Greenwood Interprofessional Autism Center
About
Mission
The Greenwood Interprofessional Autism Center has a mission to meet the diverse interests and priorities of the local autism community. We provide industry-leading care to the people we support. We provide unparalleled learning and training opportunities to our staff and students of the Truman student body with an aim to build provider capacity for the broad array of needs of this population, but specifically to do so for members of the local community.
Advisory Team
We value the importance of community input and lived experience. If you are interested in joining our advisory team or referring someone to be on it, please email brandonh@truman.edu.
Values
- Lived experience
- Patient-centered
- Trauma-informed
- Family-centered
- Opportunity and Representation
- Evidence-based
- Forward-thinking
Who we serve
The people we serve may be:
- people who engage in dangerous or harmful behavior
- people who don’t have the necessary functional communication repertoires to get their needs or desires met
- people with extensive communication abilities, perhaps who need support to be successful in the work setting or with building meaningful personal, romantic, or professional relationships.
Of course, these are just a few examples as we understand that each person’s autism experience and journey is unique to them and their families.
Philosophy about our therapeutic approach and evaluating patient outcomes and satisfaction
We have an emphasis on evidence-based practice that is patient- and family-centered, and trauma-informed, and that respects individual differences. We highly prioritize a positive and productive patient and caregiver experience in evaluating therapeutic outcomes.
Evidence-based practice is a benchmark for healthcare services and includes a combination of the best available scientific evidence, professional expertise, and understanding of client characteristics. Evidence-based interventions show the most effective outcomes. They can improve the quality of life for the people we serve.
Goals for our clients are ultimately focused on meeting their therapeutic objectives. The goal of therapy is to help our patients enhance their quality of life to the degree they feel they have benefited from their investment of resources in the services. We also focus on a variety of other quality-of-life measures and prioritize patient preferences, assent, and consent.
There are many ways to evaluate quality of life, and some of these are observable and measurable behavior and one’s ability to access specific resources, activities, relationships, and opportunities. We understand patient preference and experience are also important measures in evaluating outcomes.