Kelly W., RN

My daughter has autism, and so she is unable to independently navigate routines.

Kelly was the only nurse or staff who understood how to do a written visual schedule and bring calmness to her, when being out of her familiar environment causes increased anxiety, and also utilize the written schedule and therapeutic communication, reinforcement rewards, and positive feedback to encourage her self-care, including gathering laundry and finishing a shower, which she hadn’t been able to do unless I helped her during visits.

Kelly has gone above and beyond with how she encouraged my daughter without doing it for her, which is nursing, patient education, and patient-centered.

Kelly also modeled this for other employees, as this is not an autism-trained unit. She also was compassionate and encouraging towards her dad and me, and used time efficiently to go over discharge information.

I am also a registered nurse and know how rare Kelly’s knowledge and skills are and how, without them, my daughter's hospital stay may not have turned out to be as fruitful.

I appreciate her. Kelly's work and personality have truly made a difference for our daughter, the other staff members' education, and in inspiring hope that other patients and families might get the same treatment we did.

We’ve gone through other psych holds, and it has been devastating how little accommodation is made, which has led to my daughter being restrained and injected due to a lack of autism awareness and sensory accommodation.

Kelly should be charged with educating staff, patients, and families at the facility so that you can serve the ever-growing autism community.