FAMILY RESOURCES FUND
OPEN YOUR HEART AND CHANGE THEIR FUTURE – CARING FOR CONGENITAL HEART FAMILIES
They sleep in hospital chairs, skip meals, and struggle to manage their upended lives from their child’s bedside. Hours turn into days, days to weeks, and weeks to months. Still, they stay. A job may be sacrificed, income is lost, bills accumulate. They ride an emotional rollercoaster between fear and joy. They feel isolated. But they don’t budge. They have become their child’s most powerful advocate, making life-changing decisions.
They are Congenital Heart Families – And they need our support!
SHARE OUR GOAL
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To provide financial assistance and in-kind support to help ensure continuity of care for Congenital Heart Families, allowing them to focus on their child's emotional and physical needs as well as their own, and enabling them to fully participate in bringing about the best possible outcome for their child.
experience acute stress disorder and
100% of families
for 25-30% of them,
it evolves into full-blown PTSD
THE FACTS
Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) is the most common type of birth defect in the United States. It affects one in every 100 babies, or approximately 40,000 babies and families each year.
Every 15 minutes, a baby is born with CHD. Of those, nearly 25% will need surgery or a medical procedure to survive.
THE RESULT
For every baby admitted to a Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Unit or similar facility, a new family is brought into the world of CHD, many feeling isolated from their colleagues, friends, and loved ones who are unaware of the stress and obstacles with which they must now cope.
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It is understandable that given this situation, parents need and want to be by their child’s bedside. In the process they learn the nuances of their child’s individual presentation of symptoms and preferred responses, leading to greater family and team collaboration and better outcomes once at home.
This essential presence can come at great cost to families who must choose between work or care for their child, or care for their other children at home.
HOW TO HELP​
DONATE
Contributions to the JoeAbate Charitable Foundation’s Family Resources Fund ensure continuity of care for families in financial need with a child in the Yale New Haven Children’s Heart Center Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Unit. These funds aid with basic life expenses related to loss of income, including but not limited to, mortgage, rent and car payments, utilities, childcare, and food costs, in addition to parking fees, vouchers for meals, gas and transportation needs, and overnight stays, plus items that the family requires but can’t afford, such as sleep sacks.
GET INVOLVED: CARE KITS
In-kind donations may also be made to our “Care Kits” program. The Foundation distributes “Care Kits” to parents to help ease the long hours spent each day (as well as nights) at their child’s bedside and to create a sense of support by the greater community, helping to alleviate the feeling of loneliness while on a path that few truly understand. “Care Kit” items include hand lotion, tissues and other personal toiletry items, phone charger, neck support pillow, blanket or shawl, booties, insulated travel cup, reading material and other like items.
