Criteria for Services
Definition of services
Mitchell’s House is a project of Mitchell’s Fund and a safe place offering counseling and play therapy services to children with serious illnesses, their parents and siblings. When a child is diagnosed, it can impact the entire family who can become anxious, overwhelmed, and exhausted. Mitchell’s House offers services regardless of a family’s ability to pay.
Our licensed clinicians and play therapists provide services like:
· Trauma informed therapy and coping skills
· Medical play, art and sand tray therapy
· Sibling and parent support groups
· Procedural preparation and end of life therapy
CRITERIA OF SERVICES
Mitchell’s House provides counseling and play therapy services to sick children with a terminal or life-threatening diagnosis, their siblings, parents or legal guardians regardless of ability to pay. Children with a serious illness, along with their immediate family members, qualify for services.
Amy Kelley, MD, and others have proposed the following definition of serious illness: a health condition that carries a high risk of mortality and either negatively impacts a person’s daily functioning or quality of life or excessively strains his or her caregivers.(Source via Journal of Palliative Medicine)
Expanding upon the definition above for the purpose of determining client eligibility for services at Mitchell’s House, serious illness examples are listed below:
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An illness requiring multiple major surgeries
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An illness requiring multiple hospital stays
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Cancer diagnoses
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Rare genetic disorders
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Cardiac conditions
