Family & Community Services
Family and Community services reach nearly every child cared for at Packard
by making the Hospital more friendly and accessible to children. These
important services are typically not covered by insurance and depend on
the generosity of Children’s Fund donors.
Your gift to the Children Fund helps support:
In-Hospital programs to assist children and families
coping with illness:
- Hospital chaplains to serve every faith and tradition
- Interpreter services for the nearly one-third of patients who are
not native English speakers
- A Family Resource Center, offering books, periodicals, and a video
library
- Child-life services, including recreation therapy and patient education
Community HealthVans to ensure that families in every
neighborhood can benefit from Packard care:
- Pediatric HealthVan for children
- TeenVan for homeless and uninsured teens
Information and advice to extend Packard’s care
into the home:
- Parent Information and Referral Center: (800) 690-2282
- Teen Health Line: (888) 711-TEEN
As a certified child life specialist at Packard, Shannon Gullion helps
to lessen the stress that affects many young patients when they are hospitalized.
Your donation to the Children’s Fund will support unreimbursed programs
such as child life therapy that are essential to a patient’s treatment
and recovery. A primary goal of child life therapy is to provide opportunities
for children to experience creativity and self expression. In the Forever
Young Zone, for example, patients are encouraged to participate in free
play, arts and crafts, board games, and video games. This play area offers
children a comfortable place in the Hospital to socialize with peers --
an opportunity that helps many better cope with their illness. "Preparing
children for what's going to happen to them and making them feel as at
home as possible helps them get better faster," Gullion says.
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