TidalHealth Opens New Pediatric Development and Therapy Clinic
SALISBURY, Md. — TidalHealth hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony Monday evening to mark the opening of its new Pediatric Development and Therapy Clinic in Salisbury. The clinic will serve children with autism, ADHD, Down syndrome, and other developmental delays.
The clinic will offer Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy, speech and occupational therapy, as well as other services to help patients thrive. TidalHealth’s Dr. Samantha Scott says the new clinic will help families overcome transportation and scheduling barriers that often prevent them from getting the care they need.
“Being in a center like this, where they can determine how many hours you need, do it all at one time, and get dropped off and picked up when it makes sense for your child… it’s going to make it so much easier on families to get their children where they need to be and to get all those services under one roof,” Dr. Scott said.
TidalHealth officials say there was a significant need in the community for a clinic of this capacity, calling it “life-changing” for local families.
“For years, and years, and years, our practice has been doing these [autism] assessments, diagnosing children, and then having nowhere to send them, knowing what they need. So this is just life-changing for these families that we’ve worked with for years,” Dr. Scott said.
The clinic is equipped with purposeful play equipment, a gymnasium, and other tools to help patients grow. Children can now work with multiple specialists under one roof.
“We refer to this in our field as treating the ‘whole child.’ Where families previously would have to go out to get a variety of services, they can come to one place, and we work with a bunch of specialists to figure out the best way to work with them,” TidalHealth clinical supervisor Alexis Laws said.
Laws added, “A lot of our families here do have a difficult time finding transportation to services, and being able to provide something in a centralized setting where kids can come to one place and just be here for hours has been a huge impact for our families—especially our working parents who don’t have to navigate so many schedules. So, it’s really given a lot of access to therapy in a way that we haven’t had before.”
