In the United States, according to the CDC, autism spectrum disorder affects one in 68 children. In the Pacific Northwest, we are fortunate to have an excellent organization – Seattle Children’s Autism Center – committed to providing assessment, diagnosis, treatment and support for those with or caring for children with autism spectrum disorders.

In early 2011, Communiqué PR had the opportunity to work with Jennifer Seymour and the staff at the Autism Center to create the Autism Blog. The goal of the blog was to create a resource for parents (or caregivers) of children with autism to provide weekly information about common issues and concerns.

The Autism Center needed the blog because there was tremendous demand for information as well as for appointments to see physicians and therapists, often creating a significant wait time for patients and families. Seattle Children’s was working to address this demand by adding staff, but also wanted to create an online repository of information that could be quickly and easily updated with new information.

The Assignment

In partnership with Jennifer Seymour, we began by first overcoming objections from physicians and others about creation of a blog. There was significant fear about how to manage and stay in compliance with HIPAA. We also knew we needed to provide the staff with everything they needed to be successful, including guidelines and best practices for writing; a name for the blog; a comment policy and tips on how to manage blog comments; initial content and an ongoing editorial calendar; a plan to publicize the launch of the blog; and tips on how to measure success. Finally, it was important to be true to the Autism Center’s vision and mission.

Making it Happen

With this in mind, we began work to:

• Conduct in-depth research of other mental health blogs and summarize the findings for key stakeholders
• Hold meetings with key stakeholders within the Autism Center to overcome objections and establish shared expectations
• Develop a comprehensive blogging toolkit addressing the naming of the blog, success measurement, roles and responsibilities, content creation, managing comments, disclaimer language, suggested technical features and more
• Interview autism experts and ghost-write initial content for the blog
• Publicize the launch of the blog via development and distribution of a press release
• Help the team transition to maintaining the blog on their own

Results

The blog has been a tremendous success, helping to:

• Ensure that families in the PNW as well as around the country have access to information about autism,
• Play a role in securing donations and awareness for the need to provide financial support to the Autism Center,
• Keep media and other stakeholders up to date on the last research around autism, and
• Significantly reduce calls to the Autism Center. In addition, staff can print out and distribute key articles to families or point them to specific information.

Today, this remains one of the most well-read blogs on Seattle Children’s Hospital website.