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Blog | Early Autism Intervention – Health & Human Services Bill

On Friday, May 17, the Minnesota House of Representatives voted to pass an important health and human services bill. The $11.3 billion legislation will cover the cost of public health insurance plans, social welfare programs and long-term care for elderly and disabled residents. Part of the bill will also go towards nursing homes and community-based service providers.

So, what does the new piece of legislation mean for the Minnesota autism community? A lot, considering that the bill includes $12.8 million to create a new benefit within Minnesota’s Medicaid program for children to obtain autism therapy focused on early intervention. In addition, the bill would require large employers to offer insurance benefits for autism spectrum disorder therapy.

The passage of this legislation means that early intervention treatment, a crucial step in autism therapy, will become more readily available to children and families that might not otherwise have had access to it. Children with autism under the age of 18 would receive family-centered, individualized treatment, and estimates suggest that approximately 750,000 Minnesotans would be covered. This is a huge step forward in autism early intervention treatment, and makes Minnesota the 33rd state to adopt an autism insurance mandate.

At Partners In Excellence, we fully understand the importance of early intervention autism therapy.  Our statistics show the correlation between early intervention and best outcomes on the graph below:

Average of Best Outcome January 2006 – June 2012

 

Confronting challenging behaviors early on and knowing how to best deal with the difficulties that autism can present are both important parts of our therapy programs. Our therapists are trained in early intervention therapy, and can expertly handle the unique challenges of autism in young children. If you have a young child and you suspect that they may have autism, we cannot emphasize enough the importance of getting your child tested early on. Contact us as soon as possible for a free play-based assessment! Visit our enrollment page to learn more!

Posted in Blog, MN Activity |

Blog | Activities for Summer Fun

Last month, we wrote about some fun indoor activities for children with autism when the weather would rather you stay inside. This month, however, with the sun coming out and the snow finally gone, we’ve decided to brighten up our tune a bit and give you some fun outdoor activities that are great for children with autism. Encouraging creativity, exploration and adventure is great for children with autism, and some of these can be fun for the rest of the family, too! Here is a list of some of our favorites:

  • Go on a nature walk: As we mentioned above, exploration activities are great for children with autism. Going to a local city park, taking a walk in the woods, a trip to the lake or wherever you choose is a great family activity that you can do with your children. While on your adventure, collect items like flowers, pinecones, leaves, unique pieces of wood and rocks, and do some arts and crafts with your kids when you get home.  Working on creative activities with your autistic child, especially arts and crafts are great for their sensory and motor skills, as well as their creativity.
  • Go Stargazing: If you’re lucky enough to live in an area where you can see the stars at night, taking the family out to the back yard and looking up at the stars is a great activity. Ask your kids fun questions like what it would be like to live on another planet, if they think aliens exist, how many stars are in the sky and anything else that you can think of. This is a great way to get your kids’ minds to explore new places really use their imagination.  It also helps to connect their sensory and cognitive skills by getting them to analyze and think critically about what they’re seeing.
  • Does you car need washing? You may not enjoy washing your car in the hot sun, but your kids might just love it. Keeping your child with autism active and having them work with their hands is a great way to work on their fine and gross motor skills and daily living skills, and it gets your car clean, too!

These are just a few simple ideas, but keep in mind that there are many more out there. Any activity that keeps your children active and stimulates their creativity and imagination is going to be beneficial to them, and can be fun for parents, as well. We hope you’ll enjoy the warm weather while it lasts!

Posted in Blog |

Burnsville Resource Night – 6/11/2013

Expanding Foods in Children with Autism

Presented by Sandy Manns, Occupational Therapist

Date and Time: Tuesday, June 11th 5:30pm-8:00pm

  • 5:30pm-6:30pm is our social hour- food and wine will be served
  • 6:30pm- 8pm is when we will have our presentation

Location: Partners In Excellence 14301 Ewing Ave, Burnsville, MN 55036

Is your child a picky eater? Are mealtimes difficult for you? Is your child resistive to trying new foods? If you answered yes to these questions, this parent resource night is for you.  This presentation will provide participants with information on how to make mealtimes more successful, suggestions for introducing new foods and learning how sensory impacts your child’s eating. We’ll have a discussion time during the presentation for parents to collaborate on issues that impact their child at home, what seems to work for them and what stores and brands are good for kids with GFCF diets.

Partners Resource Night is a free training opportunity for parents, caregivers, professionals, and others. This event is designed to provide participants with the tools necessary to manage situations they encounter with children. This is an interactive and informative opportunity to learn more about autism spectrum disorder and its impact on children and their families.

Prior to the presentation, we host a social hour from 5:30pm- 6:30pm. Parents, family members, professionals, and Partners’ staff are encouraged to mingle and meet others who have a connection to autism. One of the great benefits to attending Partners Resource Night is sharing experiences among families and caregivers.

Partners Resource Night is an exciting, supportive, relative, and educational experience for all who attend. These evenings will be informal and enjoyable and we encourage everyone to participate. Childcare is not provided for these events. If you have any questions or would like more information, please feel free to email us at resourcenight@partnersmn.com.

RSVP in person (front desk at all locations), by phone (952-746-5350) or online at http://expandingfoods.eventbrite.com

Posted in Events & Workshops, MN Activity |

La Crosse Resource Night – 6/4/2013

 

Date and Time: Tuesday, June 4th, 2013 from 6:00pm- 7:30pm

Location: Partners In Excellence- 901 Caledonia Street, La Crosse, WI (Upstairs)

Come enjoy a grilled meal with clinical psychologist Dr. Charles Moore, an expert in family relations, with additional expertise in horseracing and fine bourbon. In a brief presentation, followed by a question and answer discussion, Dr. Moore will talk with you about how parenting partners can successfully work together to raise a child with special needs. He will discuss such issues as how to develop a good working relationship, how partners can better communicate (particularly when they are stressed), and how to develop skills that will decrease stress and give hope.

A pair of FREE Loggers Baseball tickets for every participant! Donated by Dan Kapanke, owner of the La Crosse Loggers Baseball Team and co-sponsored by CenturyLink.

You must pre-register to receive tickets. To register click here.

Questions? Contact Lynn at 608.785.4100 ext. 4 or email lwing@partnerwi.com

Posted in Events & Workshops, WI Activity |

We did it! Autism Legislation Update

Victory in the private and public insurance markets! Minnesota is the 33rd state to require autism insurance equality!

The new bill, expected to be signed into law next week by Governor Dayton, will require all state mandated insurance policies for companies employing 50 or more individuals to  cover medically prescribed treatment for children with an ASD diagnosis. Every child in the state of Minnesota now has access to coverage without dollar caps from either private or public insurance. There will continue to be a push for expanding the number of private policies offering this coverage trough a variety of advocacy efforts.

There are so many people to thank for the passage of this important bill: Thank you Governor Dayton, our key legislators in this bill- Rep. Norton, Rep. Liebling, Rep. Huntley, Senator Eaton, Senator Hayden and Senator Lourey, parents, staff, community advocates, the Autism Treatment Association of Minnesota, Autism Deserves Insurance, and Autism Speaks. Together we have made this legislation possible. 

Several of our kids made thanks cards for this momentous occasion to give to their legislators saying thank you for beliving in me!

 

 

 

Posted in Company News, MN Activity |

Legislative Action Alert

An Important Message from the Autism Treatment Association of Minnesota (ATAM)

 

Negotiations between the House and Senate HHS Conferees to settle their differences continue to go on in private, as is typical at this stage of a session.   The autism ABA insurance mandate language, the Governor’s early intervention benefit and the cost of these two new programs, are all very much in the mix.  Additional funds are always spread around at the very last minute. We need to be present to win!

Thursday afternoon and evening are the critical times to demonstrate the breadth and depth of the autism community’s support for the SF 314/HF 181 mandate language. The “Red Shirts” will gather again for an update and lobbying instructions at 4:00 PM in the Capitol Cafeteria. We will operate from then until at least 5:00 PM. We may be able to move to another base camp after 5:00 PM. If you come later in the evening, we will leave a posting, and perhaps a guide, at the top of the stairs leading down to the Cafe to tell you where we have moved. The default location will always be Room 123.

While it is likely, but not certain, that the HHS Conference Committee will meet sometime tomorrow  afternoon or night, a strong and visible autism community showing will greatly strengthen our proponent’s hand in the private negotiations and results that would be announced by Friday night.

Be There. Be Red. Be Positive. Be Persistent. Be Patient (with the legislative process.)

For more information about the autism legislative bills, please visit the Autism Deserves Insurance website or Facebook page.

Posted in Company News, MN Activity |

Blog | Twin Cities Autism Engagement

If you’re a parent with a child with autism, you understand the importance of getting connected with other families that share autism as a common bond. Building relationships is just as important for children as it is for parents, so we’ve included below a couple of upcoming events in the Twin Cities area which center around bringing people of all ages in the autism community together:

Does your child occasionally struggle with emotional control? You’ll want to attend this AuSM (Autism Society of Minnesota) workshop, called, “The Zones of Regulation.”  The focus of the workshop is self-regulation and the difficulties that people face who have trouble controlling their emotions and thinking through everyday situations. The lessons and learning activities throughout the workshop, which have been designed by Leah Kuypers, M. A. Ed., OTR/L, provide practical ideas that can be easily incorporated into the home or classroom. Some of the important learning objectives are:

  1. Identify sensory processing systems, integration and its impact on modulation
  2. Demonstrate strategies to adjust one’s level of alertness/emotions to match the environment’s demands
  3. Understand ways to integrate The Zones into practice and generalize skills across settings

The workshop will be held on May 30th, 2013 from 8:30am – 4:30pm at TIES in St. Paul. If you’re interested in learning more, you can click here to go to the AuSM website.

Twins baseball, Autism Awareness and Father’s Day, all rolled into one! A special Autism Awareness Day event with the Twins will be on Father’s Day, June 16th, 2013. This unique event is the result of a partnership between Major League Baseball, the Minnesota Twins, AuSM and other autism awareness groups in the region, and will feature discounted tickets to the Father’s Day game against the Detroit Tigers. This is a great opportunity to spend a day with your family, for your children to make new friends and for you to build relationships with other families in the Twin Cities community. A portion of each ticket purchased will support autism awareness and the Autism Society of Minnesota.

As an added bonus, anyone who purchases a ticket as part of this autism promotion will be invite to participate in a special pre-game parade to raise awareness of autism in Twin’s Territory. If you’d like to learn more about this event, as well as other upcoming Twins events involving the autism community, click here to go to the AuSM website.

Posted in Blog, MN Activity |

Burnsville Resource Night – 5/14/2013

Detoxification and Protecting Your Child From Everyday Toxins

Presented by: Stephanie Belseth, MAN, RN, CPNP

Date and Time: Tuesday, May 14th from 5:30pm-8:00pm

  • 5:30pm-6:30pm is our social hour- food and wine will be served
  • 630pm-8:00pm is when we will have our presentation

Location: Partners In Excellence, 14301 Ewing Ave, Burnsville, MN

Stephanie Belseth of Newbridge Clinic in Linden Hills, Minneapolis will talk about detoxification impairments commonly seen in children on the spectrum and the everyday toxins that are harmful to children with autism and related disorders, who typically have slower ability to metabolize and excrete toxins and chemicals. She will discuss how exposure to chemicals and toxins can contribute to neurodevelopmental conditions and other chronic health issues, as well as cover what you can do about it, including information about preventing/reducing exposure to toxins in the environment, in cleaning/personal hygiene products, in food, water, via dental care, and more. She will also discuss research demonstrating the safety and effectiveness of certain detoxification protocols, as well as strategies for active detoxification, including vegetable juicing, herbal/botanical options, Modified Citrus Pectin-based products DMSA and more. This presentation will prove invaluable to everyone in attendance, and should be of particular interest to parents of children with autism and related conditions! Come learn about the delicate balance between toxins, detoxification, and ultimately reducing exposure to these dangerous chemicals for your child/children and your family! 

Partners Resource Night is a free training opportunity for parents, caregivers, professionals, and others. This event is designed to provide participants with the tools necessary to manage situations they encounter with children. This is an interactive and informative opportunity to learn more about autism spectrum disorder and its impact on children and their families.

Prior to the presentation, we host a social hour from 5:30pm- 6:30pm. Parents, family members, professionals, and Partners’ staff are encouraged to mingle and meet others who have a connection to autism. One of the great benefits to attending Partners Resource Night is sharing experiences among families and caregivers.

Partners Resource Night is an exciting, supportive, relative, and educational experience for all who attend. These evenings will be informal and enjoyable and we encourage everyone to participate. Childcare is not provided for these events. If you have any questions or would like more information, please feel free to email us at resourcenight@partnersmn.com.

RSVP in person (front desk at all locations), by phone (952-746-5350) or online at http://everydaytoxins.eventbrite.com

Posted in Events & Workshops, MN Activity |

La Crosse’s Partners Featured on WPR

The director at our La Crosse, WI Partners in Excellence site, Jackie Vick and parent, Alex Berry, sat down with Wisconsin Public Radio’s Newsmakers to talk about autism therapy and our programs. Listen to the full interview here

Posted in Company News, WI Activity |

THANK YOU from La Crosse

La Crosse’s Open House was Super in everyway.  We had a lot of people brave the wet, wintry day to join us for some wonderful fun. The entertainment and activities were superb!  We owe a SUPER thank you to all of the La Crosse staff who volunteered AND to the community members who so generously helped us!  

Posted in Events & Workshops, WI Activity |