Nationwide Children’s Hospital is proud to announce that it has received a $5,495 Quality of Life grant from the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation. The award was one of 75 grants totaling over $600,137 awarded by the Reeve Foundation to nonprofit organizations nationwide that provide more opportunities, access, and daily quality of life for individuals living with paralysis, their families, and caregivers. Conceived by the late Dana Reeve, the program has awarded over 2,400 grants totaling over $18 million since 1999.
Nationwide Children’s Hospital will use the grant so that patients can benefit from a new high resolution pressure mapping seat system. Incorporating it into treatment plans helps clinicians to better identify areas on a patient’s skin where they may be experiencing high pressure and shear force. This is crucial for spinal cord and brain injured patients who spend much of their day in wheelchairs and who are at great risk for pressure wounds.
“We are honored to receive this award and express our gratitude to the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation,” said Karen Principe, RN, program manager for Rehabilitation at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. “Our goal is to do more to help our patients go home, go back to school and go back to being kids. The pressure mapping system we will have on our rehabilitation unit can play an important role in helping to make these things happen.”
“The Reeve Foundation is committed to supporting programs and resources that foster independent living, improved health and community engagement,” said Maggie Goldberg, Vice President of Policy and Programs, Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation. “The recognized grantees are instrumental to our work at the Reeve Foundation as we strive to serve the disability community with a roadmap of resources and programs to enhance their quality of life.”
The Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation Quality of Life Grants Program was created to address the myriad needs of children and adults living with paralysis, as well as provide assistance and education to their families and caregivers. Funded programs serve individuals living with spinal cord injury and other injuries, diseases or birth conditions, including but not limited to, stroke, spina bifida, multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The grants support life-changing initiatives that aim to increase quality of life by improving physical and emotional health, broadening community engagement, and increasing independence. Quality of Life grants are funded through a cooperative agreement with the Administration for Community Living (cooperative agreement number 90PR3001-01-00).
About the Reeve Foundation
The Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation is dedicated to curing spinal cord injury by funding innovative research and improving the quality of life for people living with paralysis through grants, information and advocacy. We meet all 20 of the Better Business Bureau’s standards for charity accountability and hold the BBB’s Charity Seal. The Paralysis Resource Center (PRC) is a program of the Reeve Foundation, and is funded through a cooperative agreement with the Administration for Community Living, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (cooperative agreement number 90PR3001-01-00). For more information, please visit our website at www.ChristopherReeve.org or call 800-539-7309.
About Nationwide Children’s Hospital
Ranked 7th of only 10 children's hospitals on U.S. News & World Report’s 2014-15 “America’s Best Children’s Hospitals Honor Roll,” Nationwide Children’s Hospital is one of the nation’s largest not-for-profit freestanding pediatric healthcare networks providing wellness, preventive, diagnostic, treatment and rehabilitative care for infants, children and adolescents, as well as adult patients with congenital disease. Nationwide Children’s, also ranked among the Top 10 on Parents magazine’s 2013 “Best Children’s Hospitals” list, has a medical staff of 1,100 and nearly 10,000 employees providing state-of-the-art pediatric care for one million patient visits annually. As home to the Department of Pediatrics of The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Nationwide Children’s physicians train the next generation of pediatricians and pediatric specialists. The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital is one of the Top 10 National Institutes of Health-funded freestanding pediatric research facilities. Nationwide Children’s remains true to the original mission since its founding in 1892 of providing care regardless of a family’s ability to pay. More information is available at NationwideChildrens.org.
Media Contact:
Rita Gentles
(973) 379-2690 ext. 7123
media@ChristopherReeve.org