ATN/AIR-P Provider's Guide to Blood Draws
For medical professionals caring for patients with autism, preparing to meet the unique needs of each child can help make a visit more productive and less stressful.
This guide provides medical professionals with strategies to help autistic children complete routine blood draws
This tool kit provides strategies that you and your staff can use to help children with autism more easily complete routine medical procedures and blood draws. It will help reduce the stress felt by your patients and their parents.
Although completing blood work is the main focus of these materials, the information and techniques presented here will apply to other aspects of a clinic visit, including:
- Measuring vital signs
- Physical exams
- Developmental assessments
Sections include:
- Introduction to ASD
- Preparing for the visit
- Responding during the visit
- Pain management
- Behavioral strategies: Relaxation
- Behavioral strategies: Distractions
- Behavioral strategies: Visual supports
- Behavioral strategies: Reinforcers
It may be helpful with patients of any age or developmental disability. The kit includes visual supports that can be customized for your patients. Pre- and post-visit questionnaires can help you evaluate your clinic procedures.
In addition, the parent version of this tool kit can help families prepare for visits.
"These materials are the product of on-going activities of the Autism Speaks Autism Treatment Network, a funded program of Autism Speaks. It is supported by cooperative agreement UA3 MC 11054 through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration, Maternal and Child Health Research Program to the Massachusetts General Hospital. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the MCHB, HRSA, HHS, or Autism Speaks."
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Our Autism Response Team (ART) is specially trained to connect people with autism, their families, and caretakers to information, tools, and resources.
