"Our goal is always to empower families with children with ASD"

The first thing I do when I arrive at the Mental Health Area of the Sant Joan de Déu Hospital in Barcelona is to review, together with the assistant psychiatrist of Unim TEA, Neus Elías , all the new cases that have been referred to us from the teams of the hospital itself or from the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Centers.

This work is necessary to assess, in each case, whether the Unim TEA Unit is the appropriate resource for that family or whether another type of resource needs to be activated.

I support families in introducing, reinforcing, or maintaining essential healthy behaviors for children and adolescents with ASD. We focus particularly on aspects such as sleep and eating patterns, hygiene routines, and strategies to increase independence and self-esteem.

We visit both families and children we work with on ongoing support, as well as new cases that come to the unit, always taking a personalized approach in each case. Therefore, my relationship with them is crucial for understanding family dynamics and ensuring that the strategies we develop are tailored to each family and each child. We always consider the individual's strengths and weaknesses, their environment, and their motivations, which can help us achieve our established goals.

One of the characteristics of children and adolescents with ASD is their restricted focus on specific topics that fascinate them—from dinosaurs to movies or trucks. The topic itself isn't important; what matters is being creative and using that restricted interest to build trust and connection . It's also important to use these interests as motivators to achieve specific goals. This includes working on complex and sensitive issues such as sexual and emotional development or emotional self-regulation, for example.

Any strategy implemented or conceived is meaningless without empowering the family or other key figures in the child's environment. That's why we must work from the ground up, grounding in the realities of their lives, and fostering excellent communication with all the relevant groups in the life of the individual with ASD: family, guardians, school, community mental health centers (CSMIJ-CDIAP), open centers, private resources, etc. This collaborative approach allows us all to work together to create lasting and positive changes, ensuring everyone feels comfortable working towards the well-being of the person we are seeing.

In the unit we have a food group, created in 2018 by clinical psychologist Mireia González, with the aim of encouraging children with ASD to open themselves up to trying new foods in a playful way , through the senses.

So when we have a session, the first thing I do is set out all the toys and items we have so that the children can play, smell, see, touch and relate to diverse food groups.

When they arrive, we see their curiosity awaken, and little by little, we guide them in discovering new foods. In fact, we ask families to bring a specific food each week that they can continue introducing at home after the session.

When there are severe cases of ASD, we work on these concepts with individual therapy, along with healthy nutritional guidelines for the whole family.

When the group feeding session is over, it's time to tidy up the room and assess with the team how it went , what difficulties we detected, what worked best for us, and how to continue improving for the next sessions.

Before the end of the day, I dedicate a significant amount of time to recording the day's work and accompanying families with brief online visits, provided the therapeutic goals allow it. Additionally, I use this time to coordinate online with professionals who are key contacts for the family and the child, and I prepare materials, such as pictograms or visual aids, to give to families in subsequent sessions.