By Hannah Powell - October 9th 2024

 

JANESVILLE

Mercyhealth has expanded its autism services with a brand new, larger clinic building and new playground.

The Mercyhealth Autism Center opened its doors on Wednesday, allowing families to come in and explore the various rooms and climb, swing, and slide on the outdoor playground.

As the COVID-19 pandemic waned and families resumed normal routines, more started to identify their children as needing to be tested for autism. This brought a higher demand for autism services, and a renewed push for early intervention.

In its previous space, the center had five rooms. It now has 18, allowing for a more comfortable and welcoming space that can accommodate more patients, said Belinda Wellnitz, the center’s manager.

“It’s really exciting for the kids and the parents to see the rooms that we’ve developed,” Wellnitz said.

Some of the rooms are customized with themes like construction, animals, dinosaurs, and Hello Kitty.

“I want the kids to want to come, be excited, and have an enjoyable environment for them to learn and grow,” Wellnitz said.

Mercyhealth offers in-home autism services as well as clinic-based services for those age 2-22 who have an autism diagnosis. It recently added autism diagnostic testing for ages 2-5.

Wednesday’s open house was a chance for patients and their families to come and explore and ask questions.

Claudia Cruz, whose son Anthony Cruz will be a patient, expressed excitement.

“The benefit of this, at least for my son, will be to teach him how to advocate for himself and communicate with others. I am very happy to be here and to be a part of this,” Cruz said.

As part of the change, the clinic’s hours have also grown. It will now be open from 8 a.m to 7 p.m. on weekdays.

“We’ve seen an increasing need for autism services, and we wanted to expand the breadth and depth of our services, not just to a single modality of care — we wanted to bring in therapies and other services. We are able to continue to grow and create a much larger scope of care for our patients,” said Kara Sankey, the center’s vice president of operations.

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