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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Dream House Contacts:

Toni Hubbard, Dream House Education Manager
770-717-7410, ext 105
toni.hubbard@dreamhouseforkids.org

Kim Marks, Dream House PR & Marketing Manager
770-717-7410, ext 107
kim.marks@dreamhouseforkids.org
 
 
E-Learning ABC’s for the Non-Medical Professional 
Dream House for Medically Fragile Children, Inc. launches innovative eLearning curriculum at www.FamilyForKeeps.org  to promote successful outcomes for families caring for children with complex health issues at home.

Snellville, Ga. (February 10, 2010) – The Family for Keeps® Professional eCourse prepares the non-medical professional. Developed and copyrighted by Georgia-based Dream House for Medically Fragile Children, Inc., the curriculum is ideal for Case Supervisors/Managers and Social Workers. When involved with placement decisions for a child experiencing complex, chronic health care issues, this relevant training module allows for more effective supervisory support of the family caring for that child. Through actual case scenarios, participants delve into the family needs, and what is required to support the medically fragile child and family to promote successful outcomes.

Beta-testing for this course concluded the end of January, earning welcome feedback from users like D. Glenn, RN, of the State of Kentucky’s Child Protective Services. “Working in Kentucky, with the medically fragile program, I feel that this information is very important for the workers to have,” she explained. “Some workers may not have a medically fragile case for years, and others may be new workers and not have much medical experience or knowledge with the medically fragile.”

“This eCourse was created to address ‘you don't know what you don't know’ about the specialized needs of medically complex children and the families caring for these children at home, in communities throughout the United States,” commented Dream House Founder and CEO, Laura O. Moore, foster parent to 12 medically fragile children and adoptive parent of one. “Understanding the scope of what that child and family face is paramount to making informed recommendations about the child’s future and well-being.”

To put course studies to good use in the work environment, each participant is shipped a hardcopy manual entitled Family For Keeps® Resource Guide: Common Health Conditions and Home Care of Children with Special Health Care Needs – For the Non-Medical Professional, that will also serve as a study tool when taking the course. The eCourse also includes documentation tips and tools to enable “best placement” decision making. At the end of the 10-12 hour course, participants will earn a Certificate of Completion that will then provide access to a suitcase of downloadable template forms for home studies, home safety check-lists and court reports.

“Training of this nature is not available anywhere else in the nation,“ said Dream House Education Manager Toni Hubbard. “We have brought a revolutionary training tool to this core group of non-medical professionals, one they can pursue in the context of their very demanding schedules. What they learn will guide and direct how they assess cases involving medically fragile children – whether they encounter only one or many throughout their careers.”

The Family for Keeps® Professional eCourse is the first of four copyrighted curriculums Dream House plans to covert to eLearning modules. Other Family for Keeps® courses planned for release in mid-2010 are the Basic Caregiver Course, the Community Course and the Advanced Skills Training Workshop series.
Online conversion of this first eLearning module was made possible thanks to grant awards from Amway: One by One Campaign for Children, Chick-Fil-A, Inc., CR Bard Foundation, Delta Pilots Charitable Foundation, D. Lurton Massee Community Welfare Fund, Schneider/Square D Foundation, and The Roderick S., Flossie R. & Helen M. Galloway Foundation. The Resource Guide was made possible thanks to a grant from the Wal-Mart Foundation.

In January, Dream House launched the www.FamilyforKeeps.org as an eLearning portal. The Family for Keeps® Professional eCourse is now available for purchase through March 31, 2010 for the introductory price of $274.99, a $25 savings off the standard course fee. Additional copies of the Resource Guide are available for purchase for $49.99 plus shipping and handling.

About Dream House for Medically Fragile Children, Inc.
Dream House is a 501(c)3 children’s charity teaching families and communities how to help kids with very complex health issues live at home. Heroic medical efforts save sick and injured children who would not have previously survived, leaving some medically fragile – fully dependent upon medications, equipment and therapies. Sadly, however, families and communities find themselves unprepared, unable or even unwilling to “deal” with the reality of the complex care these children require.
 
A critical first step for these children (biological, adopted or foster), and their families, is access to the innovative Dream House Family for Keeps® Transition Care Program. With local roots, this hospital-to-home program is setting the standard for the home care of Georgia’s medically fragile children. Dream House has been awarded the first and only Children’s Transition Care Centers license in the nation, after years demonstrating the transition care model with 100 percent successful outcomes.
 
Since inception in 2001, via the Family for Keeps® Transition Care Program, the Dream House organization has served nearly 1,000 children in 46 Georgia counties. Named a Best in America Local Independent Charity, by the Independent Charities of America, Dream House supporters invest in a mission that uses more than 80 cents of every dollar donated to directly benefit medically fragile children and their families. Family for Keeps® provides a pathway for Georgia’s medically fragile children to get out of institutional care into stable, single-family homes. For one-third the cost of housing these kids in hospitals or adult nursing homes, Family for Keeps® is the resource that enables medically fragile children to have a home, a family and a future.
 
Visit www.DreamHouseForKids.org for more information or call 770-717-7410.
 
Dream House for Medically Fragile Children, Inc.
Corporate Offices: 2092 Scenic Highway-Suite B, Snellville, Ga. 30078
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 1562, Snellville, Ga. 30078-1562
Telephone: 770-717-7410        Facsimile: 770-923-0659       
Email: info@dreamhouseforkid.org          Web: www.dreamhouseforkids.org