WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 7, 2024) — Nemours Children’s Health and the Elizabeth Dole Foundation are proud to announce a new online training program for healthcare providers, promoting better care strategies for America’s 2.3 million children and teens living with a wounded, ill, or injured service member or veteran.
The new training content for providers is free of charge and created by Nemours Children’s Health, the Elizabeth Dole Foundation, and the Hidden Helpers Coalition. To ensure the provider education focused on the unique needs of this target audience, the teams at the Elizabeth Dole Foundation and Nemours incorporated learnings from more than 200 survey responses from parents and guardians of young people growing up in military caregiving homes.
The Elizabeth Dole Foundation first brought attention of the crisis facing military and veteran caregiver children and teens, whom the Foundation calls America’s “hidden helpers”, for their overlooked role supporting the care of wounded, ill, and injured veterans at home. In 2021, the Elizabeth Dole Foundation released a groundbreaking study by Mathematica that revealed the high levels of stress, burnout, fatigue, anxiety, and depression experienced by young people in caregiving families. The report revealed troubling data indicating much higher incidences of social isolation and trouble in school.
“Our nation is letting down our military and veteran families by allowing the struggles of our wounded veterans and their caregivers be inherited by the next generation, but we have an opportunity to change the outlook for these incredible young people,” said Steve Schwab, CEO, Elizabeth Dole Foundation. “We are thrilled to be working with the national leaders in pediatric health at Nemours Children’s Health to ensure America’s healthcare providers are ready to provide our hidden helpers the support and care they desperately need.”
The three-part training informs primary, specialty, and behavioral healthcare providers, social workers and other care team members about the role and responsibilities caregiver children and teens may take on at home, how trauma-informed care can benefit this vulnerable community, and why some young caregivers and their families are reluctant to share their challenges with providers. The modules also address the importance of holistic care for military families and their common barriers to proper care. Caregivers and caregiver children and teens in the Elizabeth Dole Foundation network narrate and appear in the modules alongside experts from Nemours Children’s. The training is eligible for AMA-PRA Category 1 Credits™ via the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) and is available now through Nemours Children’s Health Continuing Education website at ce.nemours.org.
“Nemours Children’s is committed to creating the healthiest generations of children. One way we do this is by developing tools and resources for our colleagues on the front line caring for some of our most vulnerable children,” said R. Lawrence Moss, MD, FACS, FAAP, President and CEO, Nemours Children’s Health. “We are honored to partner with the Elizabeth Dole Foundation to make this training available to clinicians at no cost. Together, we can substantively support our providers in offering even better care to these young families who are defending our nation’s freedom.”
The training series is the latest outcome of the Elizabeth Dole Foundation’s Hidden Helpers Coalition, co-chaired by Wounded Warrior Project. The coalition, launched in 2021 at a White House event, is comprised of more than 100 members dedicated to responding to the greatest challenges facing military and veteran caregiver children and teens. Nemours was the first pediatric health system to join the Hidden Helpers Coalition.
About Elizabeth Dole Foundation and Hidden Heroes
The Elizabeth Dole Foundation is the preeminent organization empowering, supporting, and honoring our nation’s 5.5 million military caregivers – the spouses, parents, family members, and friends who care for America’s wounded, ill, or injured veterans at home. Founded by Senator Elizabeth Dole in 2012, the Foundation adopts a comprehensive approach in its support and advocacy, working with leaders in the public, private, nonprofit, and faith communities to recognize military caregivers’ service and promote their well-being. Learn more about the Elizabeth Dole Foundation at www.hiddenheroes.org.
About Nemours Children’s Health
Nemours Children’s Health is one of the nation’s largest multistate pediatric health systems, which includes two free-standing children's hospitals and a network of more than 70 primary and specialty care practices. Nemours Children's seeks to transform the health of children by adopting a holistic health model that utilizes innovative, safe, and high-quality care, while also caring for the health of the whole child beyond medicine. Nemours Children's also powers the world’s most-visited website for information on the health of children and teens, Nemours KidsHealth.org.
The Nemours Foundation, established through the legacy and philanthropy of Alfred I. duPont, provides pediatric clinical care, research, education, advocacy, and prevention programs to the children, families and communities it serves. For more information, visit Nemours.org.
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