AdventHealth Shawnee Mission’s B.E. Smith Family Center has completed several upgrades.
With $1.1 million from donors, the family center at AdventHealth’s Shawnee Mission campus in Merriam received new medical services and therapy rooms last month.
The updates include a new preschool classroom, three new therapy rooms, updated baby/toddler therapy room and an updated family resting area.
New resources and spaces benefit families
- The B.E. Smith Family Center houses the hospital’s Britain Development department, a program created in 1972 that offers therapy and education to children with special needs.
- Shannon Lockwood, the assistant director of Britain Development, said the program’s mission is to offer parent education in order to support families of children from birth to age 6 who live with disabilities.
- This includes helping families know how to best support their children’s development.
- Britain Development also offers medical services to act as a one-stop-shop for families.
- “Really, [we’re] looking at wrapping our arms around the family and letting them know that they don’t have to go to lots and lots of places, they can come here for most everything they need,” Lockwood said.
Britain Development can serve more families as a result of the updates
- Lockwood said the goal was to add a preschool classroom and therapy rooms, including separate occupational, speech and multi-sensory rooms.
- The expansion also allows the space for a full-time nurse, which adds to Britain Development’s medical services, Lockwood said.
- Lockwood said the new classroom allows the program to offer preschool three days a week instead of two, which parents and staff say is positively impacting children’s development.
- The updates also allowed the program to bring in more children off the waiting list and hire more staff, Lockwood said.
The updates were completed five years after the center opened
- AdventHealth Shawnee Mission’s B.E. Smith Family Center originally opened in 2019.
- At that time, health system administration knew the center would need to expand to meet the needs of the program, according to a press release.
- “The entire project was funded by proceeds from AdventHealth Kansas City Foundation’s 2022 annual gala, Tiny Tim Holiday Fantasy,” center director Amy Milroy said in the press release. “We are proud to provide this space for our families and are grateful for our donors’ compassionate contributions that made this expansion possible.”
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