Home Needs Coordination
50% of caregivers indicate that they do not have time for themselves, nor do they get enough sleep.
Our goal is to avoid the mental and physical exhaustion often experienced by the parent or young spouse after a cancer diagnosis.
Our Family Care Coordinators will:
- Conduct a needs assessment and intake
- Connect families with resources they never knew existed
- Set up and promote a Go Fund Me page
- Set-up online care community activities:
- Errands
- Child care
- Grocery shopping
- Household chores
- Yardwork
- Pet care
- Transportation
- Events – fundraising and blood drives
- Meal coordination
- Set-up meal schedule
- Communicate dietary needs and preferences
- Provide recipe and meal suggestions
- Procure local restaurant gift cards
- Offer recipe websites for special dietary requirements
- Customized meal recommendations
- Set-up meal schedule
- Suggest “Ways to Help” a family even from a distance
- Gas cards
- Restaurant cards
- Grocery Store cards
- Amazon wish list
- Special needs (like air purifiers, etc)
- Donate to the family’s Go Fund Me account
“Cancer patients with insurance, spend about a third of their household income on out-of-pocket health-care costs outside of insurance premiums. Even as insurance coverage has expanded, deductibles and copays on policies have risen, leaving patients to shoulder more of the financial burden for their health care.”
Dr. Fumiko Chino
Financial Toxicity of Cancer Care
JAMA Oncology
Here to Serve harnesses the community’s help to ease the devastating financial impact of a cancer diagnosis of a child or a young parent with school-aged children in the home. There are various forms of financial assistance for Ewing Sarcoma, DIPG, Neuroblastoma, and other cancers. Here to Serve:
- Promotes fundraising events
- Coordinates with local businesses who provide financial assistance
- Sets up a Go Fund Me page – promotes giving and provides family and patient updates
- Helps identify foundations to financially support families during a medical crisis
- Provides resources to help with co-pays and prescription drugs
Family Updates
Family Care Coordinators stay in touch with families throughout their journey communicating to friends and loved ones via the family’s Care Community about:
- Status or changes in the child, parent, or family’s condition or situation
- Struggles the family faces emotionally, financially and with their own health
- Specific needs the family has
- Spiritual community support
Our goal is to compassionately assist families with a flow of information joining with friends, neighbors, and loved ones who wish to help provide tools to be effective and organized in their support while being respectful of the family’s privacy and need for undisturbed time alone.
Referral Resources
Here to Serve Family Care Coordinators help families navigate and demystify the variety of nonprofit, professional, and business services available. They:
- Respond to family’s urgent, unforeseeable needs
- Design plans and identify and secure service providers that meet the family’s needs
- Help families/caregivers apply for and receive services including financial assistance, transportation (ground/air) lodging, respite, wish requests and more
- Provide referrals to counseling and support services for medical and/or legal advice.
- Match families with informed and sensitive volunteers, typically those who themselves have gone through life-and-death crises
- Provide referrals to professional mental health counselors who are free or offer a sliding scale payment for services
- Offer binder to organize and compile medical, insurance, and legal information
- Offer volunteers who provide individualized spiritual support
- Books and informational materials (spiritual, practical, and encouragement) resource list
Learn more about Resource Referrals
