A Community-Driven Toolkit to Improve Rural Emergency Department Accessibility for Autistic Children and Their...

Autism core characteristics and sensory processing differences can create significant barriers to families accessing and children receiving emergency health care in the heightened sensory and fast-paced environment of emergency departments (EDs), particularly in rural communities. This project aimed to use a community-collaborative approach to develop and disseminate educational materials, recommend ED environmental modifications, and implement sensory regulation supports to enhance the capacity of health care providers and staff in supporting autistic children within rural ED settings. An interdisciplinary community-academic partnership team including researchers, graduate students, parents, an autistic focused organization, health care providers, and hospital staff used an iterative process to co-create materials. The collaboration yielded a multifaceted toolkit with high acceptability from health care team members. The toolkit products included educational materials, environmental adaptations, and sensory-friendly tools. Future research should explore toolkit modifications to allow for implementation across unique ED contexts and assess health care related outcomes to measure toolkit effectiveness.