Page 4 - Christiana Care Focus October 2018

Young people — and their caregivers — who struggle with special health care needs often discover that changing from pediatric to adult health care can be a challenging and even frustrating experience.
Cover Story |
Center for Special Health Care Needs helps patients as they shift from pediatrics to adult care
Cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anemia, hemophilia, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome and complex urological conditions are some of the chronic conditions that have kept many young adult patients and their caregiving parents and loved ones awake
nights wondering how they would find a future medical home.
But families served by Christiana Care Health System have a vital resource available at Christiana Care's Center for Special Health Care Needs, a special new space within the Rocco A. Abessinio Family Wilmington Health Center, inside Wilmington Hospital. The Center for Special Health Care Needs is the only facility in the area dedicated to caring for adults — ages 18 and older — with chronic, complex medical and social conditions that originated in childhood.
Caring through a delicate transition
Studies of patients with kidney transplants, HIV and sickle cell anemia show decline in health after aging out of pediatric care.
“That’s why we want to establish best practices while treating the whole patient and family,” said Charmaine Wright, M.D., the center’s medical director. Dr. Wright meets quarterly with Special Health Care Needs Manager Christine Sowinski and Amy E. Renwick, M.D., of Nemours.
Dr. Renwick generates comprehensive transition summaries for the patients before they arrive at Wilmington Hospital, which enable the team at the Center for Special Health Care Needs to build a plan for the care and services patients need as adults.
The program builds on a long history of collaboration between Christiana Care and Nemours’ Transition Division, Dr. Wright said.
During an office visit at the Center for Special Health Care Needs, all patients see a social worker plus other specialists as needed, including physicians, nutritionists and physical therapists. C O N T I N U E D
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