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Hope’s Nursing Department is an essential
Fourteen years ago, Abi, a mother, looked on while
a doctor scribbled an unintelligible note on manila
paper. She knew what he would say before the
words escaped his mouth. Her 2-year old son,
Dayvin, was diagnosed with autism.
For the first fourteen years of Dayvin’s life, his
family lived and breathed autism. For those
fourteen years, Abi became “mother to child with
autism.” As Dayvin got older, his behaviors became
more and more difficult, even dangerous. His family
thought they were out of options.
Dayvin needed more than they could offer, so
they began investigating services, that’s when they
found Hope. At first, sending Dayvin to a
residential program felt impossible. But Abi knew
that she needed to let him go.
Fast forward to today, now if you go to the rainbow
fish room at Hope, you will find an outrageously tall,
beautiful boy with dark brown hair and the longest
eyelashes– that’s Dayvin.
Dayvin’s family is surprised by his progress each
time they visit, and they are so incredibly proud of
the man he is becoming. They are forever grateful
to the Hope staff for giving Dayvin a fresh start.
Hope– it’s a perfect name. When you parent a child
with autism, you don’t dare to hope for anything.
But every day, the Hope school brings such hope
to our lives” said Abi, Dayvin’s mother. “Hope is a
family. I don’t know how else to describe it. It’s not
an institution, it’s not a school– Hope is our
forever family.”
function of the Hope Learning Academy
Springfield and the Hope Residential Academy,
providing services for all students in those
programs. Led by Marcie Leonard, Director of
Nursing, the nursing team ensures that all of Hope’s
students are receiving the proper medical
attention they require.
During the global pandemic of COVID-19, the
nursing department has implemented its services
via telehealth to keep our kids, as well as our staff,
out of urgent care and emergency rooms, thus
helping to diminish any exposure to the
Coronavirus. The Hope Nursing Department’s
telehealth services, which began in early February,
reduce the time for assessment and treatment
determination to take place. Residential staff call
the RN Case Manager or the RN on call (after
hours) to give information about the injury or illness.
Together, the RN and residential staff
determine together if a telehealth visit is
appropriate. They both then connect using
FaceTime on their Hope-issued iPads from a
secure, password-protected Wi-Fi. The assisting
RN is then able to see and assess the injury or
determine the extent of the illness by doing a
virtual assessment. After the virtual assessment,
treatment is determined.
“I think it is fair to say that nursing and residential
have both worked extremely hard on this
technology,” said Marcie Leonard, Director of
Nursing. “Nursing has been great at offering a
telehealth visit even when residential does not
suggest it and vice versa. The continued use and
promotion of this service is proof to the staff that
telehealth is not only advanced technology, but it
gives fast, efficient care to the kids.”
Embracing this technology has allowed Hope staff
to continue to provide the utmost level of care for
our kiddos. “Telehealth has also been very helpful in
reducing visits to the home which in turn decreases
the chances of the kids contracting illnesses,” said
Leonard. “This is so critical in the current state of
the world.”