TYC - Caregiver Support

Caregiver Support

The Youth Campus (TYC) Caregiver Support Program sets six months as the goal for completing services to each client. A Tellabs Foundation grant supplemented government funding in 2008. Services are made available to each client, a boy or girl from infancy to 13 years of age, as a TYC Registered Nurse authorizes direction of services. With TYC Caregiver Support more families remain intact and fewer children are suffering the trauma of removal from their families.

The TYC Nurse receives the assignment of a child from the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) and visits the home to assess the needs of the child and family. Successful intervention can include the following:

Physically monitoring the child and family members in need
Explaining and setting up helpful routines for self-administration of medications
Attending medical appointments and translating directives
Acclimating the child and family to the use of medical hardware in the home
Providing education about necessary nutrition to support the medically complex situation
Arranging for respite care or other available services

These are examples of the diagnoses encountered: Hemophilia, Asthma, Diabetes, Schwachman-Diamond disorder, Poor weight gain and Microcephaly, Seizure disorder.

For example, TYC Caregiver Support provided a four year old boy and his family assistance to adjust to seizure disorder complicated by his hemophilia. He can have a seizure without much warning and this has caused him to fall forward and experience bruising and cuts. Hemophilia makes this a serious situation. TYC Caregiver Support helped the family obtain a helmet prescribed by his physician, minimizing risk of serious injury.

Another client was a feisty, nine year old diabetic, who lives with her grandmother. Caregiver Support teaching helped her and her grandmother understand the critical importance of nutrition for her health. Both grandmother and child better understand the physician's recommendations now. The grandmother is a much more proficient caregiver for her granddaughter.

For more information:
312-243-0533 ext. 313
or
csp@theyouthcampus.org