2026 rosh hashana

First in Israel: *Laniado Hospital and ALUT Launch an Autism-Adapted, Trauma-Informed Pediatric Emergency Department Initiative*

The initiative includes in-depth staff training, a sensory adapted treatment room, a dedicated family guidance app, and a joint study Laniado, ALUT, and Tel Aviv University , Laniado Hospital and ALUT (The Israeli Society for Children and Adults with Autism) are launching a joint initiative making Lani ado’s Pediatric Emergency Department the first Medical Center in Israel to be fully autism-accessible and trauma-informed . This comprehensive move encompasses deep staff training alongside sensory tools and clinical adaptations. These include an isolated "Snoezelen" treatment room equipped with dimmable lighting, noise-canceling headphones, and a heated waterbed. Future phases will include an online knowledge protocol, a dedicated pain questionnaire, a training module for onboarding new employees. Teva Pharmaceutical Industries is a key partner in this initiative, funding part of the development costs for training module, the online knowledge protocol, and the accompanying research. Children with autism and other special needs visit emergency rooms at a significantly higher rate than the general population. This high frequency often stems from the difficulty community medical teams face in handling the complex nature of treating these children, due to communication barriers and past medical traumas. However, a standard Emergency Department environment poses severe sensory, cognitive, emotional, and communicative challenges. It is an unpredictable, fast paced environment filled with sensory triggers, loud noises, bright lights, long wait times, physical contact, unfamiliar procedures, multiple caregivers, and a high uncertainty. Emergency Department teams do not always possess sufficient knowledge about autism, and the physical layout is rarely adapted. This reality complicates case management and distresses the child, the parents, and the medical staff, often leading to a traumatic experience. As part of this initiative, the Emergency Department staff underwent extensive training by ALUT. The curriculum covered autism, trauma, pain management, recognizing identifying distress signals, debriefing clinical events, de escalation techniques, personalized accommodation cards, integrative teamwork, and tailored communication with families. Additionally, ALUT and Laniado in collaboration with the company "Ma Shlomi?" to develop "The Family's Journey in the Emergency Department" — an app designed to provide parents with explanations and practical tools to navigate the medical visit. An ongoing study by Laniado, ALUT, and Tel Aviv University accompanies the project; aiming to evaluate, not

only the patient and parent experience but also the implementation of the new model, staff feedback, and clinical management metrics The highlight of the project is the newly constructed

"Snoezelen" room built for children with autism and special needs. The room features maximum acoustic isolation from external noise and dimmable lighting to minimize sensory overload. Calming elements, such as bubble columns and custom wallpaper, have also been installed, and noise-canceling headphones are readily available. The room features with two treatment stations: a

conventional medical bed and a heated waterbed, reducing stimuli and giving patients a choice of where to receive care. A sensory wall toy provides distraction while

allowing children to select the colour and shape themes of the room. Procedures in the room will utilize distraction tools, such as Virtual Reality (VR) headsets, alongside local anesthesia or mild sedation prior to painful or anxiety induing interventions. Dedi Atas , CEO of ALUT stated: "The emergency department is one of the most challenging environments for a child with autism and their parents. Parents possess irreplaceable knowledge; they know how their child communicates, what soothes them, how they express pain, and what triggers an overload. Listening to them is not a courtesy; it is essential to delivering proper care. The Laniado project was born of the understanding that an autism-adapted and trauma-informed response must address staff training, environmental design, family communication, and the long-term knowledge retention. We thank the Laniado team for this partnership and hope this model will be adopted by other emergency departments across the Country. "

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