www.MorningSicknessUSA.com

The March of Dimes and Duchesnay USA, are partnering to help educate women about the impact of nausea and vomiting of pregnancy (NVP), also known as morning sickness. On Wednesday, July 17 from 8:00 a.m. to 12 noon (ET), Duchesnay conducted a satellite media tour (SMT) emphasizing that morning sickness is a real medical condition that affects millions of women. Dr. Siobhan Dolan, medical advisor to the March of Dimes, acted as the medical expert. She was joined by Kate Cleary, a former March of Dimes volunteer, now a Family Team Specialist with our Pennsylvania chapter, who experienced nausea during her pregnancy five years ago with her premature twins.

Kate and Dr. Dolan directed the audiences to visit www.MorningSicknessUSA.com for more information. This is a new resource for pregnant women with NVP created by Duchesnay, featuring symptom trackers, recipes, lifestyle management ideas, and expert articles.

WDAZ Interview

Philadelphia NBC 10 Interview

 

Variety Club Philadelphia receives $20,000 grant from Comcast Foundation

Variety – The Children’s Charity of Greater Philadelphia has been granted $20,000 to purchase tablet computers and applications for use in their Direct Care for Kids program.
Variety’s “Direct Care for Kids” program provides special needs children with durable medical equipment such as wheelchairs, walkers, braces and therapeutic bicycles at no cost to the families.
Through this grant, Variety will partner with Temple University’s Institute on Disabilities to provide training sessions for tablet recipients, specifically children with special needs in low income communities.
The training sessions will include instruction on using the tablets as well as providing projects that the children can work on during the training. Variety anticipates that the use of these new devices will help the children improve in speech, sociability, sensory/cognitive awareness and overall behavior. Amy Goldman, Co-Executive Director, Institute on Disabilities at Temple University, shared:
“Mary Pat Radabaugh, Director of IBM National Support Center for Persons with Disabilities said, ‘For Americans without disabilities, technology makes things easier. For American with disabilities, technology makes things possible.’ We are excited to work with Variety to help open doors for children with disabilities. Kids have so much potential! If we give people technology needed when they are children, we hope that will lead to higher school achievement, employment and independence.”
To be eligible, applicants must meet all of the criteria: 
Have a household income at 400% of Federal Poverty Guidelines or less
Have access or ability to access the internet
Have the ability to purchase recommended durability case
Print and complete attached application (See below)
Complete the pre- and post- Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist (ATEC) available here
Be able to attend specified trainings at Temple University’s Institute on Disabilities

If you would like to request a demo of apps, please feel free to contact PIAT at ATinfo@temple.edu or 800-204-7428!
ALL SUBMISSIONS MUST BE RECEIVED BY WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 21, 2013!
Please know that we cannot accept incomplete or late submissions.
All completed forms may be mailed to:

Variety - The Children’s Charity
ATTN: Direct Care for Kids
1520 Locust Street, 2nd Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19102
or faxed to (215) 735-2450 with a cover letter with the attention for Nicole Simon.
For more information on “Direct Care for Kids” at Variety – The Children’s Charity, or more on the grant, please contact Nicole Simon at nicolesimon@varietyphila.org or (215) 735-0803 ext. 13.
To download the application, please click here or the “Download Forms” link below.

Variety Direct Care Application Comast Grant

Stay safe during summer travel

It’s officially summer – YAY! If you’re from the Northeast, this summer is greatly welcomed after the winter we’ve had! Summer is a great time to travel and lots of people use this time to travel overseas. If you’re pregnant and healthy, chances are you can safely travelwith your provider’s OK. But there are some things you should do to take extra care and be safe when traveling abroad.

Talk with your provider before taking any big trips. She can tell you if your pregnancy is healthy enough to travel and what steps you can take to stay healthy. Your provider may also talk to you about vaccinations during pregnancy to help keep you and your baby healthy.

Also, check out the Center’s for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) website for any travel advisories. The CDC just issued an advisory for travel to Japanand Poland due to a Rubella outbreak. Rubella, also called German measles, is an infection that causes mild flu-like symptoms and a rash on the skin. It can cause serious problems for your baby during pregnancy.

Contact your health insurance carrier to be sure you’re covered for medical care if you’re overseas. Most insurance plans cover emergency medical care no matter where you are. But you need to know what your plan means by “emergency” to know exactly what it will pay for.

If you’re traveling by air, check with your airline to see if they have a cut-off time for traveling during pregnancy. You can fly on most airlines up to 36 weeks of pregnancy. But if you’re flying out of the country, the cut-off time may be earlier.

Was you child born weighing below 2 pounds, 10 ounces or with a disability?

Was you child born weighing below 2 pounds, 10 ounces or with a disability?

 

You may be entitled to immediate SSI payments to your child. It can take three to five months for the state agency to decide if your child is disabled. However, for some medical conditions, SSI will make payments right away and for up to six months while the state agency decides if your child is disabled.

Following are some conditions that may qualify:

• HIV infection;

• Total blindness;

• Total deafness;

• Cerebral palsy;

• Down syndrome;

• Muscular dystrophy;

• Severe intellectual disorder

(child age 7 or older); and

• Birth weight below 2 pounds, 10 ounces.

If your child has one of the qualifying conditions, he or she will get SSI payments right away. However, the state agency may finally decide that your child’s disability is not severe enough for SSI. If that happens, you will not have to pay back the SSI payments that your child got.

 

Click here for more information: http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10026.pdf

Learn more about how to apply here: http://www.pawic.com/howtoapply.html

Apply for benefits here: https://www.compass.state.pa.us/compass.web/CMHOM.aspx

 

Contact Kate Cleary with any further questions at 610-945-6050 or KCleary@marchofdimes.com