August 21, 2018

While many students across the Houston area are heading back to school this week, Texas Children’s Trauma and Grief Center (TAG) is helping students at Santa Fe High School emotionally and mentally prepare for the new school year following the tragic events that unfolded on campus three months ago.

Texas Children’s TAG Center has been partnering with other organizations in the Santa Fe community, including the Gulf Coast Center, to support the Santa Fe Strong Resiliency Center. Created in the aftermath of the Santa Fe school shooting, the Resiliency Center provides mental health services to those impacted by this tragedy.

“The impact this tragedy left behind is significant and it will take time for everyone to heal and adjust,” said Dr. Julie Kaplow, director of Texas Children’s TAG Center. “As Santa Fe students return to classes this week, we have TAG Center clinicians on hand at the high school – and across the Santa Fe school district – to provide emotional support to students, teachers and families who need it.”

Last week, Kaplow met with Santa Fe parents at a back-to-school meeting to discuss what to expect as their children return to school, the red flags they need to be aware of, how they can help their children transition back to school following this tragedy, and how to help their kids feel safe and secure.

“It’s been a very busy few weeks for our team,” said Kaplow. “Our TAG Center clinicians are continuing to provide trauma- and grief-informed assessment and intervention, both within the Resiliency Center as well as Santa Fe High School, and we’re providing on-going training and consultation to therapists serving the Santa Fe community.”

While the healing time from a school tragedy like this is different for each person impacted, Kaplow and her team will continue to partner with the Santa Fe community to provide services to these children.

In addition to these collaborative efforts, Kaplow says the Texas Children’s TAG Center plans to conduct a large-scale needs assessment across the Santa Fe school district that will help identify those students who are struggling the most and ensure they have access to the intervention they need close to home.

Click here for more information about Texas Children’s TAG Center.

August 13, 2018

We just learned that employees’ children are not eligible to participate in the PLAY 60 Kid of the Month. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Texas Children’s Hospital and the Houston Texans are two teams with one goal – keeping kids healthy!

PLAY 60 is the National Football League’s campaign to encourage kids to be active for at least 60 minutes a day. We want YOU to join the movement by signing up your child to be a PLAY 60 Kid of the Month.

Those who enter are eligible to win a Texans VIP experience including a special behind the scenes visit to NRG Stadium and other exciting giveaways.

Kids ages 6-12 can participate. All they have to do is fill out the online survey showing us how they PLAY 60.

Learn more here.

August 7, 2018

On August 4, more than 500 patients and families traveled from all over the country for the 2018 Texas Children’s Newborn Center family reunion. The Texas-themed event celebrated former patients who graduated from the Newborn Center in 2017 after spending 10 days or more in our neonatal intensive care units at Texas Children’s Hospital Medical Center Campus and Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands.

The reunion was held at Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women where parents shared stories of hope and triumph with other neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) families and reconnected with the nurses and doctors who delivered life-saving care to their critically ill babies.

“The NICU reunion is one of the most special days of the year for those of us who work in the NICU,” said Texas Children’s Chief of Neonatology Dr. Gautham Suresh. “It is uplifting to see the families bring their children back to the hospital, and share the great progress their babies have made. During the reunion the families were able to visit with the employees, physicians and other families that they spent so much time with while being cared for in our NICU. On this day we also remember and pray for the families who unfortunately were unable to take their babies home. The resilience and the strength the families display during their babies’ NICU course and afterwards is admirable and inspires all of us.”

Highlights from the reunion included remarks from Suresh, Assistant Vice President of Nursing Heather Cherry, Newborn Center Family Advisory Committee (NFAC) member Ane Alfred, and Brian Brantley, the underwriter chairman for Bad Pants, an organization that has raised more than $6 million over the past 20 years to support the Newborn Center through the annual Bad Pants Open golf tournament.

The NICU reunion also offered children’s entertainment including a DJ, games, photo booth, face painting, crafts, airbrush tattoos, appearances from Minnie Mouse, SpongeBob Square Pants and Pikachu, and guests enjoyed a good old-fashioned Texas barbecue.

The Newborn Center team thanked everyone who helped organize this successful event including Texas Children’s NFAC Committee and Bad Pants.

It is that time of the year again; the end of summer means the beginning of a new school year. Texas Children’s Hospital’s Social Work Department organized a back-to-school fair to provide information to patients and their families to help them prepare for the new school year.

“Events like this provides community organization opportunities,” Social Work Manager Jackson Huynh said. “It allows them to reach and serve Texas Children’s patients and families affected by childhood illness that other community organizations will not be able to reach and serve due to a child’s hospitalization and/or rigorous outpatient treatment plan.”

On July 31, the Texas Children’s Hospital Medical Center Auxiliary Bridge quickly filled with tons of patients and their families waiting to take advantage of the opportunity to receive free school items.

Texas Children’s relationships and partnerships with many groups and agencies made way for a great response when it came to soliciting organizations to participate.

Below are the groups that occupied tables with information along with a few goodies for children and their parents to take with them.

  • One Step Closer Foundation – a non-profit, charitable organization whose main goal is to ease, as much as possible, the lives of those who suffer from cerebral palsy.
  • Houston Food Bank – a private non-profit organization and a certified member of Feeding America, the nation’s food bank network.
  • Neuhaus Education Center – a non-profit educational foundation dedicated to promoting reading success.
  • Families Empowered – a non-profit organization founded to support the escalating number of families searching for a great school for their child.
  • Disability Rights – recognizes the varied needs of people with disabilities in Texas.
  • HEP Bookstore – a homeschool resource; a bookstore specializing in instructional materials & books for home schooling in a range of subjects.

The One Step Closer Foundation provided the DJ and decorations for the bridge. In addition the foundation, along with the Houston Food Bank, backpacks and school supplies were also given away to patients and their siblings. The fair also provided opportunities for Texas Children’s departments such as Nutritionist, School Coordinators, Animal Assisted Therapy Program, Child Life, the hospital Dieticians, and schoolteachers, to showcase their skill set so that parents and students are more confident and prepared for the upcoming school year.

There was even a photo area created for parents to take school photos of their children. This was a very popular portion of the event for families, as it creates normalization for those who are not able to leave the hospital to attend school and pictures.

The social work department’s goal has been to create an immense presence and emphasize their role in maintaining exceptional patient experience year round.

“We work with families and provide them resources for the various agencies present, so we thought it would be great to bring the agencies here to the hospital,” Social Work Clinical Specialist DeAdra Cage said. “Providing resources to help parents work with the various schools is a big part of our job as Social Workers.”

Many parents who have children in the hospital may not have the time or financial ability to purchase all the necessities needed for school. This event was able to help make the start of the school year a little easier and among all things, let parents know that Texas Children’s is there to support them and their needs.

“It’s a great feeling to be able to assist our families who already have so much going on,” Cage said. “We are very proud of the outcome. As we anticipated, we had an awesome turnout! We were focused on helping the patients and siblings who happened to be on site the day of the event.”

With a goal of helping 300 children, the actual end result was 500. The back-to-school fair was an overall success and the Social Work Department hopes to make this an annual event for many years to come.

Texas Children’s recently convened the region’s first autoimmune encephalitis (AE) family day. Headlined by former NFL player Amobie Okoye, an AE survivor himself, the event was held on July 28 at Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women. Seventy family members, 23 AE patients and their siblings, and 20 volunteers from Texas and beyond made the day a rousing success.

Dr. Eyal Muscal and the division of Immunology/Allergy, Rheumatology & Retrovirology hosted a nurse and family panel as well as educational sessions by members of the neurology, physical medicine and rehabilitation and behavioral health teams. Families also were able to form new connections and strengthen previous relationships formed via social media.

The goal of the event, titled Day of Hope, was to raise awareness of this spectrum of immune-mediated brain disorders. Plans are already underway for next year’s event, which will include adolescent AE health, transition to adult care, and needs of adult AE survivors.

July 5, 2018

When late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel faced off against Senator Ted Cruz in a one-on-one charity basketball game in Houston last month, the event brought in nearly $50,000 benefiting Texas Children’s Hospital – which was a lot more fundraising dollars than expected.

At the beginning of the competition, the loser of the game would contribute $5,000 to the winner’s charity of choice. Although Kimmel lost the game to Cruz, Kimmel personally donated $10,000 to Texas Children’s. His team worked closely with Texas Children’s Philanthropy to raise even more money.

Besides including a link to the Texas Children’s donation form on the ticket registration website, both teams explored other strategies to encourage more people to participate in this fundraising effort.

“We suggested Kimmel’s team use a Facebook fundraising application similar to a Go Fund Me page that subsequently helped us raise more than $14,000 in donations alone to Texas Children’s,” said Philanthropy Services Director Stacey Cook. “Once Kimmel’s team set up the site, people could share the fundraising page on their social media pages and encourage their family and friends to donate to Texas Children’s.”

In addition to leveraging the Facebook fundraising app, Philanthropy offered other opportunities for people to donate, including a text to give option and collecting onsite donations at the game. Also, half of the proceeds from the event’s merchandise sales, amounting to $7,500, went directly to Texas Children’s.

Generating over 883 million media impressions, Texas Children’s Public Relations and Social Media teams worked with Philanthropy to raise awareness about the charity basketball game. Many of our employees also helped spread the word through social media, and others donated to the fundraiser.

“Anyone can have a meaningful impact on fundraising at Texas Children’s,” Cook said. “In this case, every donation counted and helped us raise more than we ever anticipated for this event.”

June 19, 2018

It’s time for the annual Periwinkle Kickball Classic, an event that raises money for an organization that provides healing programs and camps to children, young adults and families who are challenged by cancer and other life-threatening illnesses.

The one-day tournament will be held Saturday, November 3, at the Houston Sportsplex and ANYONE age 14 or older is eligible to play.

Each team is made up of at least 10 players, five of whom must be female. To enter, each team must raise at least $500.

This year, there will be two divisions:

  • “Just for Fun” – where your team will play in three round robin games in the morning but not compete in the playoffs.
  • “In It to Win It” – where your team will play in a multi-game tournament (each team is guaranteed three games). There will be champions in the Gold, Silver & Bronze brackets.

Upon registering, you will select which division your team will compete in.

If you sign up a team by Wednesday, August 1, you will receive a free coffee from the Periwinkle Foundation! Click the link to sign up your team today: http://bit.ly/kickball2018.