Cheryl Checkers and Dr. Christopher Kye shares their experience working with autistic patients experiencing mental health challenges.
Cheryl Checkers is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, National Board-Certified Counselor, and Certified Autism Spectrum Disorder Clinical Specialist who specializes in working with teens and adults on the autism spectrum and their loved ones. She is the President of the Board of Directors of the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Palm Beach County (NAMI PBC). Cheryl also is a clinical consultant for Florida Atlantic University Center for Autism and Related Disabilities (FAU CARD).She received her Master of Science Degree in Psychology and Mental Health Counseling from Nova Southeastern University. She is both a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and Board-Certified Counselor. She also holds advanced certifications as an Autism Spectrum Disorder Clinical Specialist (ASDCS), a Clinical Anxiety Treatment Professional (CCATP), a Clinical Trauma Professional (CCTP) and a Certified Clinical ADHD Treatment Professional (ADHD-CCSP).
Dr. Christopher Kye is a distinguished psychiatrist with over 20 years of experience in caring for individuals from all walks of life. He is deeply committed to incorporating the latest neuroscience insights to enhance the effectiveness of the treatments he offers. Dr. Kye’s clinical practice focuses on the needs of children with autism and individuals with mood disorders who have proven resistant to standard treatments. His approach is rooted in a deep understanding of neuroscience, leveraging his research background to enhance patient care. Dr. Kye regularly shares his knowledge on neuropsychiatric topics at various institutions and conferences, including the Center for Autism and Related Disorders at Florida Atlantic University and the National Alliance on Mental Illness. His presentations often focus on the practical application of neuroscience in clinical settings, aiming to improve patient outcomes by better understanding brain-behavior relationships. Dr. Kye is an active member of several professional organizations, including the Society of Biological Psychiatry and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. His commitment to advancing the field is also evident in his role on the Associate Board of Directors for NAMI PBC, where he was honored with the 2015 Exemplary Psychiatrist Award.
For more about Cheryl: https://www.cherylcheckers.com/
For more about Dr. Kye: https://www.christopherkyemd.com/
For more about FAU CARD: https://www.fau.edu/education/centersandprograms/card/
FAU CARD’s YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/c/FAUCARD
For more about NAMI PBC: https://namipbc.org/
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FULL TRANSCRIPTION
Note: the following transcription was automatically generated. Some imperfections may exist.
DR HACKIE REITMAN (HR):
Hi, there. I’m Dr. Hackie Reitman. Welcome to another episode of Exploring Different Brains. And very excited today, because today we given you to the price of one, we have Christopher Kye and Cheryl Checkers, who are both people that specialize in the overlap of autism and mental health issues. Welcome, guys. Well,
CHERYL CHECKERS (CC):
Hi, Dr. Reitman. Thanks so much for having us here today.
HR:
Well, thank you for being here. And thanks for all you do. Please introduce yourselves more properly than I did. So we’ll start with Cheryl.
CC:
Okay. My name is Cheryl Checkers, I’m a licensed mental health counselor and private practice where I specialize in working with adolescents and adults with neurodiversity, and co-occurring mental health conditions. And I’m also, I’m lucky to be the president of NAMI Palm Beach County. And I’m also a clinical consultant for FAU Center for Autism and Related Disabilities (CARD).
HR:
And what do you do in your spare time? Dr. Kye it’s your turn.
DR CHRISTOPHER KYE (CK):
Thank you for inviting I’m a child psychiatrist. I’m in solo practice, I’ve been doing it a long time. And the clinical focus is actually in autism. And then the training is a little bit different. I did have exposure to neural circuitry, in monkey and man post mortem, in a lab for a few years. And so that’s a little bit of a different point of view, which I feel does inform the practice.
HR:
What would you say Cheryl is the most common mental health diagnosis in the autism community that overlaps?
CC:
That’s a really good question. I would have to say anxiety and I don’t know if Dr. Kye’s gonna agree that we we both — we work closely together and I, you know, on the dimension, we’ve known each other for over 20 years, so a lot of which have a lot of shared patients. And a lot of the people that we see have autism and anxiety and, and depression oftentimes, so. But I would think that co-occurring anxiety is probably the most prevalent that I see.
HR:
What about you, Dr. Kye?
CK:
I think that sounds like a good first call.
HR:
Well, I would I would further extrapolate that to say, I think most people have some degree of anxiety and depression.
CC:
Well, you know, I’d like to speak to that. And I think that for any of the diagnoses, you know, just to normalize and in particularly using anxiety, it’s when a it crosses a line or is extreme and it limits what someone can do in their life when we consider it like an anxiety disorder. So yes, it’s very normal. We all do experiencing anxiety, but many of the people that we see are experiencing such heightened anxiety, they’re either isolating at home, or it’s kept them from going to college or cause them to leave college or it might just keep them from doing the things they want to do even socializing. So we see a lot of people with social anxiety as well. And you know, it is normal to have anxiety certainly, but But when it’s limiting, life limiting then that’s when we usually see someone.
HR:
Great distinction, great distinction to point out. Let’s go to another extreme Some of the population you see that’s unfortunately increasing in incidence is suicide. Can you speak to that in this population?
CC:
So I’ve done, you know, I’ve run a lot of the research and have been involved in some projects on the FAU CARD side, where one of the projects I worked on was creating a training, co-creating it with Dr. Jack Scott, Executive Director of FAU CARD and director at the time, Mary Ellen Quinn-Lunny on helping educators and different school staff recognize the increased rate of suicide amongst students, autistic students and the Palm Beach County School District. So we know that for individuals with autism, suicide rates are anywhere between six and 12 times higher. So it is you know, something we all need to be paying attention to. Dr. Kye and I oftentimes work with clients who have what we we see as like treatment resistant depression, where they oftentimes have chronic suicidality. So it is something that we see a lot, but also the research is, is recognizing a lot and FAU CARD is really that’s one of their focuses, is to increase awareness and, and to help us all understand how, you know suicidality can look a little different and neurodivergent individuals.
HR:
What are some of the challenges — when you see someone having mental health struggles, what are some of the problems in assessing where they are on the spectrum if there is that overlap? Because many times they’re not, you know, people are, people are diagnosed later, particularly in the female population, with autism, as opposed to mental health issues, which many times come earlier. And if you could speak to that, if you agree with that premise?
CC:
And that’s an excellent question. And we absolutely see people that come to us with mental health conditions that they they had sought out treatment in the past and medication didn’t work and therapies didn’t work. And is it is usually our female clients, and we’re diagnosing autism. And that’s why like, the typical protocol for mental health oftentimes doesn’t work. So they and then they kind of find their way to us as specialists in autism. And then, you know, oftentimes they get the autism diagnosis after the mental health conditions, well, in a lot of missed diagnoses, as well, and especially our females, we just, you know, as clinicians, I feel like we just don’t do a good job picking up our females oftentimes, and, you know, they mask and they hide from us, and they’re like little psychologists, they can study what they’re supposed to do, and then they learn what to do. And, you know, so they can look so much different. And it’s, it’s so important that we’re, whether we’re on the you know, if we’re on the mental health side, even if we’re not autism specialists to have that have autism on our radar, with our females, as well like to just at least even have it on our radar, because oftentimes they’re getting borderline personality disorder, and, you know, all kinds of laundry lists of different diagnoses and autism is being missed.
HR:
Wow. Chris, would you agree with that?
CK:
Yeah, very much so. So, one interesting thing is outside, you know, the neural circuitry origins of autism, the pathogenesis, where it comes from, it’s very early in brain development. So the data is pointing to the fact it’s when you’re starting to make your outer circuit board your cerebral cortex. Sir, during second trimester and significant maturational changes are still happening, like early after birth, early postnatal, when you’re looking at diagnosis of co-occurring psychiatric conditions, or if you’re looking at stuff like interventions, so in my line of work psycho, pharmacologically, there’s you know, consistent with psychiatric presentations in general, there’s a massive increase. When you go through puberty start puberty, there’s increased reactivity and emotional brain and vulnerabilities and command control function frontal lobe become more manifest. So because the pathogenesis for autism is so early in because it affects distributed aspects of that neural network, it’s not surprising that the pathophysiology, or the mechanism for expressing symptoms for different disorders, is not surprising that could express in many, many different ways, because it’s affecting aspects of neural circuitry that are implicated across different conditions. So the construct of a quote, unquote, choral current condition, which is how we look at things right now, in our current diagnostic system, the DSM, you could reframe it from a different perspective and think that well with autism, because it starts so early. And because it affects a very fundamental part of circuitry that affects all other aspects of circuitry, essentially, then it’s like sometimes, it’s not surprising then that it could express in so many different ways. And, you know, it’s not surprising then to look at the diagnosis of autism, oftentimes in a population, which has less clear, sensible autism features. So let’s say a higher functioning female population, where it looks like that their overall level of emotional and social intelligence overall is a bit higher than people on male. So that’s the male brain hypothesis, the Baron calling, it’s not surprising, then that there would be a little bit of a delay or more of a delay in picking stuff up and a misconstruing of things. Because currently, we still are allowed to diagnose co morbid co occurring conditions in DSM. With autism, we’re when you think about it, because of it. From a pathogenesis point of view, you could look at subsequent psychiatric diagnoses and autism is really being secondary phenomena, and not primary phenomena, things to be expected. As opposed to a surprise.
HR:
Cheryl, would you agree with that?
CC:
Absolutely. I, Dr. Kye, I’ve been lucky enough to be mentored by Dr. Kye for many, many years, and learning the neuroscience and understanding and certainly not understanding at the level he does. But, you know, understanding the brain differences and why things expressed the different different ways they do and you know, all those things are so helpful, and even to pass along to the people that we work with. Because when they understand what’s going on their brain and their brain, it’s much easier for them to not feel like like it’s a weakness, a character or like, if it’s anxiety, what’s happening in my amygdala, like, Oh, it’s my amygdala and my main amygdala is reacting differently, it’s, it’s just a really cool thing, when you can understand some of the brain science behind it.
CK:
I just want to mention, of course, that it goes both ways. So obviously, you know, I have a skewed skill set and Cheryl’s skills compensate for my relative lack of skill. So Cheryl has mentioned and mentored me through our, like, quarter century, of working together. So it’s, it’s really, I feel so lucky to have been working with her for so long. And then I got so lucky getting a chance to work with someone like Sheryl for so long. Because I would say she’s a true believer, she’s really committed to knowledge for knowledges sake, to make the world a better place in the world of autism. And she’s always been aggressive and ruthless about trying to figure out what information was the most useful and applying it. And obviously, we come from different backgrounds. And obviously, you know, what we focus on, it’s from a different perspective, even though we’re still focusing on the same target. But, you know, it’s just been nice working with her through my career, because I really do feel like whenever I’ve had a challenging presentation, I’ve always had a better outcome when Cheryl’s been involved.
HR:
The two of you together are really some kind of dynamic duo. And I think it’s just great. All the great stuff you’re doing together and individually. What advice would you both have for an autistic person who is having trouble finding a mental health provider that understands autism?
CC:
Another very good question. So Well, the one thing I suggest is, you know, it is very important to have someone that understands autism and, you know, knowing that we didn’t all have it, and in our graduate programs, especially, you know, you brought up females like what female, you know, phenotype looks like versus male and, you know, so many different things that we don’t have unless we trained ourselves after like postgrads. So that said, like, there are a limited number of us so I understand like, it doesn’t mean that someone that isn’t a specialist can’t do really good, you know, working with someone. The card centers Sir located throughout Florida, they usually have a list of providers that do at least know autism. Enough because to get on the provider list, you pretty much have to prove that you’ve worked with, you know, with other individuals with autism. So that’s a, I would recommend that if they can’t see and someone that does understand autism, that that would be the way to go. But therapy is important. So if they don’t find someone, that’s a specialist, oftentimes, like, especially my females, I see a lot of female clients say, they know a lot like they’re very impressive. And my males too, they’ve already done the research, they oftentimes when they come to see me and if they don’t have a diagnosis, they’re not surprised because they’ve already taken self assessments and, and oftentimes, they can kind of lead a therapist a little bit and help them to learn if it’s not a specialist, but definitely taking advantage of of, you know, Psychology Today, you can search autism or Asperger’s Syndrome, I think they still have on there as well. But there are some different ways to find someone that specializes.
HR:
Audience learn more about you guys?.
CC:
Dr. Kye, and I oftentimes do presentations out in the community and as our way of kind of giving back what we know. And we both are frequent for Centers for FAU CARD. If you want to watch any of my presentations that I’ve done in the past FAU CARD has a YouTube channel, a lot of them are there. I serve on a lot of committees, and one of the committees I’m on is to, it’s a interagenCY: committee with different CARD centers and different autism experts where we’re trying, we’re creating trainings, so for clinicians and parents and, you know, females, so that we can raise awareness and we can provide tools and we can get that like females on the radar of other clinicians. So a lot of those trainings I’ve done that are female focused are on that YouTube channel if anyone’s interested. I lead a professional Task Force for FAU CARD. It’s an ASD and mental health taskforce with the goal of, of training professionals, the mental health professionals and autism and autism professionals in mental health. So it’s a monthly meeting and it’s virtual. And we have over 400 professionals from across Florida so anyone that’s interested in joining that that’s a professional, I highly recommend it.
HR:
What are the websites to go to?
CC:
FAU CARD again so you and it’s just it’s called the ASD and mental health task force. So if you know someone contacts FAU CARD, just let them know that’s what they’re interested in joining. And we have free CEUs every month and we have experts come out and we have them train us to.
HR:
Do you have your own websites too?
CK:
Yes, it’s my first name Christopher and then my last name KYE MD dot com christopherkyemd.com.
HR:
Cheryl, do you have one?
CC:
I do. It’s cherylcheckers.com. So it is my name c h e r y l checkers, like the game, dot com.
HR:
What is the one thing that most people don’t realize about the overlap of autism with mental health challenges? Cheryl could you go first?
CC:
I think most people are not aware that over 70% of autistic individuals have one mental health condition, and over 40% have two or more conditions. And this is starting there’s been some recent research that shows even our children that are like as young as 10 are already experiencing co occurring. And many years ago we weren’t able to diagnose like some of the mental health conditions if if there was an autism diagnosis and now we know better so we need to do better. It’s very difficult sometimes to pick up the mental health challenges because it can look so different. It can look like an increase in autism challenges instead of like a red flag that we’re more you know might be more aware of. That’s the big mental health. And it can look like a traditional like what we’re trained to know as mental health so it’s it gets a little tricky, but I always like to mention At like an anytime there’s a big change in baseline, that’s when we need to be paying attention and just making sure there’s not something more going on.
HR:
Chris, would you like to add anything to that?
CK:
I’d love to thank you. So, you know, it’s interesting when you diagnose autism, so we’ve been using this triad, or more dyad, social communication impairment, restricted to hip repetitive behavior. And now we’ve add on other stuff like, you know, the excitation, the hyper excitability, decreased sensory gating. But if you look at what you deal with clinically, one really common thing is a real challenge in handling stress. So under stress conditions, having regression and function, both in the circuitry that mediates habit learning so when negative cognitive looping or impulsively and compulsively acting out, and also within the emotional system, the limbic system, so it’ll lower temperature level of stress, anxiety and at a higher level irritability. But just because of the way the wiring is in autism, there’s a lot more vulnerability to this construct, which is referred to as hot cognition difficulties, problem solving under stress condition, versus cool cognition problem solving under non stress condition. And it’s something that is intrinsic to the autism presentation, and is often interpreted in certain ways in DSM that can be a bit obscuring or confusing sometimes, when you look at it more from a neural circuitry perspective.
HR:
Can you talk about the importance of a place like NAMI knowing about autism, and a place like FAU CARD being aware of mental health challenges.
CC:
Because I’ve been involved with both organizations for such a very long time in Palm Beach County, I’ve been able to bring the two organizations together. So you know, as I mentioned, the professional task force that FAU CARD has and that I lead, NAMI is represented on that task force. And NAMI has, like they said, the mental health side does get a lot of individuals with later diagnoses that have mental health conditions and autism. So they have support groups for young adults and for they don’t have children’s support groups, but they have young adults and older. So oftentimes, we do have families and you know, their adult children that end up on the NAMI side, it’s nice, I think, like we’re stronger together, and when you have the support from each side, it’s, it’s, you know, most helpful, so I’m always recommending that all my clients connect with, with card centers, whether it’s FAU CARD or, you know, umsu, wherever they’re located, but also that they’re reaching out to the nominee side, because there is a lot on that on that other side, that can be very supportive. And, really, it’s about connecting and feeling like you’re not alone. And oftentimes, you know, especially our young adults, so they’re getting a late diagnosis. And then you have mental health conditions too. You can, it’s very isolating, and you know, just connecting with with a group of peers, and that really get it is so helpful. So whether it’s on the cards side, or the nominee side, or both. So both of those sides, it can really make a difference as an adjunct to the therapy and other resources. And it really is about building a team and making sure that all those resources are in place, because it’s not just one of us that can do it all.
HR:
Can you both give some advice for an autistic individual who is afraid to see a mental health provider?
CC:
So you know it, I oftentimes work with parents and families where their child is not quite yet on board with going to a therapist, and it might, you know, it, it might be a young adult or it might be a child, it might be an older, you know, middle aged adult, whatever age you know, that can be a tough thing to reach out in for therapy and, and I always think like so you don’t want to force someone into therapy, of course you know it, you know, just being there to listen and understand like what’s going on. If you’re the parent or the friend or even a work colleague, you notice something’s going on, like, you know, just being that that person that could be there to listen, I think is a good start and offense. times you can like people that have benefited from therapy can maybe talk to the individual, there’s also options of group. So, sometimes one on one therapy can sound kind of scary, like what they do better in a group at first or, you know, so it, you know, finding, I guess that whatever is going to work for that individual, and I often call it the side door, you know, so not forcing into therapy, but what, you know, where can we start? What’s a good start and then try to work towards there be? I think, you know, making it less scary. Understanding what the fear is to begin with, and, and, yeah, the fit of the therapist is so important, too. But most therapists, soccer, free consults. So it could be, why don’t we just talk to the therapist and just see what you think, you know, even if it’s on the phone first. So you know that there’s different ways to go about it. But it’s not unusual for me to hear like someone’s needs therapy, but they’re not open to receiving it at that point. And the same with psychiatry, you know, with medication. You know, I hear that a lot from my clients, too. And if, if they do accept therapy, and I’m working with them, and I know that they could benefit from having a meta assessment, then again, we’re going in the side door, like, what are your fears? And you know, what if you just go and have one appointment, and just listen, and knowledge is a good thing, and then you can make a better decision. So it really is like kind of meeting that person where they are and walking with them through the process.
CK:
From my perspective, a common perspective is it helps a lot to have psychoeducation to let people know the frame of what they’re looking at. So, you know, with autism, it’s very genetically driven. So the heritability index is arguably number one or number two, but it’s certainly about you know, four, and a five expression for tips is genetically driven. So beyond the genetics, so it’s heritable. It’s also that it is, it’s a brain based disorder, it’s a neural circuitry disorder. And the other aspect of it is that it’s a developmental disorder, it starts early, but there’s also a developmental windows for intervention, there are times where it’s easier to have a higher juice to squeeze ratio for intervention, when there is still plasticity, like plasticity, Windows and control circuits. And the other thing is that we’re getting a better understanding of what the circuitry is that mediates the symptoms. And I think just giving people information about the brain based nature of autism, and that there are things that we can do, that will improve function that help interventions that Cheryl does to work better that they work complementarily. And they can help in like, take advantage of strengths, not just address weaknesses, I think this is something that can be very expanding for how people look at the role of intervention.
HR:
Well, then to piggyback upon that, where would you like to see autism research be in five years? You’re gonna look five years ahead.
CK:
You know, obviously, one of the real problems that we’re having right now in autism research is that we’re still searching for a sense of the pathophysiology. So we have all this new data coming out with powerful techniques like molecular genetics and neuro imaging. But the confound of, you know, is it a causal finding? Is it a consequence finding? Is it a compensation finding? Is it something that reflects a comorbid condition? Is it something that reflects a countdown to experimental design? Until we have a better sense of what the underlying Pathophysiology The neural circuitry is, it’s kind of hard to understand this stuff. And ultimately, my you know, the hope is that we’ll keep on learning more about this. And I’m biased because I come from a post mortem background, I think the more in what you hear like I was at the last translational neuroscience focus meeting about psychiatry, the, you know, I think the more we have access to brain tissue, and have an idea of what happens in a very privileged protected organ in the brain that we can’t biopsy in humans, I think the closer we get, getting a cleaner sense of where the illness comes from, or where this difference comes from, and how it expresses and it’ll make it much easier to incorporate all these new techniques we have about what’s going on and how to use it effectively to help us help patients get better.
HR:
Cheryl, would you like to add anything to that?
CC:
I’m not sure I can’t add anything to that but certainly to translate you know, what Dr. Kye is talking about is like when we have that understanding, it will help us as therapists as well. So it helps us understand better when to intervene, how to intervene, how to use medication, you know, oftentimes medication use And, and someone that without neurodiversity. It doesn’t, you know, works differently. So just having that understanding of those brain differences. So we know how to tailor interventions and particularly that, as Dr. Kye said, is when those windows, those neuroplasticity windows open, where we have the like, the punch packs the most punch, like we need, we need to get in and be able to do it then because otherwise it’s more rehabilitative oftentimes. So, you know, understanding when and how yes, the more we know, the better we can do and more we can help.
CK:
And I think this interchange is a good example of why it’s very useful for me to work with Cheryl. So there’s obviously you no benefit in sometimes hearing something from someone who has a slightly higher skill set with communication.
HR:
The final question I have for both of you who are the Dream Team, you work great together. What do you wish all your fellow mental health providers understood about autism? What’s one thing you wish they all understood?
CC:
I, there’s so many things. And that’s very difficult to answer. I, you know, I I do we both Dr. Kye, and I both see a lot of people that have been through a lot of therapists and a lot of doctors and I just, I guess if there was one thing, I wish that everybody had a little more up to date information psychoeducation on autism, and how that, you know, mental health conditions expressed differently, how medications may work differently, how you can’t, you know, expect to use something with someone neuro divergent, and get the same result as someone neurotypical. I mean, sometimes you can, but oftentimes not. So I think it was, is first to do no harm, like to have that information. So we’re not making matters worse, because we see a lot of people come to us, and they’re, you know, they’re worse as a result. So that would be my answer.
HR:
Well, I’m in agreement with what you’re saying. And I applaud that view, is, every year for about 35 years, I go up to Boston University to give the first year medical students their anatomy lecture, and upper extremity anatomy, and my alma mater. But I also got to talk to him a little bit about being a doctor. And I was, I was amazed that in the medical school, whole medical school curriculum. And speaking to the leaders there, there’s nothing about neuro diversity, this, I’m going back several years, but and so I gave the first ever lecture in neuro diversity just as a concept. And I gave it to the first year medical students so they could kind of plant the seed going forward. And now not because of me, but you know, all over. neurodiversity is very being included, and is now recognized and everything, but it is I share your frustrations that everybody’s not up on it, you know, the average family physician is first now getting exposed to this stuff. And then many times the first line of defense as are nurse practitioners.
CK:
So I very much agree as a one Alpha, what Cheryl said about the fact that the first thing would be like a rising tide lifts all boats to increase the amount of education. And I agree that that would be the one alpha, and then is like a number two. Since I let you do all the work with the heavy lifting Cheryl with the answer to the initial question would be, I do think, from my perspective, in terms of what I’ve seen over time, I do think that oftentimes when you look at interventions, and people are plugged in, like we all have our skill sets, and we all have our roles in the treatment and diagnostic ecosystem in autism. I think that sometimes there can be a little bit of focus on what the limitations are in a given individual. And then they’re like Cheryl, sign your head and obviously this is something Shawn I do all the time. This is what y’all would have said is the one Bravo. But it becomes really, really important to understand how critical it is to convey that the neural circuitry and autism conveys vulnerability. It also can be strengths, and that identification and recognition of those strengths and taking advantage of those strengths during peak cortical plasticity Windows during adolescence and learning how to take advantage of grant A lot of data retention and pattern generation and the like. And figuring out what kind of data you’re best at playing with that changes outcome that changes long term outcome, and it gives opportunity. So Cheryl and I have had multiple presentations, where we’re just not able to move the needle and an individual is in a difficult place. And what ends up shifting the narrative a lot is they’re finally getting a chance to exercise what they’re strong at, like, BH, we were just talking about Cheryl, like a day or two ago, and she can mention about it. But just having the opportunity to focus on strengths as opposed to vulnerabilities, in terms of what you can do makes a massive difference in outcome. And I do think is, if you’re a little bit less experienced in the field, you know, you’re doing your job, and you want to put out the fire and you’re focused on putting out the fire. But sometimes it’s easy, then to lose sight of like this mountain, you could scale or if you get it, it just gives you much more power and vision.
HR:
Great, great stuff, absolutely. Harnessing the strengths, a strength based model, as opposed to a weakness based model. Dr. Stephen Shore in his book, he’s a big proponent of that as well. And you bring up an excellent point, because it’s in everything we do, that we’re focusing on what you can do instead of what you can do and can do very well in many case. Well, Cheryl Checkers and Dr. Christopher Kye, both of you are doing a marvelous job specializing in the overlap of autism and mental health issues. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with us. We look forward to working with you in the future, and keep up the great work. Thank you very much.
CC:
Thank you so much, Dr. Reitman.
CK:
Thank you very much for the chance to do this and thank you for the work that you do.
