About The Cause
Butterfly Guild, an organization of volunteers committed to raising funds for Nationwide Children’s Hospital, traces its roots to the hospital’s beginnings. Butterfly Guild has raised over $4 million for Central Ohio’s only pediatric Hospice & Palliative care program. The funds Butterfly Guild raises support crucial services for children facing terminal and life-limiting illnesses. The hospice team offers many life-enhancing services but perhaps, most importantly, it allows these children to remain comfortably at home, rather than in a hospital.
The Nationwide Children's Hospital Homecare team believes that the quality of life is not determined by the quantity of one's days but by the way in which those days are lived. We have opportunities to enrich each day - physically, emotionally, socially and spiritually.
Patients are first and foremost children. They want to play, laugh, learn and be home where they are surrounded by their familiar environment, and love of family and friends. Below is a snapshot of the services we provided to those children and their families over a 12-month period a lifetime for some of
- 100 patients received Palliative or Hospice Care
- Our Palliative and Hospice Care Team of 14 performed
the following number of visits to those 100 patients:
- Nursing: 900 visits
- Massage Therapy: 450 visits
- Music Therapy: 145 visits
- Supportive Counseling (Chaplain and Social Worker): 540 visits
Nationwide Children’s Hospital Hospice and Home-Based Palliative Care services is the only pediatric Hospice or Palliative care program in a nine-county region, which consists of Delaware, Fairfield, Fayette, Franklin, Licking, Madison, Pickaway, Ross and Union counties.
- 50% of our patients are 10-years-old or younger.
- Diagnoses of patients typically are cancer, neurological disorders, heart and lung diseases, and newborns with terminal birth defects like trisomy 18.
- Half of the hospice and palliative care team’s visits are not reimbursed by insurance and are covered through charitable donation.
Butterfly Guild along with the Hospice and Palliative Care Team believes that children with life-limiting illnesses are first and foremost children - children who want to play, laugh, learn and be home where they may be surrounded by family and friends. Hospice services and care enable the family to achieve this.
For more information, to view patient stories, and hear interviews from the staff, visit: NationwideChildrens.org/Hospice, NationwideChildrens.org/Palliative-Care or Facebook.com/Novembeard.
If you want to arrange hospice services or have questions, call (614) 355-1100 or 800-466-2727. Office hours are Monday through Friday 8:00 am to 5:00 pm, excluding national holidays. Staff is on call 24/7 to answer any questions and to address patient and family concerns.
