Support Families Impacted by COVID-19
Through the difficulty, injustice, and tragedy of this time, our teams across the country have not stopped fighting for the health of the most vulnerable children and families. They are part of the legion of support our entire country is relying on at this moment.
Over the last few weeks, they have mobilized for those whose needs and wellbeing are often ignored, even before this pandemic.
Here are some other highlights of work being done to protect communities during this crisis:
These healthcare champions are with the CHF-supported program in New Orleans with CrescentCare, where they are screening and testing patients for COVID-19 in a designated area outside.
In a city with one of the country’s most devastating outbreaks, their work is urgent.
One of New York’s mobile medical clinics is a site for plasma collection from COVID-19 survivors, which may be used to treat critically ill COVID-19 patients as part of a research study.
Providers in Dallas are doing rapid testing of medical staff at Parkland Hospital, and conducting community COVID-19 screening and testing at three drive-by locations. In some places, their mobile clinic is being used as a base camp to coordinate activities. A few weeks ago, they were able to load their mobile clinic with test kits and masks.
The work of our Healthy and Ready to Learn initiative is even more critical during this pandemic. We are providing guidance to school administrators and supporting families facing tremendous difficulties brought on by this crisis, such as financial challenges and lost learning. Our Resource and Training Center is now completely virtual, and we are holding weekly workshops for educators and parents on topics such as coping through crisis and connecting to resources during the pandemic.
These front-line providers at the program we fund in Nevada with Nevada Health Centers are using their mobile clinic to provide primary care to homeless and refugee communities in the area, who are even more marginalized during this time. They are also now screening every patient who visits, like this family standing outside of their mobile medical clinic.
These healthcare heroes are from the program we support in Baton Rouge through Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital, where they are using their mobile medical clinic to do screening outside of the hospital.
Providers at the program we support in Memphis with Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital are using their mobile clinic as a command center for a drive-by screening site they established with the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. They have set up four COVID-19 testing sites in the area and are also using telehealth to do health education and behavioral health visits.
There have been many successes in this incredible work:
- The Baton Rouge team tested a first responder who was positive for COVID-19. He was able to self-quarantine, protecting his family and his wife who is fighting cancer.
- The Dallas team operates three drive-by testing sites that are open seven days a week. They complete 400 to 500 tests a day.
- The Healthy and Ready to Learn Resource and Training Center website saw a 265% increase in utilization, and the number of new users increased by 277% between weeks one week two of our COVID-19 response.
- In North Carolina, idle school-based telehealth equipment was loaned to a local hospice and a Federally Qualified Health Center to provide telemedicine visits for patients.
- Southern Arizona deemed their mobile clinics COVID-free zones to offer care and immunizations to newborns and toddlers.
Through the pain, grief, and fear the COVID-19 pandemic has created, we find hope in the compassion and bravery of these heroes on the front lines. They have a lifesaving charge to keep our communities safe during this crisis, but they cannot do it without your support.
Our urgent response to the COVID-19 pandemic enables them to address the urgent medical needs of this crisis, as well as the financial and social needs that will impact children and families now and long past the peak of the virus. Your support can help keep children and families safe and healthy. Please give whatever you can today.
