Patients at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt joined officials with Vanderbilt and the Junior League at Tuesday’s event. From left are Blake Rader, 5, Jeff Balser, M.D., Ph.D., Tevin Artis, 17, Jillian Waters and Michele Toungette of the Junior League, Gabriel Hunt, 2, and Susie Stalcup. (photo by Steve Green)
Junior League gift boosts sickle cell, asthma fight
In a special event celebrating the Junior League of Nashville’s 90th year of support to children’s health in the Nashville community and its longstanding partnership with Vanderbilt University, the organization committed $1.5 million to the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt to care for children with sickle cell disease and asthma.
The funds will help establish the Junior League Sickle Cell Disease and Asthma Program, a medical home model treatment facility to be located at the Matthew Walker Comprehensive Health Center in Nashville.
“This gift honors our long-standing relationship and commitment to children’s health and the Nashville community,” said Michele Toungette, president of the Junior League of Nashville.
“We were inspired by Dr. Michael DeBaun’s vision, and we feel the Sickle Cell Disease and Asthma Program continues the Junior League’s roots for supporting compassionate, home-based care,” she said. “We look forward to supporting the program with our volunteers as well, helping provide education and support services for women and children in a myriad of capacities.”
“The Junior League has been in partnership with Children’s Hospital from the very beginning. This generous commitment will benefit the health of children throughout Middle Tennessee and is both gratifying and highly consistent with the organization’s long-standing history for supporting high impact programs and services,” said Jeff Balser, M.D., Ph.D., vice chancellor for Health Affairs and dean of the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.
The innovative medical home model brings together physicians, nurse practitioners and nurse case managers from Children’s Hospital and Meharry Medical College to provide family-centered care to the community. With support services, educational resources and personalized care available under one roof, the program will help reduce health care costs and improve access for patients who require long-term treatment.
“The Junior League has an outstanding track record of caring for children, both in the Nashville community and here at Children’s Hospital,” said Luke Gregory, chief executive officer for Children's Hospital. “By allowing us to provide unique specialty care in a community setting, the Junior League is truly helping transform the care of sickle cell disease and asthma in our area.”
Michael DeBaun, M.D., MPH, directs the Vanderbilt-Meharry-Matthew Walker Center for Excellence in Sickle Cell Disease. (photo by Steve Green)
Michael DeBaun, M.D., MPH, J.C. Peterson Chair in Pediatric Pulmonology, professor of Pediatrics and director of the Vanderbilt-Meharry-Matthew Walker Center for Excellence in Sickle Cell Disease, said many children with sickle cell disease often struggle with asthma, and this community-based program will create one standard of care for children battling these chronic illnesses.
“We are extremely grateful for the unwavering support of the Junior League of Nashville,” said DeBaun. “The funds will help provide a new paradigm of family-centered care for an underserved and deserving population of children.”
The Junior League of Nashville's partnership with Vanderbilt began in 1923 with the opening of the Junior League Home for Crippled Children.
The home provided free convalescent and rehabilitative medical care for children with polio and other diseases. The home was later moved to the Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt in 1971, now called the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt.
The Junior League has also provided generous financial support to Children’s Hospital since 1971, with recent gifts providing capital to help build the freestanding Children’s Hospital as well as funding for the Junior League Fetal Care Center.
Today, Junior League volunteers give countless hours of service to programs at Children's Hospital, including the Junior League Child Life Specialist Program, Neonatal Intensive Care Development Follow-up Clinic, Junior League Family Resource Center and much more.
The Junior League Sickle Cell Disease and Asthma Program at Children’s Hospital will augment the mission of the Vanderbilt-Meharry-Matthew Walker Center of Excellence in Sickle Cell Disease. For more information, visit http://www.childrenshospital.vanderbilt.org/interior.php?mid=872 or call 936-1762.