The Impact of Philanthropy

Griffin Hospital’s Center for Cancer Care offers a different kind of cancer care - one that unites science and sensitivity - all in a compassionate, healing environment that's more comforting and closer to home than ever before. Philanthropy plays a significant role in helping us to provide an extra level of care, comfort, and cutting-edge clinical service that our patients need, day in and day out.

We invite you to make a difference in the lives of our patients and their families through a donation to the Cancer Center Fund. Following are just a few of the programs and services that donors have helped to provide since the Center's opening in 2008:

• Direct patient assistance, such as help with bills, wigs, or transportation
• Medical equipment needs
• Integrative therapies such as Reiki, Massage, Healing Touch
• Cancer Survivorship Program, helping patients navigate the next phase of their lives
• Physical Therapy and exercise programs for cancer patients

Donate to The Center for Cancer Care.

Griffin Hospital offers family-centered maternity care in an environment that best meets individual and family needs. Donors can help us make women and families' birth experience as positive as possible. Here are some ideas for items that the Center uses to ensure our patients get the best start in life:

• Support for membership in Read To Grow, which helps parents take an active role in their children's literacy development beginning at birth
• Medical equipment
• Items for families in need:
  • Car seats
  • Pharmacy Gift Cards
  • New Clothes
• Integrative Therapies such as Reiki, Massage, Healing touch – for patients and families
• Staff training in Integrative Therapies
• Toys for siblings
• Welcome baskets for new parents
• Dinners for new families

Donate to the Childbirth Center.

The Department of Community Outreach and Valley Parish Nurse (VPN) program serves as the hub of Griffin Hospital’s outreach activities, accounting for more than 50,000 community contacts annually. These contacts have included distributing and fitting bike helmets for children, training adults and children in CPR, and providing health education and information at senior centers, shopping centers, neighborhoods, companies, and community events and fairs. This number also includes more than 7,500 health screenings – which can help identify problems when they are most treatable – and nearly 11,000 referrals for follow up care.

Griffin’s team of dedicated nurses is always in need of resources to help keep children and adults safe and to educate residents throughout the Valley about the many health and wellness programs Griffin Hospital offers our community. Some of those programs include:

• Driving Safety for Teens
• CHIP: Child Identification Program
• Car Seats
• Bike Helmets
• Health Fairs
• Mobile Resource Van support
• Breast Wellness Outreach  
• Patient education materials (brochures, etc.)

Donate to Community Outreach.

Women in Connecticut have the second highest rate of breast cancer in the United States. Statistics show that in the Valley only 48% of women over 40 had a mammogram within the last year, and 23% of underserved women over 40 have never had a mammogram.

Griffin Hospital’s Hewitt Center for Breast Wellness, whose Medical Director is Denise Barajas, MD (pictured above), offers state-of-the-art technology, patient navigation services, genetic evaluation, plastic and reconstructive surgery evaluation and treatment, education, support, and rehabilitation services--all in a healing Planetree environment for which Griffin is known internationally.

Gifts to the Hewitt Center for Breast Wellness benefit all of its programs and services, including the following:

• Patient assistance, such as help with bills, wigs, and transportation
• Medical equipment
• Free mammography funds, funds for follow up diagnostic services (biopsy, ultrasound)
• Continuing education and training for staff

Donate to The Hewitt Center for Breast Wellness.

First inspired by Ansonia businessman Frank Michaud and his wife Judy, Griffin Hospital launched the HiM as a response to recent data that indicate that men in the Valley have significantly higher rates of mortality than men in Connecticut on average for both prostate cancer and colorectal cancer. Griffin Hospital's overall goal for the program is to influence men to see their physician and be screened for various diseases that respond better to treatment if detected early. This fund helps Griffin Hospital raise awareness of men’s health issues and improve the health of men in our communities.

Donations to the HiM Fund assist Griffin Hospital in its communication, awareness, and outreach efforts to inspire men in the Valley to be proactive about their health and wellness.

Donate to HiM.

The changes proposed by health care reform have the potential to significantly alter the environment in which nurses will practice. Changes need to occur in nursing education and ongoing training to prepare nurses with the competencies and skills required to practice in a redesigned health care system.

Griffin Hospital’s nursing education department stands ready to help our nurses keep pace with the latest standards that their profession demands. The following are always needed and welcomed, and each will make a difference in the caliber of the nursing staff Griffin is able to both attract and retain:

• Scholarship support
• Guest lectures and on-site courses
• Conference attendance
• Online course enrollment
• Books and subscriptions to on-line professional journals

Donate to Nursing Education.

Hospice believes that the end of one’s life is not a medical occurrence; rather, it is a human experience that encompasses all dimensions and needs. Contributions to the Griffin Hospital Hospice Fund help to improve our program by offering needed comfort items, education, and services to our patients, families and caregivers, including:

• Comfort items for patients’ rooms including lamps, “candles” with LED lights, flowers, afghans
• Planetree amenities, including an after-hours Comfort Cart that supplies families with muffins, coffee, and tea; arts and entertainment programming; and complementary therapies
• Training, books and conferences for our caregivers

Donate to Griffin Hospital Hospice.

The Department of Spiritual Care and Clinical Pastoral Education at Griffin Hospital provides spiritual and emotional support to patients, families, and staff. Our chaplains are available 24 hours a day seven days a week to provide spiritual care through direct patient interaction, bereavement support, crisis intervention, and assistance of area clergy members. Our accredited Clinical Pastoral Education Programs provide interfaith professional education for ministry and for caregivers. Following are some of the ways that donations can help our staff serve the diverse spiritual needs of our patients and families.

• Printing of spirituality / prayer cards
• Spirituality baskets
• Clinical Pastoral Education program support for clergy
• Clinical Pastoral Education program support for healthcare providers
• Bereavement Programs

Donate to Spiritual Care.

The primary focus of Planetree is to deliver healthcare in a manner that works best for patients. A number of complementary services and amenities are available to patients and visitors to aid in healing and relaxation. Donors can help Griffin Hospital maintain its commitment to putting patients first by supporting the Planetree Fund, which sustains a rich array of Planetree modalities:

• Art and music services, therapies
• Integrative therapies such as Reiki, Massage, and Healing Touch
• Spirituality resources
• Baking program
• Healing Arts Journaling program

Donate to the Planetree Fund.

The Griffin Hospital School of Allied Health Careers was founded in 2009 with two practical objectives:

• To fill the state-wide need for well trained, certified healthcare professionals working as phlebotomists, patient care technicians, and certified nursing assistants.
• To help solve the high unemployment problem in the Lower Naugatuck Valley by offering individuals a chance to acquire quick and affordable educational solutions that enable them to re-enter the workforce in a profession they enjoy within a reasonable amount of time.

In the years since its opening, the School has consistently met those objectives, graduating over 300 students who are now nationally certified, and all of whom have successfully passed the National Health Career Phlebotomy and Patient Care Technician Exams. Indeed, over 180 graduates have gone on to secure employment in the field all over the state.

The Griffin Hospital School of Allied Health Careers is the only school in Connecticut that is associated with a hospital and offers affordable and condensed training programs that put students in position to be certified and ready to find a job in the healthcare field within months.

Gifts directed to the School of Allied Health will assist students in their paths to new careers. Support is needed in the following areas:

• Tuition / Scholarships
• Books
• Teaching tools such as patient manikins, etc.

Donate to the School of Allied Health Careers.

Griffin Hospital and the Valley School Districts (Shelton, Ansonia, Derby, Oxford, and Seymour, including the parochial and technical schools), are committed to promoting the health of the Valley community and to combating childhood obesity. The Valley Initiative to Advance Health & Learning in Schools (VITAHLS) brings together Griffin Hospital, the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center, and the five Valley school districts to develop, implement, evaluate, and sustain a Valley-wide school-based childhood obesity prevention program to reduce the prevalence of obesity in students in grades Pre-K – 12.

Goals

• To reduce the prevalence of obesity and to promote the health, wellbeing, and academic readiness of students enrolled in the Valley school districts.
• To develop a comprehensive and sustainable obesity prevention initiative that focuses on nutrition and physical activity for children in grades Pre-K – 12.
• To extend the health promotion efforts to include parents/family and school staff.

Donors can help Griffin partner with area schools to keep kids healthy by giving to the VITAHLS program. Needs include:

• BMI scales
• Pedometers and other wearable tools to measure physical activity
• Sports supplies and games for in-classroom and outdoor use
• Books, online subscriptions for teachers and parents
• Educator training sessions
• Family education sessions

Give to the VITAHLS program.