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During the run-up to their late-April trip to the west African nation of Ghana to treat autistic children, they underwent shots for yellow fever and took the prophylaxis that prevents malaria.
“We’ll do the hepatitis A vaccine next,” Collins said during a recent interview at the Vreeland Clinic in Olcott Business Park.
In the meantime, the team also is asking regular patients as well as family, friends and neighbors for help in covering the expenses of their trip and their time helping Autism Action Ghana, the nongovernmental organization (NGO) that will run a five-day clinic in Accra, capital city of the tiny nation between Ivory Coast and Togo. During that clinic, they aim to interview, examine and map out treatment regimens for up to 50 children on the autism spectrum.
As of Sunday afternoon, their GoFundMe campaign (gofundme.com/jqpcf6mc) had raised more than $8,600 toward their goal of $20,000.
“We want to offset as much of the cost as possible, so that they can use as much of the funds as they can to help the parents of the children just to get the kids to the clinic,” said Vreeland, who in 2006 took over the chiropractic and functional-medicine practice that his father Kurt founded in Norwich in the 1980s. “If we go beyond the $20,000, anything more we’ll direct to Autism Action.”
Vreeland and Collins became acquainted with Autism Action Ghana through the families of Ghanian children who came to the Vreeland clinic over the last 2½ years.
“Autism Action Ghana has a parents’ support group where parents share experiences and current interventions that have been working for their children,” Araba Fordjor, the medical doctor who directs Autism Action, wrote in a recent exchange of emails. “A few of our parents had been to Doctor Vreeland’s clinic and shared the progress they were making. We invited Doctor Vreeland for a seminar on our group’s WhatsApp page, and parents, after interacting with him, expressed the desire to have him manage our children.”
According to Fordjor, Ghana has recorded cases of childhood autism in all 10 regions of the country. She added that the Ghanaian neurology and developmental clinic where most potential cases are referred reported seeing 400 cases between 2009 and 2012, “with a new diagnosis made every week.”
Among the symptoms that such children struggle with, in addition to difficulty with learning and speaking, and with reading social cues, are trouble metabolizing certain foods and various forms of gastrointestinal distress.
“Much of the current medical practice in autism management in Ghana focuses on standard anti-psychotic medication,” Fordjor said. “The Vreeland clinic’s approach takes into account current evidence that lends credence to the mind-gut connection and seeks to heal our children from the inside out. This will greatly lessen the need for, duration of and side effects of anti-psychotic medication.”
The jury remains out on the benefits of non-drug approaches to treating patients on the spectrum.
“Nutritional deficiencies or imbalances are a … major biomedical area of concern that families and professionals address,” social worker Marci Wheeler has written on the website of the Indiana Resource Center for Autism at Indiana University. “Common symptoms of nutritional abnormalities in children on the autism spectrum may include: underweight or overweight, anxiety, mood swings, sensory issues, lack of speech … aggression, impulsivity, eye poking, dry hair or skin and … ingestion of inedible items.
“Whether nutritional deficiencies and imbalances are a cause of or a result of an autism spectrum disorder is not clear.”
Vreeland emphasizes that he and Collins are “not looking for a cure. The goal is to do what we can do that the brain can essentially wire itself correctly. … It’s allowing each child to be as functional as they can be.”
Toward that end, Vreeland and Collins will spend between an hour and an hour and a half with each child at the MultiKids Academy for children with special needs in Accra, interviewing patients and their families about their medical histories, performing neurology examinations and coming up with plans for what regimens of diet and exercise might help them adjust. Under “functional neurology,” in which Vreeland also is certified, the tests of brain function include examining the way the patient’s eyes work.
“With an autistic child, depending on whether they’re verbal or non-verbal, it can be an intense appointment,” Collins said.
“Sometimes a kid will not let you do anything,” Vreeland added. “It takes time to figure a lot of this stuff out even when they are verbal.”
They learned as much with their first Ghanian patient, a 7-year-old girl who came to the Vreeland Clinic two years ago this spring, and who at first was suspicious.
“Through our exam,” Vreeland wrote on his GoFundMe page, “we determined that the specific areas of Mimi’s brain and central nervous system were not integrating information properly. We recommended a set of four neurological exercises to begin to retrain the brain. These exercises were to be performed at home under (her mother’s) direction.”
After a year and a half of adjustments to her regimens, and consultations via Skype, Vreeland wrote, Mimi’s mother reported that her daughter “ ‘can write her name and spell some words. … She now has a regular bedtime and sleep is great.’ ”
While Vreeland and Collins aren’t guaranteeing similar results for the 10 children a day they’ll be visiting in Ghana later this month, they see the mission as a healthy start.
“Patients appreciate the way we take time to listen to them beyond asking what their symptoms are,” Collins said. “We’re certainly going to learn a lot.”
For more information about the Vreeland project in Ghana, visit gofundme.com/jqpcf6mc.
David Corriveau can be reached at dcorriveau@vnews.com and at 603-727-3304.