Spartan Caregiver Support: Program Description and Key Findings During Michigan's Stay-At-Home Order

Allison N White; Matthew T Brodhead; Emma S Sipila-Thomas; David Ray G Miranda; Holly M Long; Marisa H Fisher

doi:10.1007/s41252-022-00281-7

Spartan Caregiver Support: Program Description and Key Findings During Michigan's Stay-At-Home Order

Adv Neurodev Disord. 2022 Sep 16:1-10. doi: 10.1007/s41252-022-00281-7. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Allison N White¹, Matthew T Brodhead¹, Emma S Sipila-Thomas¹, David Ray G Miranda¹, Holly M Long¹, Marisa H Fisher¹

Affiliation

¹ Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology, and Special Education, Michigan State University, 620 Farm Lane, East Lansing, MI 48824 USA.

Abstract

Objectives: The purpose of this paper is to describe a university program, Spartan Caregiver Support, that provided free on-demand telehealth services to caregivers of people with autism during the State of Michigan's 2020 Stay-at-Home order.

Method: Participants (n = 17) were caregivers of people with autism residing within the State of Michigan. Participants engaged with program members over video-conference technology, where participants received specific advice to support social and behavioral needs.

Results: We found that caregivers reported a variety of social and behavioral concerns, including concerns related to problem behavior, social/play skills, school/academics, and daily living.

Conclusions: This program description provides a framework for how to deliver on-demand telehealth support to caregivers of people with autism, especially during moments of crisis or emergency.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s41252-022-00281-7.

Keywords: Autism; COVID-19; Caregiver; Qualitative research; Technology; Telehealth.

© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022, Springer Nature or its licensor holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.