BIENNIAL REPORT 20I5 & 20I6 Letter from Our That Promise to Address the Critical Link Between Health Founders Care and School Success
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BIENNIAL REPORT 20I5 & 20I6 Letter from our that promise to address the critical link between health Founders care and school success. From Hurricane Katrina to the Flint Lead Crisis, our mobile clinics have responded to disasters affecting thousands of children. Through our unique relationship with Columbia University’s renowned National Center for Disaster Preparedness (NCDP), CHF has garnered the information, guidelines and programs to ensure that young people are protected before and during disasters, and are able to successfully return to normal life. And, year after year, we have been crusaders on Capitol Hill and in state and local governments, tireless in our defense of programs and policies that empower the most vulnerable in our society to access the life-changing health care they deserve. Our idea has grown and flourished thanks to our phenomenal staff, and to our countless supporters and partners - many of whom are acknowledged in this report. We are grateful for all they have done to make our mission their own. As we enter our 30th year, we are excited to announce that Dennis Walto will be at the helm as our new Chief Executive Officer. Dennis first worked with us soon after ometimes an idea can change the world. Around we founded CHF, and twenty-five years later, we were 30 years ago, we had such an idea. We saw children lucky enough to be able to rehire Dennis with the intention Sand families living in shelters, struggling with health of him succeeding Irwin. As he moves into his new role as conditions that we knew could be eliminated or managed President Emeritus and Senior Advisor, Irwin will remain with proper care. And we knew that if they got that care, an active member of our board of directors and work with they would be much more likely to rise up out of poverty. senior staff, with a special emphasis on advocacy and communications. We are beyond confident that Dennis But it was clear that there were many obstacles between will be an outstanding leader and will take CHF to new them and that vital care. We came to the conclusion that heights and in exciting directions. if they couldn’t get to the doctor’s office, we would bring the doctor’s office to them. And so the first of our mobile We know that, with you by our side, this idea of health will medical clinics was born. continue to grow stronger as our nation’s children grow healthier. Together we have given hundreds of thousands Over the past three decades, our fleet of big blue doctor’s of children a chance to live healthy and productive lives. offices on wheels has grown to over 50. They are instantly And in so doing, we have helped change our world for the recognizable fixtures in communities across the nation— better. from the toughest neighborhoods of LA and Chicago to remote stretches of Southern Arizona and West Virginia. Our mobile clinics are the most visible expression of our belief that every child deserves access to quality health care. And, as these clinics have plied the streets and highways, bringing doctors, nurses, mental health counselors and nutritionists to disadvantaged children, we Irwin Redlener, MD Paul Simon have driven that original idea down new avenues. PRESIDENT EMERITUS & CO-FOUNDER CO-FOUNDER From electronic health records to telehealth, we have pioneered groundbreaking new technologies that have improved access to and quality of care for tens of Karen Redlener thousands of children. With our Healthy and Ready to EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT AND Learn initiative, we are developing a model and resources CO-FOUNDER 1 Letter from our York City demonstrates that by addressing CEO health barriers to learning, we can help keep kids in school and improve their chances for success. We are seeing remarkable improvements in ike children, organizations grow, develop the health of babies born to mothers who have and mature. After three decades honing our gone through our group care programs. Our practice in the trenches, we at Children’s telehealth and telemedicine initiatives are L connecting patients to doctors across distances Health Fund have learned crucial lessons about bringing essential medical care to America’s that, for these disadvantaged families, were neediest children. In our 30th year, CHF is once insurmountable. And our voice—your reaching a new stage in its mission and we are voice—continues to make sure that the most finding more ways to reach children who still disadvantaged are at the policy-making table. face barriers to accessing health care. While maintaining our provider/advocate balance, Make no mistake, the challenges remain we find ourselves evolving into a network and significant, but so too are the many community knowledge organization in order to not only assets we bring to our work every day. As provide high quality health care to America’s groundbreaking research has recently shown, most vulnerable children, but also to increasingly some 20 million children are still not getting raise their voices to ensure that their stories are the health care they need. And yet the children heard. and families we serve persevere, and their spirit drives us to do more. For even as we have seen the devastating effects of poverty on the health of young people, we The way we see it, the greater the challenge, have also seen the amazing opportunities our the greater the opportunity. As we move interventions make possible. Data from our forward into our fourth decade, we are rising to Health and Ready to Learn pilot schools in New meet challenges with our eyes trained on the limitless potential of America’s kids. Building on our strong foundation, we are adopting an asset-based approach. As this report of 2015 & 2016 finances and activities demonstrates, we are able to take these steps through a vibrant partnership of individuals, corporations, foundations, and government. Together, through collaboration, we are making great strides in protecting our most precious resource: our children. Thank you for all you have done and what you continue to do. Onward! Dennis Walto CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER 2 One Nurse Helps the Children’s Health Fund mobile clinic, which visits the school on a regular schedule, are their a Young Student primary source of health care.” Move Forward Many of the students at Cody come from struggling families, but few have as many challenges as Mancell Lyttle. The quiet teen has cerebral palsy and requires the use of a t Cody High School on the West Side of wheelchair. “When Mancell first came in, he was Detroit, many kids have tough lives. Just in the same wheelchair he’d been in since sixth Aask Megan Holt, one of the school’s grade. It was way too small for him, and it was registered nurses. falling apart.” Nurse Holt worked with various social service providers to get him a new “There’s never a dull day at Cody,” she says. wheelchair. “We see kids with asthma attacks, kids who come in with physical injuries from fights. We Like Children’s Health Fund’s projects around the also do physicals, immunizations, and take care nation, case management and referrals are key of bumps, bruises, headaches. For a good chunk factors in the comprehensive care our clinicians of the kids here, I would say that this clinic and offer to vulnerable in children. In Mancell’s ...because we’re here, “we can take care of kids, and give them the health education they need to take care of their own health. -Megan Holt, RN Megan Holt, RN, working with student Mancell Lyttle 3 ” Giving Birth to a New Model of Care In the South Bronx, there’s a revolution going on. And it’s pregnant women and new mothers who are making it happen. At our Center for Child Health and Resiliency (part of Montefiore Medical Center), our innovative group care program is changing the way women receive prenatal and pediatric services—and changing the way doctors everywhere think about that care. The group model features all the basic services that a pediatrician would provide in an individual visit. But the Mancell navigating the halls of Cody High School, Detroit, MI group setting enables mothers to form supportive communities, sharing stories, meals and hugs. It also gives the mothers case, that was especially critical. “We have and clinicians much more time to spend transportation services available for patients together, and creates time for visits from who need services we can’t provide here,” says counselors, nutritionists and other health Nurse Holt. “So we were able to get Mancell educators. to his sessions with a physical rehabilitation specialist.” And Nurse Holt didn’t stop there. With improved outcomes, including lower She also coordinated Mancell’s transport to rates of obesity and improved social and driver training classes. emotional development, our group care program is ensuring that kids get the very Nurse Holt goes the extra mile because she best care, right from the start. knows that this health care is key to helping these disadvantaged kids overcome the tremen- dous challenges they face. “If we were not able to provide these services, kids would miss a lot more school, there wouldn’t be as much continuity of care, and a lot of them would end up in the emergency room,” she says. “But because we’re here, we can take care of kids, and give them the health education they need to take care of their own health.” Throughout high school, Nurse Holt helped Mancell get around. Today, the resilient young man is in college and he credits her support for helping him get there.