CoACH aims to care for medically fragile kids
Some days, it's not easy to be a parent. The kids are running around, riling each other up and knocking things down. Or you're running around, chauffeuring them from school to lessons to Scouts to play dates.
On those days, some parents would say, you need to stop and thank your lucky stars for the chaos.
Your child could be sick. Not strep throat, take a prescription for a few days sick. Really sick. Tubes and injections and monitors and a lifetime of round-the-clock nursing care sick.
At CoACH Care Center in Naperville, it's their job to care for "medically fragile" children, easing them into a life at home after living in the hospital, or easing the demands on parents and families as they tend to their children's medical needs.
CoACH is the only short-term care facility of its kind in the state. Tiffany Crowe, director of development, tells us more about how CoACH helps families.
Q. What is your mission?
A. To serve and promote a better quality of life for children and youth with special health-care needs and their families within their community.
Q. How do you work toward accomplishing that goal?
A. By providing medical respite and hospital-to-home transitional care, we enrich the lives of children requiring continual intensive medical care, as well as their families.
Through transitional care, we significantly reduce the number of days throughout childhood our children spend in the hospital and help parents obtain competence and confidence in caring for their child at home.
Through respite care, we provide parents with a break from the intensive 24-hour daily care responsibilities, and also a safety net in case their nursing care at home fails.
Transitional care can last up to 120 days. Respite care can be used annually up to 10 days, and the number of days can be extended in a family emergency situation.
Q. Who do you serve?
A. Infants and children through age 21 who are medically fragile. CoACH remains the only center of its kind in Illinois. As such, we serve children from the entire state. CoACH is recognized as a national model of excellence for the delivery of short-term clinical care for children who are medically fragile and technology dependent.
Q. When and why did the organization start? How has it grown?
A. In 1991, co-founder Denise Callarman developed a concept to provide respite care for children who are medically fragile in a homelike community setting.
Denise's vision was born from a personal need for a temporary break from the demands of caring for her own child with special health-care needs and the realization that there were many families like hers struggling with the same needs.
Leann Lazzari, also the parent of a medically fragile child, joined Callarman in this effort. One year later, the concept of Respite House was formalized as a corporation in the state of Illinois. In 1994, a home was purchased at 7S721 Route 53 in Naperville, which would become Respite House.
After securing the appropriate licensure, fundraising to complete extensive renovations, and advocating for amendment of the Alternative Health Care Delivery Act, Respite House opened in 1999 to provide a continuum of exceptional direct medical/nursing care for children and youth who are medically fragile.
Respite House is known today as Coordinating Action for Children's Health (CoACH) Care Center and supports infants and children who have complex medical needs and their families with short-term medical respite care at our "home away from home."
Q. What kind of successes have you had?
A. In 2007 we provided close to 2,200 days of direct medical care to children with special health-care needs. The support and involvement of the community has grown tremendously in the past couple of years. CoACH works with 26 referring hospitals and medical centers throughout the state, and serves as a clinical rotation site for medical students, EMTs and other programs.
Q. What challenges does CoACH currently face?
A. Meeting the demand for service is the greatest challenge CoACH Care Center faces. In 2007 we had to turn away 70 children due to a lack of funding and physical space constraints. We must fundraise a portion of the cost to serve every child we care for.
Q. What do you wish the community at large knew about CoACH Care Center?
A. This need exists, and we are right in the neighborhood meeting the need. Some children spend months and months in the hospital, and we provide the same level of care in a home-like setting at a fraction of the cost of hospitalization.
Q. How can readers get involved?
A. We have many opportunities for hands-on work with our children, administrative work in the office, work on our two main fundraisers, and as an ambassador for CoACH, speaking to different groups and spreading the word about the need for services for children who are medically fragile and their families. Donors are always very welcome.
-- Christie Willhite
If you go
The CoACH Care Center Gala is a dinner-dance featuring live music and live and silent auctions to raise money to support CoACH's services.
What: "The Circle of a Beautiful Life in the Savanna" gala
When: 6 p.m. Saturday
Where: Ashton Place, 341 75th St., Willowbrook
Cost: $200 per person
Info: (630) 271-9155, tcrowe@coachcarecenter.org or coachcarecenter.org
Vital statistics
Number of requests for help: Provided nearly 2,200 days of medical care to children in 2007 but had to turn away 70 children
Annual budget: $1.5 million
Funding sources: Individuals, foundations, corporations, state of Illinois
Number of full-time employees: 30
Donation wish list
Medical
Gloves (medium-size vinyl, latex- and powder-free only)
Hand sanitizer (with pump, waterless)
Band-Aids (latex-free)
Office
White copy paper
Black pens
Post-it Notes
File folders
Sharpie markers (black and multi-colored)
Writeable CDs
Photo paper
Legal pads
Multimedia
Computers (new)
Two-way weather radios
DVD players for kids' rooms
Flat-screen TVs for kids' rooms
Children's activities
Nintendo DS
CD player
Big bubble toys and refill bottles
Adaptive toys
PlayStation 2 & Nintendo games
Washable paints
Stickers
Small prizes and giveaways
Gift cards
Dominick's, Sam's Club, Target, Walgreens, Office Depot, Office Max, Home Depot, Menards
Outdoors
Patio furniture
Weber portable gas grill
How to donate
Drop-off or mail-in address: 7S721 Route 53, Naperville, 60540
How to volunteer
Call: (630) 271-9155
E-mail: mjackimek@coachcarecenter.org
Visit: coachcarecenter.org