is core to our mission,” says Pedie Killebrew, a Women’s Hospital Foundation board member and former Sheppard Pratt board member.

If undiagnosed and untreated, individuals with ASD can face a lifetime of frustration, which may lead to failure in school or the workplace, depression, substance abuse, and even encounters with law enforcement. There is no cure for ASD, but once diagnosed, therapies can help people reach their fullest potential.

“The sooner an individual can be evaluated, diagnosed, and begin treatment, the better the outcomes,” says Tom Flis, MS, BCBA, LBA, LCPC, behavioral services manager for the Center for Autism. The center is one of the few programs that provides evaluations and treatment for patients from age 2 through adulthood. Patients can usually get an appointment for an evaluation within two weeks after contacting the center. Waits of several months are not uncommon at other centers.

The Center for Autism is part of a larger initiative at Sheppard Pratt to coordinate all autism services and is led by Michael Murray, MD, medical director for Autism and Developmental Disabilities. In addition to the center’s rapid access to evaluations for very young children, he says that he is particularly committed to working with patients and families to establish transitions as people with ASD move through different developmental stages. “The skills an 8-year-old learned to play with peers don’t work when the child becomes a teenager,” he says. He also wants to develop more resources for people as they “age out” of services available for children and teens.

The Women’s Hospital Foundation has been an important partner with Sheppard Pratt for many years. In addition to funding the launch of the Center for Autism, the Foundation provided an emergency grant to Sheppard Pratt early in the pandemic to cover expenses for items like personal protective equipment. The Foundation previously funded a nurse practitioner training program, mental healthcare for girls without insurance, and Sheppard Pratt’s neuropsychiatry program, to help provide more services to people who need it.