Caravel Autism Health recently expanded its footprint in Minnesota by opening its 30th applied behavior analysis (ABA) center, joining its existing operations across Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.
Hermantown Clinic offers ABA therapy to children diagnosed with autism or behavioral disorders. Treatment helps build skills while increasing confidence in social situations.
Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) Therapy
ABA may not be a panacea, but it is an established treatment that has helped children with autism and other behavioral disorders learn to communicate, socialize, and develop independence. It offers highly tailored approaches customized to each child’s needs; delivery may occur anywhere from home, school, clinics, and community settings – improving social skills, communication, academic ability, learning abilities, motor skills, hygiene grooming, etc.
Applied behavior analysis (ABA) therapy uses reinforcement and positive reinforcement principles to provide effective autism treatments. Sessions typically last 40 hours per week, with certified therapists rewarding desirable behaviors while discouraging unproductive ones; parents are trained to implement the therapy at home.
Ivan Lovaas of Los Angeles first pioneered ABA therapy during the 1980s. His methods became immensely popular as people with autism turned to it for help; parents desired their child to become “normal,” and many saw in ABA an answer to that goal.
An essential characteristic of ABA therapy is that it takes place in public: practitioners are open about their methods, while results can be verified independently – making it unique among psychotherapy treatments, which may be challenging to test objectively.
Each state’s insurance regulator regulates ABA services, and reimbursement rates can vary considerably. Horse-trading by private equity firms creates frequent disruption in management practices that lead to cost-cutting and questionable care management practices while also hurting people with disabilities who depend on trusting relationships between themselves and caregivers for help with challenging conditions. One example is Centria Autism Service provider in Michigan, purchased by private equity in 2019. When taken over, new owners quickly cut costs by pressuring supervisors to bill Medicaid 25 hours per week even though patients could not handle that much work!
Speech Therapy
Speech therapy is an integral component of treating autism spectrum disorders. It can help children improve their fluency, literacy, vocabulary, and articulation skills to reach developmental language milestones more quickly. Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) specialize in diagnosing and treating communication and swallowing disorders in children and adults.
SLPs diagnose and manage speech, language, social communication, and cognitive-communication disorders. They may use various therapeutic approaches to help a patient overcome communication and swallowing challenges.
For example, they can offer strategies and techniques to reduce stuttering, a prevalent issue. Furthermore, they can train those who stutter to speak more fluently, even under pressure, and assist individuals suffering from voice or resonance disorders.
SLPs can assist patients with communication disorders by providing correct pronunciation demonstrations and repeat exercises, teaching those with apraxia of speech alternative communication methods, and helping those suffering from dysarthria, which refers to weakness of muscles used for speaking that can occur due to stroke or other brain injuries.
Caravel Autism Health offers services beyond speech therapy for autism treatment in Milwaukee and throughout Wisconsin. They specialize in early childhood education, occupational and behavioral therapies, and providing treatment programs in this region for kids in the greater Milwaukee area. Caravel offers Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy – a scientifically proven autism treatment that has proven effective. ABA involves teaching skills to children that will enable them to interact more meaningfully with others. Their goal is to ensure every child can access top-quality care available.
Occupational Therapy
Occupational therapy (OT) is designed to aid people of all ages who suffer from physical, sensory, cognitive, and emotional conditions. It aims to eliminate barriers interfering with daily activities like playing, writing, or bathing and can help overcome emotional and social difficulties like depression or anxiety. Practitioners employing this form of care are trained in a client-centric approach that focuses on meeting each person’s goals and needs to create more independence among their patients.
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a complex condition that impacts individuals differently, with some experiencing mild-to-moderate symptoms while others suffering more severely. With increasing awareness and funding available for autism services, there has been increased market demand for treatment providers in this sector – prompting private equity firms to lead this consolidation trend within this industry.
PE ownership of autism service providers can be problematic for multiple reasons. First, PE-owned autism providers tend not to provide quality care due to focusing on short-term profits and reimbursements. This often leads to unethical practices such as employee turnover or lack of accountability from management.
Parents who fight to cover autism treatments through health insurance expect their funds to go toward providing access to high-quality care. Still, unfortunately, many funds have been misappropriated towards profit-driven private equity investments, such as Blackstone’s buyout of CARD in 2018, which closed almost 100 sites four years later and drastically decreased access to care (Ervin 2022). Luckily, efforts are being undertaken by voluntary accreditation programs to set self-regulation standards for autism service providers.
Physical Therapy
Children on the autism spectrum often struggle with motor coordination and balance issues, and physical therapy (PT) may help address them. Physical therapists work one-on-one with autistic children and “push in” to classrooms or other school environments to work with both autistic students as well as typically developing peers.
Pediatricians frequently refer children with autism to physical therapists (PT). While private physical therapists can be found in hospitals and rehabilitation centers, hospital PTs tend not to possess as much expertise in working with those living with the disorder.
DEPENDING ON YOUR CHILD’S COVERAGE, some PT treatments may be covered by medical insurance, including dance and movement therapy, aquatic therapy, hippotherapy, and recreational therapy programs that aim to develop coordination, gross and fine motor skills, sensory processing ability, and balance in children.
Caravel Autism Health is committed to providing equitable access to high-quality autism treatment. Their clinical experts specialize in evaluating and treating children with autism using evidence-based approaches like Applied Behavior Analysis therapy. Caravel’s programs help kids reshape their development while discovering new avenues of engaging with the world around them.
Caravel currently provides services to families across Wisconsin, Idaho, Illinois, Minnesota, and Iowa through a network of clinics and telehealth delivery. Backed by Frazier Healthcare Partners, their telehealth model enables evaluations to occur within two hours without leaving home; furthermore, they offer ongoing treatment and support after initial diagnosis so parents feel assured their child’s needs are being met in line with research findings. Earlier diagnosis increases the chances of long-term progress for any child with autism.
Family Support
Caravel autism health specialists spend each day visiting families living with a child on the autism spectrum. They understand that managing this complex disorder requires strength, perseverance, and resourcefulness beyond most families can muster on their own, which is why Caravel specialists strive to bring the best therapy options available – be they home-based ABA therapy, center-based ABA therapy or hybrid models that combine the two approaches – directly into these families’ homes.
Caravel is pleased to announce the opening of our latest clinic in Milwaukee’s Historic Mitchell Street district this month. Here, the team at Caravel will provide autism diagnostic evaluations and tailored applied behavior analysis (ABA) therapy to children across Milwaukee. ABA therapy is an evidence-based treatment that uses positive reinforcement techniques such as increased communication and language skills, improved focus, and decreased unwanted behaviors to treat various behavioral conditions.
Caravel Autism Institute of Wisconsin’s new clinic in Milwaukee provides access to high-quality autism care for families throughout Wisconsin. This includes diagnostic evaluations by clinical psychologists who specialize in autism diagnosis as well as tailored ABA therapy programs designed to help children build skills, enhance social interactions, and gain the confidence required for expression.
Families looking for comprehensive autism treatments can learn more by visiting Caravel’s website and taking advantage of its industry-leading telehealth technology to schedule a diagnostic evaluation from within their homes.
Caravel will join Integrated Development Services and Centerpiece Autism Services LLC to form a new group offering support services across Wisconsin. This alliance will unite a highly experienced team of psychologists and Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs) who can provide complete spectrum care for autism treatment for children.
