While Kathy Gater and Daniel Melski have never met, they share meaningful commonalities. Each is personally, yet humbly, philanthropic; knows first-hand how special Capital Health System’s Autism-Friendly Pediatric Emergency Department is; and each hopes that in some way, they may inspire others through their generosity.
Marking Kathy’s retirement after 32 years as a midwife, she and her family made a legacy gift to benefit New Jersey’s first autism friendly pediatric emergency department at Capital Health in 2014. Having two of her seven grandchildren on the autism spectrum, she understood how important the project was. “We wanted to honor my career there, and also contribute to something that we felt a connection to. Nothing like this existed elsewhere and we were excited to support a program we knew the community needed,” she recalls.
An emergency room experience can be stressful for anyone, but particularly for patients with autism, who may have a difficult time with unfamiliar surroundings and may have language, social, learning and sensory challenges. Because the emergency room can seem like a threatening place for children, especially children with ASD, Pediatric Emergency Department staff at Capital Health Medical Center – Hopewell receive specialized training to recognize the behaviors that characterize ASD, provide a calm setting for treatment and communicate effectively with patients with ASD.
Eight years later, this program is still providing compassionate care to children in our region and made a remarkable impact on the Melski Family when their son required emergency care late one evening. They knew their visit to the emergency room would require empathy and understanding of his sensory needs, as well as a swift and gentle approach to diagnosis and treatment. After struggling to find ASD-friendly care close to their home, an online search led them to Capital Health.
“We had a phenomenal experience. As soon as we arrived, they understood his sensory needs,” says Melski. “We were impressed by the immediacy of the care offered at Capital Health and how compassionate they were, not only with our son but to us as parents. Signs of autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) are not always recognizable by someone untrained, and so communicating, and delivering care quickly to alleviate fear and anxiety is so important. The environment was intentionally designed for families like ours.”
When it came time to make their year-end charitable contributions, the Melski Family felt strongly that they wanted to support this program so that other families can benefit from it. “Our family received a wonderful gift through the pediatric emergency department. It’s hard to appreciate the importance of this program until you experience the anxiety of bringing your child to the emergency room and realize how badly this is needed. If we can help others receive that level of care, this is a cause we want to support,” said Daniel. The Melski family shared their gratitude in a letter and directed a donation as an added gesture of thanks.
Though the Gater Family made their gift to fund this program years ago, Kathy shared how meaningful it was to know that the program continues to provide compassionate care to families when they need it most. “This is exactly what the Autism Friendly Pediatric Emergency Department was intended to do. It means the world to me to see that others are still benefitting from the amazing care provided, and on top of that, to learn that someone else was inspired to make a gift of support to pay it forward to others, like our family did, is just incredible,” she said.
To learn more about gifts of gratitude, please contact Kaylie Keesling, Philanthropy Advisor at [email protected] or 609-303-4347.