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Speaking to you,
from my heart.
In addition to serving as Pikeville Medical Center President and CEO, I am also a husband, a father and a grandfather (PopPop). Like many others, I have also been personally affected by the lack of certain pediatric services in our region. In the case of our family, we found ourselves desperately searching for a local therapy option for children diagnosed with autism spectrum.
When my granddaughter, Ava, was first diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) at age 2, many heath professionals told her parents relocating hours away from Eastern Kentucky would be the best option for her to receive the care she needed and deserved. That was the wake-up call for my family, and for me, personally as President and CEO of Pikeville Medical Center. Instead of uprooting our family and accepting the false premise that good pediatric care can only come from far away cities, we immediately began working to develop solutions right here at home. It pains me to think of how many children and their families have either had to move away or travel hours, multiple days per week, for therapy. With the help of an amazing team, and more importantly, God, we are now able to offer that same therapy right here in Eastern Kentucky.
In May of 2020, PMC opened the AVA Center, the first comprehensive facility of its kind in our region, offering Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), Speech, Occupational and Feeding therapies for children on the autism spectrum, which created 52 new jobs and growing. Almost immediately after opening its doors, the AVA Center was faced with the need for expansion. It is now a four-story, 27,000 square foot ocean-themed oasis featuring autism-friendly spaces with close attention to texture, acoustics and lighting conditions. The structure consist of multiple learning rooms, a specially designed gym and special sensory stimulation room. We have a caring, dedicated staff of Registered Behavior Technicians (RBTs) and Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs) that strive every day to provide therapy to support the best possible quality of life for children on the autism spectrum. Through applied behavioral analysis (ABA), our staff treat the learners one-on-one, help them built their skills and assists them to lead a successful life. With the expansion and increased staffing, the program will expand from our current 54 to 96 learners in six months. We expanded the AVA Center services by opening a satellite center in Floyd County in 2022 on our Urgent Care campus. This allowed us to increase our current staff by 16 and add 24 learners.
Since the opening of the AVA center, our granddaughter Ava has successfully completed the program and graduated in July 2021. We are astounded at the progress she made through the AVA center and continues to make today.
My hope is for other families to experience the joy that comes with seeing their learner progress to become their best self! While the Pikeville campus AVA Center has filled a huge hole in our community, we recognize there is still a greater need, and we hope to expand into other communities to meet these needs. With your help, we will have the ability to keep up with the growing demand for these services.
I am asking you to join us in this fund-raising campaign to ensure our children prosper. By doing this, you can speak from your heart for those whose voices often go unheard. With your contribution, success can echo throughout the entire life of a child. Together, we can and will provide a brighter tomorrow for our most important asset, our children
Together, We Speak From the Heart.
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