CAMDEN, N.J. (KYW Newsradio) — Cooper University Health Care is in the midst of enhancing services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and a $2 million grant from the state will help advance those goals.
Treating patients with intellectual and developmental disabilities can present challenges to doctors that they haven’t been trained to navigate. This grant from the Department of Human Services will go toward creating comprehensive care programs.
“I’m a physician myself,” said Dr. Franziska Jovin, senior vice president for patient access. “I realized starting this project that I did not learn as much as I would have wanted to learn earlier in my career.”
Jovin says the grant from the Department of Human Services will go toward building sensory-friendly rooms for kids and adults so they feel more comfortable.
“To help calm agitated patients down, we bring these tools to the bedside,” Jovin said.
Sometimes patients are non-verbal, and communication is often left to family members. Another aspect of the program is to enhance medical records to better understand an individual’s needs and history so family members aren’t constantly telling the same story over and over.
Jovin says the ultimate goal is to provide the best possible care for all patients regardless of the conditions and also for hospital staff to have all necessary tools.
“Having the tools to use to improve these interactions has been very gratifying for us,” Jovin said.
Jovin says they are already seeing better outcomes as a result of new techniques and protocols.
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