Adaptive Care Team (ACT)
Individualizing Healthcare for Patients with Developmental & Behavioral Challenges
- The Adaptive Care Team (ACT) promotes safe, sensitive care for individuals with developmental and behavioral challenges in the healthcare setting.
- Care is planned to facilitate less traumatic and more productive healthcare encounters through collaboration with parents and staff.
- ACT uses personalized preparation, adapted protocols, and special support strategies to improve the experience of care.
Who Can Get Help from ACT? |
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Any patient of Cincinnati Children's over the age of three who: Has a current diagnosis or is being evaluated for a developmental disability and / or behavioral condition ANDHas a difficult time coping and cooperating during a healthcare visit |
What We Can Do For Your Child
We work with you to come up with an adaptive care plan to improve your child's visits.
Since each child is unique, we will create a plan just for your child to reduce distress and increase coping.
How This Program Works
We will ask you:
- What things make your child upset
- What your child is interested in or likes to do
- Your child's past healthcare experiences
- How your child communicates best
- What helps your child understand and cope
We will work together to make an adaptive care plan:
- We will use your ideas about preparing and supporting your child
- We will share the plan with the staff who will work with your child
- The plan can be used to support your child on all future healthcare visits
- Let us know when we need to make changes to your child's plan
What ACT Will Do
- Give you "homework" to do with your child to help prepare for the next visit
- Set up a practice or 'play' visit to rehearse the steps of the upcoming visit, if needed
- Help adapt visits or educate staff when needed
What Families Can Do
- Understand that your feelings and words can affect your child's fears and comfort with healthcare
- Speak positively about all healthcare providers in front of your child
- Work on preparation or procedure "homework" with your child to practice what is going to happen
- Remind the staff that your child has an adaptive care plan in the medical chart.
Contact Us
For more information about the Adaptive Care Team (ACT), call 513-803-2327 or email us at adaptivecareteam@cchmc.org .
