Improving Lives. Changing Futures.
The Chronic Illness Management Program at Children’s Specialized Hospital is a comprehensive inpatient program for children with chronic, life-altering conditions who have demonstrated the need for additional support to better manage their condition.
The program provides the child and family with a structured, comprehensive service plan to address their medical, nutritional, psychological, and communication needs to enhance the child’s total well-being.
Our goal is to provide the children we serve with the best tools to effectively manage their illness, maximize their quality of life, and achieve their family-centered goals of care.
This program is designed for children and young adults, up to the age of 21, with chronic, life-altering conditions that affect their daily lives. Examples of such conditions include, but are not limited to:
- Autoimmune Disorders
- Chronic Respiratory Disease
- Cystic Fibrosis
- Diabetes
- Heart Disease
- Metabolic Disorders
- Organ Transplants
- Sickle Cell
- Other conditions that require strict adherence to prescribed treatment regimens
The duration of the program is typically four weeks and we employ a multidisciplinary model and behavioral approach to care that addresses the physical, emotional, and psycho-social needs of each patient with the goal of improving the child’s total overall health. During their comprehensive inpatient stay, a treatment plan is established in accordance with each child’s individual goals of care.
When clinically appropriate, our program utilizes a behavioral approach which includes shaping appropriate behavior, reinforcement of positive behavior, direct instruction to develop new skills and knowledge, fading of cues and prompts, generalizations of skills across activities and settings, and use of visual tools. Each clinical team member incorporates these interventions into treatment sessions in order to provide ample opportunities for practice, reinforcement and correction.
A typical inpatient stay includes both physician and nursing care as well as the following services:
- Diabetes education with Certified Diabetes Care and Education Specialist
- Other disease specific education with a Clinical Nurse Educator
- Psychological therapy
- Physical therapy
- Occupational therapy
- Recreational therapy
- Child life support
- Nutritional/dietitian support
- Intensive and varied daily exercise
- Shopping/cooking experiences to promote good nutrition
- Outings to promote community reintegration
- Family education and counseling
- Psychological and educational testing, as indicated, to identify learning issues
Continuous glucose monitoring is available for diabetes patients in combination with focus on gaining metabolic control. Together, this represents a powerful vehicle for making effective and informed changes in each individual's diabetes care.