By Jane Hauser
Director of Advertising and marketing & Outreach, NESCA
Dr. Luisa Hernandez Medellin Discusses NESCA’s Miami Launch
NESCA lately opened its newest pediatric neuropsychology workplace in Coral Gables/Miami, Florida, headed up by Dr. Luisa Hernandez Medellin. I had the chance to talk with Dr. Luisa Hernandez Medellin to get to know extra about her background, the present analysis panorama in South Florida, Latin America, and the Caribbean, and to listen to from her what unmet wants NESCA addresses in bringing its experience to that area.
Inform us about your background and the way you selected to grow to be a pediatric neuropsychologist.
I used to be born and raised in Mexico Metropolis in a household that valued service and serving to others. As a teen, I thought of changing into a missionary nun as a result of I wished to journey to ship providers and assist to kids in want. Throughout these years, I frolicked in Cuba, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Costa Rica, the place I witnessed quite a few disparities in the way in which individuals lived. That have formed my dedication to serving kids and households.
After I returned to Mexico, I explored completely different careers, together with instructing and medication, as my father was a physician, and finally landed in psychology virtually by probability—nevertheless it felt like dwelling as quickly as I found it. Later, once I moved to Miami, I accomplished my bachelor’s diploma and entered a doctoral program in little one psychology. Throughout my coaching, I found neuropsychology, and it was an ideal match: a technique to mix psychology with the medical world, caring for each the thoughts and the physique of a person.
I educated at Jackson Memorial Hospital, the place I fell in love with pediatric neuropsychology, working with kids with neurodevelopmental issues in each inpatient and outpatient settings. That have set the inspiration for my profession. Since then, I’ve labored in hospitals, personal apply, and now with NESCA, the place I get to offer high-quality evaluations in a compassionate approach that may assist kids and their households have a path to maneuver ahead on.
What’s your philosophy when working with kids and households?
I deal with each little one as I’d my very own. I’m a mom of three, all neurodivergent in numerous methods, so I perceive how laborious it may be to navigate the challenges of getting kids with disabilities whereas additionally loving them so deeply. My function is to get to know every little one who is available in for an analysis—what makes them distinctive, what’s necessary to them—and to assist uncover what’s occurring to allow them to flourish.
How do you’re feeling neuropsychological evaluations profit people and households?
Evaluations give us a deeper, goal understanding of a kid’s strengths and challenges. Dad and mom typically come to me nervous that they’ve performed one thing flawed that brought about their little one’s struggles. I reassure them that nobody is at fault. The objective is to not discover issues or establish one thing or somebody responsible; slightly, it’s to establish the basis trigger of a kid’s challenges whereas additionally highlighting every little one’s strengths. It’s about discovering the “lights AND the shadows.” For instance, if a baby struggles in math however loves music, we lean into music as a supply of pleasure and progress for the kid whereas figuring out tips on how to correctly present assist in areas like math, which may be extra aggravating.
How do you strategy mother and father or caregivers who’re proof against the analysis course of or the potential for their little one receiving a prognosis from it?
In Miami, many households are hesitant about their little one receiving a prognosis(es). I take the time in the course of the consumption course of to hearken to their considerations and gently plant seeds in regards to the forms of points we could also be seeing. That approach, mother and father aren’t shocked in the course of the suggestions session the place they be taught the findings from the analysis, which can embody a number of prognosis(es). It helps them course of the data and reduces their fears. I emphasize that neurodivergence isn’t attributable to parenting decisions or types, display screen time, or the Covid expertise. It’s simply how a baby is wired. My focus is on supporting households and kids and constructing hope with new data from the analysis.
How did you join with NESCA, and what excites you about bringing NESCA to Miami?
Whereas contemplating a transfer to Boston, I met NESCA’s founder and director, Dr. Ann Helmus, and our dialog felt like assembly a kindred spirit. She jogged my memory of my attending supervisor from Jackson Memorial Hospital in that they each count on very top quality evaluations, actually care about their sufferers, and actually worth the standard of the coaching supplied to their trainees. That’s not at all times the way in which with suppliers, in order that was crucial to me.
She shared that NESCA was planning to open a Miami workplace, which felt like the right match. Now, I get to assist NESCA deliver its 30 years of experience to our area, whereas I’m additionally contributing my very own 20 years of expertise proper right here in Miami. Collectively, we’re providing high-quality, culturally-sensitive evaluations in each Spanish and English.
Why does Miami want a apply like NESCA?
The system right here in South Florida typically creates delays within the identification of developmental, emotional, or studying disabilities. Pediatricians typically use a “wait and see” strategy; bilingualism is usually mistaken for a speech delay when it’s actually an indication of autism; and colleges typically face enormous, prolonged backlogs for testing college students.
It may be difficult to search out the correct useful resource or skilled to assist establish challenges early on. Neurologists are usually educated within the mind as “{hardware},” whereas we look at the mind’s working system and the way it features when there’s a mind damage, a developmental dysfunction, or different situation. Extra typically, they appear to scans and imaging for solutions, the place we take a look at the kid’s wellbeing and progress, particularly when there’s a extra advanced presentation that will result in a number of diagnoses, like ADHD, autism, and nervousness, all co-occurring. And on account of productiveness pressures in giant Miami hospitals, they’re solely capable of see sufferers for quarter-hour or so and sometimes through telehealth.
And once more, with our medical system not being optimized, there may be quite a lot of overwhelm amongst pediatricians who’re compelled to function in a factory-like system. Many individuals right here in South Florida don’t even have a devoted pediatrician who is aware of them and their households. It’s extra of a walk-in pressing care system, and which means there is no such thing as a follow-up in six months or perhaps a yr to see how a baby is progressing or not. Nobody is monitoring them and is devoted to their developmental well-being. That is another excuse for the frequent delays in prognosis right here.
Due to all of those points, too typically, households don’t obtain well timed or complete evaluations, and diagnoses and providers are delayed. NESCA provides another: in-depth, individualized assessments that contemplate the entire little one—what their lives appear to be and the way they do in class, at dwelling, and in the neighborhood. NESCA coming to Miami is filling a really giant hole in getting households the solutions they’re on the lookout for and getting kids the assist they should thrive.
What do you consider at NESCA in Coral Gables?
I focus primarily in pediatric neurodevelopmental issues, ADHD, Autism Spectrum Issues, and studying disabilities, offering evaluations and extremely tailor-made suggestions for interventions. I’ve additionally been coaching practicum college students within the Miami space, which we’ll proceed to do as a part of the NESCA apply in Coral Gables. There are at the moment solely two websites in Miami the place doctoral-level college students can practice at a practicum stage in pediatric neuropsychology, and certainly one of them is now NESCA.
What are your plans for working with colleges and worldwide households?
Worldwide households and personal colleges are actively searching for assist for his or her college students. Many households from Latin America and the Caribbean face restricted assets of their dwelling nations. They arrive to NESCA for specialised, extremely customized evaluations and suggestions on tips on how to assist their little one or scholar at dwelling or in class, of their nation. NESCA in Miami will present these households with the steerage and experience they want—tailor-made to their cultural context and delivered with compassion.
Any last ideas?
NESCA provides households in South Florida, Latin America, and the Caribbean the perfect of each worlds. We’re bringing NESCA’s legacy of excellence from 30 years of apply in New England, together with my many years of expertise dwelling and working towards in Miami, to serve households on this numerous, multicultural neighborhood. My objective is straightforward: to assist each little one be understood, supported, and given the steerage and instruments essential to thrive.
Concerning the Writer
As a bilingual pediatric neuropsychologist, Dr. Hernandez Medellin conducts complete and culturally delicate neurodevelopmental and neuropsychological assessments, complete diagnostic evaluations, and efficient care plans, offering acceptable suggestions for the shopper’s college, dwelling, and the neighborhood. She specializes within the identification and evaluation of neurodevelopmental issues similar to Autism Spectrum Issues, ADHD, developmental and studying issues, and their co-occurrence with nervousness and temper issues. She additionally works with kids and younger adults with acquired mind accidents, epilepsy, mind tumors, strokes, common medical situations, and genetic issues affecting the nervous system. She is a local Spanish-speaker, obsessed with serving the eclectic and vibrant South Florida neighborhood, in addition to worldwide sufferers on the lookout for high-quality and compassionate care.
To e book analysis providers at NESCA in Coral Gables, Florida, full NESCA’s on-line consumption type.
To e book a neuropsychological analysis or different providers at NESCA’s New England workplaces, full NESCA’s on-line consumption type.
NESCA is a pediatric neuropsychology apply with workplaces in Newton, Plainville, and Hingham, Massachusetts; Londonderry, New Hampshire; the larger Burlington, Vermont area; and Miami/Coral Gables, Florida, serving shoppers from infancy by means of younger maturity and their households. For extra data, please electronic mail data@nesca-newton.com or name 617-658-9800.