Hospitals can be a confusing and frightening environment. Kellye Carroll, director of the Chase Child Life Program at Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA, seeks to ease that fear by familiarizing young children, adolescents and their families with the hospital experience.
In addition to working with pediatric patients to help them cope with their illness and hospitalization, Child Life also works to support the families who have been separated from the home and other familiar support structures.
For the last year, these special caregivers have been supported by the efforts of A Call Away, an organization designed to help families and their loved ones dealing with medical issues carry out daily tasks in their time of need.
The organization’s three founders, Palisades High School juniors Amber Perry, and twin sisters Olivia Stutman and Zoe Stutman, provide an array of services, such as grocery shopping, homework help, meal delivery, sending thank-you notes, organizing paperwork, pet care, laundry, childcare and more – all complimentary.
Through fundraisers and private donations, they are able to help cover some meal costs and hospital parking fees, which can climb to $12 a day. Recently, the three teens were awarded a $500 grant to help offset the costs of the free services they provide.
“As Child Life Specialists, our job is to normalize the hospital environment for the patient and siblings. At MCH, because so many of our patients are here for long periods of time, that job extends to the caregivers – and we want to help them feel normal too,” Carroll said. “When we partner with a group like A Call Away, that’s one more step to help make a family experience more ‘normal’ in the hospital.”
A NEW NORMAL
Olivia and Zoe know full well how difficult it can be to adjust to the new normal when a loved one is hospitalized.
In 2009 their father was in a severe car accident, which resulted in a three-month stay in the ICU. During his recovery, family priorities and daily routines shifted. Their family relied on takeout meals from various restaurants, adding to the growing medical costs, phone bills and parking fees.
“We already had a busy schedule with work, school and extracurricular activities, and then we had a whole new list of responsibilities and the emotional hardship that came with my father’s accident,” Olivia said. “We know how difficult it can be, so we wanted to provide a service that makes life less chaotic and limits the amount of stress.”
Additionally, when the sisters were younger, their 10-year-old brother passed away after an accident at baseball camp, leaving the family to cope with immense grief in the wake of tragedy. Daily tasks like cooking and cleaning were put on hold as the family dealt with their loss. It was the care of friends and family that made it possible, Zoe said.
“It was the simple tasks, such as having meals brought to our house and daily visits, that got my family through this rough time. Support from my family and friends made it possible for my family to survive,” Zoe writes on the organization’s website. “The loss of my brother brought an unimaginable amount of pain to my family and the only way we were able to move on was through the support of others.”
Photo: Al Alicea
EASING THE BURDEN
Understanding the strain of facing unknown medical procedures and unexpected costs, the twins collaborated with their classmate and close friend Amber. At the time, Amber had a family friend whose father was fighting lung cancer.
Hoping to ease the burden, Amber and her mother hired a personal chef to cook a meal for the family in their own home.
“They said that it was the best meal they had since the father’s diagnosis because they finally got a night to enjoy each other and forgot about the rest,” Amber said. “It opened my eyes to the hardships a medical condition puts on a family and it made me realize all the little things that truly help.”
This realization, coupled with the twins’ experience, led the girls to put their ideas into action and make sure a little extra help was just ‘A Call Away’ for others in need. Hoping to gain support and make their services known, the trio presented their program to Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA – and everyone was impressed with their initiative and maturity, Carroll said.
Now, patients can contact the young women directly through their website, and nurses and health care providers can connect them with families in need.
While working with one family whose child was admitted to the hospital, Carroll saw first hand how A Call Away positively impacts families during hospital stays. When the young patient had to go for an unexpected early-morning procedure and his mother was by herself with the patient’s two younger siblings, the A Call Away team came over and babysat at the hospital – all at no cost to the family or the hospital.
“It was fantastic. The girls are very easy to contact and they are up for any kind of random job or errand,” Carroll said. “They’ve helped several families get groceries and one family get their laundry to a laundromat down the street.”
Carroll said that many hospital employees would love to be able to hop over to Ralphs and grocery shop for a family, but their schedules and job duties don’t allow for it. A Call Away, however, is able to meet those very real, everyday needs.
“This is something unique; something that was missing before because it’s often overlooked,” Amber said. “We knew we wanted to help our community and this is something we’re so passionate about that we don’t mind giving up an hour of time with our friends or having less time for homework.”
THE GREATEST REWARD
The trio estimates they have each logged close to 1,000 hours of community service hours since beginning high school, in addition to balancing internships at local NGOs, participating in Youth in Government, math club, tennis and maintaining exemplary academic records.
“If you’re willing, there is always time to help your community and the satisfaction of knowing you made a difference is a reward above anything else,” Zoe said. “This is our priority activity. We started it and we want to see it grow.”
Carroll agrees, adding that big or small, everyone has something to contribute to those in need.
“We all have some resource to offer, but we often don’t think it’s big enough or that it will make a difference. It does,” Carroll said. “There’s something out there everyone can do.”
Although A Call Away gladly accepts donations, the teens said they would much rather have Palisadians join them in volunteering to help the families they serve.
Visit http://www.acallaway.org/home.html or email info@acallaway.com.
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