According to Helping Restore Ability Development And Marketing Director Lauren Patrick,
Take a moment to consider the steps you take to get out of bed, make your coffee or breakfast, put in a load of laundry, and take a shower. Many of us go through these mindless tasks before opening our eyes each morning. Now imagine you do not have use of your lower body, you cannot walk more than 10 steps without supplemental oxygen, or you cannot remember where your kitchen is. These are very real everyday concerns for 1 in 5 people in North Texas.
In the current COVID-19 climate, these individuals are at the highest risk for severe complications and even death, compromised immune systems, and frequent surgical procedures. Even more so than in past years, it is critical these individuals receive consistent, skilled, and reliable care in the safety of their own homes.
Helping Restore Ability exists to provide this care. Helping Restore Ability serves 1,100 people with a network of 2,500 personal care attendants offering over 2 million hours of care each year in the client’s own home. With the support of generous North Texas donors, we can ensure the caregivers are receiving ongoing training, updated policies and protocols, and personal protective equipment to be able to care for people at the highest levels. Additionally, we can begin services for more clients in need of in-home supportive care.
Personal care attendants ensure that daily living activities such as bathing, dressing, cooking, cleaning, feeding and light housekeeping as well as more extensive care such as nursing care and therapies continue for the individual so that they are able to remain in their home, maintaining their dignity and safety during this global pandemic. Often, the alternative is a nursing home or a care facility, which is very costly, hard on the individual and family emotionally, and an added risk for contracting COVID-19.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention makes a startling claim: “Today, about 50 million Americans, or one in five people, are living with at least one disability.” Factor in accelerated Baby Boomer aging, and the result is a sharp increase in the need for services to care for people – services that offer independence, freedom, and dignity. A disabling condition spans a broad range, from infants with a congenital disease, to toddlers diagnosed with autism, to teenagers now using a wheelchair after an accident, to parents who battle cancer, to grandparents diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.
Thanks to the support Helping Restore Ability receives on North Texas Giving Day, more individuals can receive services each year. Last year’s event alone enabled us to be able to enroll 13 new clients in a lifetime (approximately 25 years) of in-home care services at no cost to them or their family as well as provide sustainable employment for 20 individuals now serving as their caregivers.
On behalf of the 1,100 clients we serve, Thank You for supporting North Texas non-profits and Helping Restore Ability. Learn more at https://www.northtexasgivingday.org/helping-restore-ability
* Graphic and photo provided by Helping Restore Ability ** Photo credit: Jessica Hinojosa
In 11 years, Communities Foundation of Texas’ North Texas Giving Day has pumped more than $290 million into the North Texas community. In 2019, more than $50 million was raised through more than 169,000 gifts benefiting over 2,988 area nonprofits.
On Thursday, September 17, support Helping Restore Ability by linking here and spreading the word. #NTxGivingDay